2020 was a rough one. We hunkered down and stayed home as much as possible, but we also got out as much as was reasonable. In the face of a global pandemic, we were reminded of the importance of self-care, good sleep, mental and physical health. In my last post I shared one of my highlights of the year, which was helping at my local food pantry. I loved knowing I was helping my neighbors put food on their tables on a weekly basis. It felt good to get out of the house and make a contribution, rather than just hoping politicians would save us. We were also reminded of the importance of getting outside for recreation. As an avid cyclist, I just had to modify my riding habits a bit to avoid congested areas. In the spirit of conservation (of my energy, of resources) I chose to ride close to home. My buddy Josh designed a cool urban ride that starts from NE Portland, and finds as much dirt as possible - think lots of levees and railroad track. That ride was on heavy repeat in 2020.
But this is my photo journal, so let’s talk photography. I kicked off the year with a great Tucson trip for Bicycling magazine to cover Sarah Swallow’s Ruta del Jefe event. There were many reasons I wanted to cover this event. For one, I love Tucson and have been anxious to explore the area south of Tucson. The event’s basecamp was the lovely Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch in Elgin, AZ. The other reason is that Sarah has created an event that is designed to raise awareness about the social and environmental issues of the area - think border walls, immigration, proposed open-pit mines, jaguar habitat. This project was exciting for me since it was the first time I was hired to write and take photos. Read the story and check out a few photos from that trip below:
I wanted to be proactive about shooting some portraits of Portland folks that I have seen work hard to make the Portland cycling scene what it is, so I reached out to some friends and we made it happen. I didn’t have specific plans going in to each shoot. I wanted the project to be improvisational - to simply meet up and make it happen in real time. I reached out to Jonathan Maus from Bike Portland, Ayleen Crotty from Filmed by Bike, Chris San Augustine from Broken and Coastal, and Ira Ryan from Breadwinner Cycles. As much as I love production-heavy commercial shoots, I also love working quickly and collaboratively with friends. These are all folks that put heart and soul into their projects and work hard to celebrate cycling. Below are a few selects from that project.
2020 was my third year being active with the Oregon Timber Trail alliance as the group’s secretary. Despite restrictions, we found safe ways to get together at Summit Lake, where we scouted some trail and rode around Timothy Lake. We sat around campfires and were reminded of spending time outdoors with friends and colleagues. Later in the year, we gathered in Oakridge for our year-end retreat. It’s always a great time to recap, ride some bikes, and remind each other why we volunteer for such a trail organization. Hint: it’s about the legacy we leave - long distance bike trails that all can enjoy. While we had quite a lineup of trail work parties planned, we only managed one. But it was great to gather in the Fremont National Forest and survey wildfire damage, and repair some trail. Here’s a short slideshow of the OTTA in 2020:
Lest ye think it’s all camping and riding bikes, I’d like to share some work projects that happened despite it all. I had the pleasure of working with Shannon Holt to create a campaign of images for Solace. Solace is a brilliant Portland company that is taking the cremation process online! The concept for our shoot was about remembrance and sharing an object from a loved one that passed. We met up with our models in their homes and shot daylight portraits. I was grateful for the kindness and openness of our models for sharing their personal stories and their objects of remembrance. I’m reminded how much I enjoy taking portraits, and especially portraits that tell a story.
In June Portland Made teamed up with Soul District PDX to raise money for programming to support black entrepreneurs and youth in North and Northeast Portland. I teamed up Megan Amberson and Shannon Holt to volunteer our services. Olander Earthworks placed the winning bid on our “Strategy Led Brand Boost Package” It was a pleasure to collaborate with Megan who led strategy, Shannon who coordinated it all and designed their new identity, and Sarah and Andy from Olander Earthworks. I contributed a full day shoot. Head over to their site to see the results. It was so much fun to see how much good design, strategy, and some new photography can give a young company a whole new look and feel and contribute to a great cause in the process. Hats off to Portland Made for making this campaign happen!
Next, I worked with Jocelyn at GoBox to create a series of images that illustrates their washing process. Obviously, restaurants were hit especially hard this year, but many remained open, offering exclusively take-out service. The concept behind GoBox is that folks sign up with the service, get reusable containers at their favorite food carts, eat your meal and then leave the dirty dishes to be washed and reused. Hopefully, the images will show that GoBox takes its sanitization process very seriously. Photos help businesses tell their story. What new aspect of your business needs to be shared with the world? I always say content creation should be an ongoing process, both for your website and your social media account. Build in some budget for photography, writing, and video and keep that content flowing throughout the year.
Bicycling magazine approached us about creating a series of instructional videos. My partner Tori is an expert teacher of all things bike. For years she has run Gracie’s Wrench, and dedicated her business to teaching folks the ins and outs of bike maintenance and repair. For this series of film, she wrote scripts and I filmed and aa assembled a rough edit, and the videos should roll out soon. The folks at Breadwinner bikes were kind enought to let us use their space to film. Thank you guys! I’m personally thrilled to be doing more video. Here is a still from that production. I’ll share links to the videos as soon as they’re ready. They’ll live on Bicycling magazine’s YouTube channel. As you know, folks love learning online, so we’re happy to throw our hat in the ring and develop some educational pieces for all to enjoy.
Finally, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite music of the year. There’s no question these troubling times have created an atmosphere that’s produced some amazing music. Music definitely helped me get through the year and kept me inspired. Here’s a Spotify playlist:
If you don’t already know Kiko Dinucci, his Rastilho album has been on heavy rotation around our house. It’s my favorite of the year. It’s so so good! Think heavy tropicalia influence with brilliant punk acoustic guitar. It sounds like the energy I want to cultivate going into 2021. Let’s Gooo!
Be well, everyone. I can’t wait to help you tell your stories in 2021.
Please get in touch. I’d love to catch up with you. Let me know how I can help.