Brown County Breakdown

For the last few years the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association has put on a big show called the Brown County Breakdown, which is an Epic Ride with 500 or so of your best friends.  The route is through some of the most beautiful and breathtaking parts of Indiana, and even though most people think that Indiana is pretty flat, there is a a ton of climbing.  It is an out an back ride, so you can kind of create your own distance.  Whenever you are ready to go back, you can turn around and go back, but for the most part people are heading out to particular points and then turning around.  The most common routes were the 20 miles out to Hesitation Point, 40 Miles to the Cabin Sag near Nebo Ridge, 60 and 70 mile routes out the Maumee trail and for the most hard core riders--you can ride a whole 100 miles if you do the Hickory Hills loop.  For as muddy as it was around the cabin... I doubt many folks got much further than the 70 mile route.

Most of the ride through the beautiful Brown County State park was really fantastic. The trails were in very nice condition, just slightly damp, but the creek crossings were pretty dang chilly--as the air temp at the beginning of the ride was around 35 degrees and underneath the tree canopy, I doubt it creeped above 50 all day.  The rocks and log crossings were slick, but most were manageable.  I saw several close calls, caught Gary as went down on end of his handlebars, and definitely decided to walk a few dicey sections that were just slightly above my confidence level for the day.
It rained a good bit a couple days before the ride, and although the weather was pretty great on Saturday, So once we got out of the park, the 5 miles or so to get to the Hidden Cabin sag stop was pretty brutal.  Slick, thick mud, riders going both directions, and some steep climbs. Ben lost his derailler.  He was still faster than Gary and I at times!

As with most of my Indiana mountain bike adventures, I went with Steve, Gary and Mike and this year we also had Steve's son's Carl and Ben along with us.

I have to give a big thanks to Tim Casady of Nebo Ridge Bikes, Jonathon and Tania Jullierat and all the folks at the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association for really doing so much to make it such a great day.

So what does this all have to do with Chris Bucher Photos, nothing really, just something that was a lot of fun and something that I have been looking forward to all year.  I did take some camera gear, and it was heavy on some of those climbs, and as I look at the photos, I realize... I probably could have just as easily left it.


232 Inches...

...and one more thing, for the bike geeks, All 4 of us ride 29ers... mountain bikes with extra large, 700c wheels.  A few years ago, when we started riding them, 29er's were kind of a niche, maybe they were even called odd.  Yesterday at the Breakdown, it seemed like half the folks riding had some sort of 29er.  It was cool to see so many big wheels!  So hanging on the rack is a GF Supercal, a GF SuperFly, a Surley Karate Monkey and a Ventana El Rey--some nice rides for sure!

Communication Arts Magazine

As a college student and then a freelance photo assistant, I loved to go through the big photo and design source books.  It was just amazing what all these photographers and artists could do.  My favorite was always the Communication Arts Photo Annual, which showcases some of the best photographic art of the year.  The work in there is always, ALWAYS, inspiring!  With the birth of the internet, really not that many years ago, I remember finding the websites of the photographers that I saw in these books to see even more of their work online.  Awesome work from a lot of amazing photographers. Additionally this magazine is focused not not just other photographers, but moreso at creative directors, art directors, graphic designers and other people in the print and visual communication arts world.

I vividly remember when I was an assistant, I was working for Tim Lanterman and I was sitting at the bar at the studio flipping through a Communication Arts while Tim was prepping the props for a still life product shoot.  I made some comment to him about someday wanting to be in CA.  At the time, one of Tim's regular clients was grocery store chain and he often had to shoot very straight forward images of food on a white background and it all had to be the same every time.  To make a long story short, we "shot a lot of meat"and it was kinda boring photographically but it paid the bills.  So as Tim came out of the kitchen with a huge flank steak he said, "Here it is-- my next Communication Arts cover shot!!"

So 15 years or so later, some of my work is showcased in the Communication Arts Photo Annual.  It is one of my portraits from the boxing project that I have been working on for a while and an image that is also showcased on my new updated and refreshed website as well as being shown in several galleries recently.   The photograph itself is on page 224 of September/October issue an is in the "Self Promotion" section.  I trust that this sort of promotion will work out great and will add traffic to my website and get the phone ringing off the hook.

New Images on Display in Colorado

Starting next September 4th, 2009 the Center for Fine Art Photography will be having their newest show of images.  These images will all be Black & White.  One of my images from the boxing project will be on display and is featured on the press release for the show!  

If you are anywhere near the Ft Collins on August 28th, or all through September, stop by and see the show.  I am certain that you will be amazed and impressed by the display of black & white photography that will be there.  Plus the whole Ft. Collins gallery walk is great fun!!

