At this year's OR (outdoor retailers) Tradeshow, some of my images were displayed large and glossy on the side of JanSport's display booth.  To my knowledge, my images have never been displayed larger.  Wish I could have seen it in person, but it did not work out for me to go this year. 

Earlier this summer when I climbed Mount Rainier with the JanSport crew, I shot a lot of images and they decided to use them for the booth.  I'm honored to have been linked with such a cool company.  I've got nothing but good things to say about the people I've met from JanSport. 

My Race partner, Jack, rollin' into downtown Minneapolis.

A few weeks ago I participated in the Urban Assault with my 9yr old son, Jack.  It is basically a bicycle powered scavenger hunt.  Clues and checkpoints lead you all across the city.  At checkpoints, we had to complete (often silly) challenges.  One was a trip down a water slide - timely, as we were about 40 minutes into the race and beginning to get a little hot.  One challenge was skateboard bowling.  I sat on a board, Jack pushed me towards a set of pins.  We got a strike!

Riders, trying to complete a carpet puzzle - frustrated...

Over the course of 3 hours, I think we covered about 16 miles.  It was hot and my partner was determined, but still began to fade towards the end.  One last checkpoint was left, but was a LONG ride away, so we decided to pack it in and head to the finish. Once there, we had to complete a racecourse on a tricked-out "bigwheel" (Jack's favorite part), then run and dive down a huge, inflatable slip-n-slide to the finish line.

Bigwheels=Big fun!

Rad slip-n-slide finish line.

Later in the afternoon, Jack cleaned up in the mini-bike limbo contest.  He won a messenger bag large enough to hold his kid brother!  Dance-off's and other crazed contests entertained us for several more hours. 

Jack, dominating in bike limbo.

Kids, look away.  Bearded-man dance-off.

Don't miss this ride if it comes near your town.  And pick a fun partner.  Though it's billed as a "ride", its a race, so bring your competitive spirit too.  Thanks for such a fun event, New Belgium!

This was the first time I ever photographed birds for an assignment.  It was actually kinda' fun.  We waited almost an hour for the adults to get comfortable enough with us to land at their nest and feed their young.  Once they were cool with us, they became very active--returning wtih bugs every few minutes.  I saw them bring several dragonfly's in.  It was interesting stuff.

  Martins struggle with finding housing and battling against invasive species.  Read the article for the low-down.  And they winter in South America!  Quite a migration for a 7" bird. 

NYT Article

Image Slideshow

My good "friend" over at Recycling Is Rad has a pretty killer deal going right now: Click to See.

If you are not familiar with the brand, you should know that the material of many of the bags are made entirely of used, recycled plastic bags.  It's mega-durable stuff--just think of the strength of one bag, then multiply that several times.  Roughly 170 bags went into the last backpack that rolled out of her shop.  I think that's pretty rad.

We shot these images a few weeks ago on one of the hot, summer days we've been having here in Minneapolis.  I'll miss you when you're gone Summer--you're my fav.

My wife and I attended the Minnecycle Custom bicycle show this weekend in Minneapolis.  It's a collection of custom builders who hang/display their bikes and frames gallery-style for we bike dorks to come and ogle.  It was a good time of seeing friends and meeting builders.  Have a look at some of the bikes--all were items of desire. 

Left: Cyclocross by Capricorn                  Right: Crazy, split dropout by Speedhound

Both:  Capricorn rigid 29'er-- drool...

Left:Track bike by Dominguez--Favorite.   Right: Mtn. Tandem by Bob Brown--TOUGH!

Left: Mr. Chris Kvale                               Right:  Another Dominguez

Left: Peakcock Groove 29'er                    Right: Wyganowski- pursuit bike (?)

A few weekends ago I made the long trek to the "U.P." for some racing.  My father-in-law and I first raced the "12 Hours of Potluck" together in 2007 and decided it was time to do it again.  Four years ago, this was my first ever mountain bike race.  Back then, I was a late addition, a replacement for someone dropping out.  At the time I thought I was in good shape, but I got schooled by the climb.  I also raced on the oldest, junkiest, single-speed bike in the whole race.  This year I was ready to improve on my previous performance.

The course, a roughly 6 mile loop through typical UP forest, is just great.  It's got flat railroad-grade, rock gardens, mud holes, sandy descents and my nemesis-- a mile long climb.  In typical single-speed fashion, I used the hill to catch and make time on the other teams.  With no way to "gear-down", I settle into a cadence and grind that hill.  But what goes up must come down and the descent is fast, rooty and super awesome. 

Beginning at 10am on Saturday morning, the race goes till 10pm the same night.  If you do the race as a relay team like we did, then you race your lap as fast as you can then tag the next guy so he/she can do the same.  While your teammates race, you sit down, eat, drink and wait for your turn again. 

Jim, 59 yrs old - still hammering through the woods. - Photo by Robbie Morford

My team consisted of my father-in-law Jim, his pals Dave and Jim A. and myself.  We represented the oldest cumulative aged team, but we didn't race like it.  My whole team fired around the course as fast as they could each turn and held really consistent lap times for the whole 12 hours.  We did not win, or really even come close, but I'm happy to say that we didn't lose either. 

Me, hurting and happy. -Photo (L) Jim Ferris, (R) Robbie Morford

And the "potluck" part?  A good number of racers contribute to a table full of random dishes of food.  So, post-race the place becomes a potluck party.  My favorite dish: Nepali Chicken, wrapped in a flour tortilla.  Holy-moley, that was good eatin'!

It was a great day of racing, and one of the highlights of my summer.  I'm already thinking ahead to next year and trying to improve my fastest laps again.

Clover and Raspberry leaves steep in hot water.

A few weeks ago I shot this article for the New York Times Garden Section.  It was really a beautiful assignment, full of colors and textures that I was not really expecting.  Author, Michael Tortorello, guided his guests into making tea with items he'd grown in his backyard herb garden.  Some were herbs, but also fruit and other plants.

Lemon Verbena leaves.

It reminded me of a time when as a kid, we put random items in water and dared one another to drink it.  However, most of the concoctions we came up with in Michael's yard were fit to drink.  A few were definitely not...

Getting a whiff of his homemade tea.

To read the story go here: NYT Tea

To see a slideshow of my images: NYT Tea Slideshow