This morning I met up with pro-photographer Stephen Wilde  to shoot some photos for a story that Mountain Bike Magazine is doing about me. Their journalist David Howard has gone in to some depth about my career and lifestyle, so today we went to work on capturing that. A bit of trials, a bit of mountain biking, some yoga poses, and, oh wait, shoot, I forgot to get him to shoot me drinking tea!

I have never shot with Stephen before, so I browsed his website, and could immediate tell that he’s got an eclectic taste and style, and the images struck me as very film like. Sure enough, he used 3 or 4 different film camera’s today, in a variety of formats, and like a ‘ol film pro, didn’t use the flash once. Here are a couple images from his website.

I have been a hobby photographer for a good part of my life. Watching my Grandpa patiently take nature photos, then seeing my dad run around the mountain taking photos of me cross country racing, photography has been bred in to me. I remember my Dad teaching me about shutter speed and aperture; and then going out to experiment on plants, bugs and trees. It was such an enjoyable learning curve, and so exciting to see the results after development.

It has been a long time since I was on a film photoshoot, as opposed to digital. It’s almost weird not to be able to preview the image right after the shot has been taken. I think there is a rare confident patience that is inherent in a film photographers style, it’s almost romantic.

I have been a snobbish digital SLR user for the last few years, and was adamant that people could not tell the difference between a good digital image and a film image when put side by side. My ego was wrapped up in that argument because I had spent so much money on a nice digital camera set up. Over the last year or so I have been able to observe that digital ego, and of course, that allowed it to subside and me to see things from a different perspective. Caryn has always been drawn to film photos more than digital, part of it may be noticeable, and part may be just in the patient artistic touch that comes through in a film image.

Thanks for the shoot today Stephen!

My voyage to Quebec has been very worthwhile so far. More and more I am judging the value of my trips against the emissions that were released to make it possible; its gotta have purpose

The first thing I am happy with is my involvment in the production by Velerium in downtown Quebec City last night. It was quite a scene that incorporated my trials show, along with a flow show, a jumping competition, street running (parkour), breakdancing, and live music. I was happy with my shows, but more so there were a few special moments chatting with the audience between shows. As a Canadian, I am also quite honored to be participating in part of the celebrations for Quebec’s 400th birthday, Bon Fete Quebec, content d’etre ici!!

Todays show at Mont Saint Anne was really quiet, not a lot of people around, tomorrow should be the big day. I was glad to have the time to sit down for an interview with David Howard after my show, he’s the Story Editor for Mountain Bike Magazine. As an accomplished journalist in a number of different fields, I’m really glad to have had the opportunity to have some deep conversations about not just riding, but life in general. I’m excited to see how this article unfolds in the magazine, perhaps a few month down the road.

I’ll leave you with a short clip from one of the street runners from last night, whew!!!