As always, a big thanks to Robin Damm  for making sure these huge images arrive in pristine shape, as well Patrick and Loni Hutchinson of Jireh and Badd Boyz Boxing for all their help and support, Keon Johnson, Dane Sauer for helping to enable my vision for the frames to be fulfilled.

A Great Show

A couple weeks ago, I went to Ft Collins, Colorado and the opening of the Documentary show of photographs at the Center for Fine Art Photography. It was really an amazing display of images from a very diverse group of photographers.I was able to attend with my friend Kristin Harding who traveled up with me from Denver. We were very excited to see that not only had I won the Director's Selection for the Documentary Show, but the image of Denzel was also the image for the poster promoting the show and gallery, and also it was the entry photo for the gallery--showcased as you walk in! It was very cool.

Several hundred people attended the show and I also got to some time with some of the other photographer's whose work was shown. I was particularly great to be able to talk to Dana Romanoff and learn more about her photography and what she does. If you are near the Ft Collins area, you should make an effort to go to the Center for Fine Art Photography and the adjacent galleries and see some very amazing work!

Come see me in Denver

Through a fortuitous turn of events, I am making a long trip out of a short one, and in that I am getting to spend some quality time with my dear friend Tom Casalini as we travel to Minnesota for a talk on Tom's book, Ordinary Heroes.  

After that I am heading to Denver in general, and Ft Collins in particular to see the Documentary Photography Exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography, where one of my photographs is on display.

This should be a fun evening and if you are anywhere near there on August 7th, from 6-9, I'd love to see you there.  I would imagine I'll be there for the bulk of the evening, but if you are planning to stop by, please let me know.

Here are the details

The Center for Fine Art Photography, Inc.
(in the Poudre River Arts Center)
400 North College Avenue
Fort Collins, CO   80524

For more information you can download the press release here

http://chrisbucherphotographs.com/Bucher,%20Nicolaysen,%20Tukey.pdf

and hopefully the actual invitation will be here soon!

And to make the trip even sweeter, hopefully get to hang out with a bunch of old friends who I have met in my travels through Colorado, or have transplanted there over the years. I am particularly lucky because I get to spend time with my dear friend Kristin Harding of Tulsa who now lives in Denver and we are very excited to do some hiking, photography and general catching up and debauchery!

Hope to see you there!!

Upcoming Show

The Watson Studio Gallery is having their "Plastic Fantastic" show starting on July 25th in Johnson City, Texas. This show is all from "plastic" or toy camera's like the Holga, Diana, or even the venerable Lens Baby! These lo-res photos are really fantastically fun and the look is just so cool and interesting--you never really know what you are gonna get--as opposed to the clinical perfection of supersharp lenses and many megapixels and 3" viewing screens.

My Holga's have 2 exposure settings--cloudy or sunny and 4 guess focusing settings-- 1 person, 3 people, 7 people, or mountain. I don't know that I have ever consciously changed that setting, just leaving it to blind luck for something cool to happen with the film. So I was pretty excited when a photo of a church in Northern New Mexico a little while ago was selected for the show!

This photo, Desert Cathedral, is currently drying in the Bucher Photophotographs World Headquarters awaiting framing and then off it goes to Texas for the show. If you are anywhere near, you should stop by as it really looks to be an awesome gathering of images!

New Website coming

In May, I found out that one of my images from the Boxing project will be seen in the Communication Arts 2009 Photo Annual. This is great news for me and the project. For those that don't know, Communication Arts is one of the premier photography and graphic arts showcase magazines. Getting in the Photo Annual is very prestigious and the people who receive it are the people that you want your work in front of...both for my commercial and my art work.

In that we are working hard to update the website so that is plenty of new fun work that is much more directed at the type of work that I really have the passion to do, at the same time I want to make sure I continue with to serve all my current awesome clients and friends as well as I have been. So look for those updates on the website very soon.

More Art News

A series of 3 of my images is currently on display the Watson Studio Gallery in Johnson City, Texas. This exhibition is entitled Manage a Trois and has 20 photographers all showing a series of 3 related images. The three images that I submitted were from my "Little Kings" series of young boxers. The 3 images were all of Denzel, one a portrait, one actually sparing, and one an environmental study of him in the ring. This series also won the Jurors Selection award at this show. Needless to say, I am thrilled to win the award and excited that something that I put so much into has been so well recieved.

You can learn more about the gallery and see a video of the opening reception at Carol Watson's website--

http://www.lostcanuck.com/studio/

In search of...

The ever elusive shot from inside the dishwasher!

So today we were working on photographs for appliance delivery and installation, when I got the brilliant idea to actually put the camera and lights into the dishwasher while it was being installed. I knew there was a reason that I always pack that 14mm lens.

Here is one of the outtakes.