I love cycling. There's no way to say it better than Patrick Brady did in Peloton Magazine's 2011 photo annual. "Think back to the first time you rode a bicycle. Not the first time you rode with training wheels or the first time someone held you up as you half pedaled, half coasted, but the first time you pedaled away under your own steam. It was a magical moment wasn't it? The world zipped by as you held the handlebar in your hands and idd a little dance with your feet." I can't say it any better than that, so with that some images from this weekends very long day of covering the Storm Endurance race in Sanford, NC.

My girlfriend, Becca and her mom wanted me to take some pictures of them at the barn with their horse Sheeza. Sheeza spent the past few weeks sick and one of those weeks was spent at Virginia Tech's Vet Med hospital. I'm not much of a horse person so I don't spend a lot of time at the barn with Becca. Since I don't necessarily spend a lot of time at the barn I wanted to treat it as an assignment. I mentally figured the assignment would read, "A girl's horse has recently come home from the hospital and her and her mother are working her back to health."

My boss asked me to keep an eye on campus and get ready for the changing of fall foliage colors. Last week I went out a dreary overcast day and was able to get some stuff I liked. I should probably note that since I'm not working for a newspaper I'm able to help things along a little bit in photoshop. These images have their saturation boosted about 30%, but the color was still pretty good in person.

When I'm out shooting I'm serious about my work, but I also like to joke around and have some fun. One day a few years ago I was at an assignment and I looked down and the carpet had crazy patterns and I just point my camera down and took a picture of my feet. Now I do this regularly. It's just for fun. Also, it was pointed out to me by a student at Christiansburg High that I wear the same shoes every day. This is a true statement and I also buy the same pair of shoes in the same color when each pair dies.

A while back I was shooting the Carvins Cove XC race and Troy and Tyler Smith gave me a ride to the track because the walk was longer than expected. While talking, Troy told me that Tyler had broken his arm during a multi-racer pileup during the Atlanta Nationals road race. I've spent time with them on race days for the past few months and have really shooting with them. At eleven-years-old Tyler took second in the Bedford mountain bike series for the under 18 range. He also beat almost everyone in the C-class at Saturday's cyclocross race. Tyler is a 3rd generation cyclist and racer, his dad raced and so did his grandfather. Most images below are just stuff from Saturday's time at the Freakout at Fallon, not everything is of Tyler.

I've been wanting to post to the blog here recently but a lot of what I've been shooting is podium events and classroom type stuff. I knew I had stuff laying around the archive that I hadn't posted I just couldn't figure out what it was. These are all images from the move-in day here at Virginia Tech. It was fun watching all the different families, one mother talked to me while leaning on a refrigerator and mocked some other parents for being too clingy. The original intent of the assignment was to document the football team help students move in. I watched as some jumped in and were a genuine help, but others found the local TV station and commandeered a microphone.

I'm a few weeks behind on blogging, but I'm trying to get caught up. I shot my first Virginia Tech football game 2 weeks ago and I was surprisingly nervous. I'd like to think I handle pressure well but for some reason I got kind of giddy/nervous about shooting a football team that doesn't lose every game for three years. My initial thought was, "bring earplugs next time." It was extremely loud down on the field and it was chaos. So much happened and I was trying to get my bearings. I'm looking forward to the next game when I have a better idea of what to expect.

During my first couple of weeks I got the chance to shoot the Agricultural Technology program at Virginia Tech. The two-year program is for students that decided to go to school after graduating high school, but chose not to attend a four-year university. Many are learning skills to take back to a farm.