New York PhotoPlusExpo 2015

What time did you guy's go, I didn't see anybody except the guy who
works in my place and the world famous Ken Hanson. I heard Jim Lager
was there but didn't see him.
 
jsrockit said:
Ok, we will see how it feels when you fall at your age Cal... ;) Have you fell recently? In all fairness though, it is fun. Remember I had my little bike accident where I split my head open and I wasn't even going fast or doing anything cool. :)
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John,

First off I wear a helmet: otherwise I would of been body parts long ago. I believe a helmet would of prevented that emergency room visit.

If you are into racing the sport is really about your threshold of pain and discomfort. After a race you feel beat up, even if you didn't crash, and the level of pain and discomfort is kinda masochistic. In road racing while sprinting you are basically choking for air, you begin to taste a metalic taste in your mouth, and at that point if you continue beyond anerobic threshold basically you will involentarily throw up and then get this horrible feeling of like when you are seasick.

On a mountain bike you are doing this repeatedly during climbs (approaching or hovering near anerobic threshold), and you condition yourself to recover. In a way it can be as brutal an effort like boxing: three intense minutes of using all your strength; followed by perhaps 2 minutes of rest; and then doing it again.

Yesterday I did a 2 hour and 15 minute workout where I attacked the hills. I started doing standing climbs into my workouts which expends more energy, but I intermixed some full laps around Central Park to recover fully so I could really push myself again. When I looked in the mirror I could see that the whites of my eyes were bloodshot. Bloodshot eyes forensically indicate afixiation as a likely cause of death on a corpse.

I could feel the endophines from my efforts, and I am told it is very much like a self induced high that resemble being on Heroin. I could feel the tightness in my core, because I was using explosive strength and my upper body to bike. Pain is no stranger to someone who races.

Also know that today I feel more alive, powerful, and really great. I can do it all over again because I have a great base. Remember I ran the NYC Marathon basically "Off The Couch" on one full day's notice and basically without any training in under 5 hours.

Cal
 
CNNY said:
Some guy approached Louis Mendez outside of javits with a dslr, and wanted to take his picture. He was like; "you get one shot, you better get the exposure right".
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Christian,

Louis says that all the time so people don't take advantage of him.

Yesterday though I musta took about 5-6 or more shots of Louis. Basically I never just take one. LOL.

Basically I finished a roll in my black SL2-MOT.

Cal
 
Clueless Cal brought a 13x19 Piezography print to the show (Domino Sugar Refinery shot from the Williamsburg Bridge) to give to my friend Robert Rodriguez, the Artist-In-Residence in the Canson booth. Robert is a great nature landscape shooter (color) and a great printer. Anyways getting a response from someone I admire was great. Always good insights.

At the Leica SL booth I kinda created a sensation with my black 1975 SL2-MOT that looks like I stole from a Leica museum that is the result of Sherry building me one perfect mint camera from two donor cameras. I basically told them that I don't need a new SL because I have an old one, and that the marketing guys at Leica couldn't come up with a new name for a new camera. LOL.

I met Richard Herzog whose name seemed familiar (Phase One) who was deeply interested in how I shot my Monochrom and also of how I printed with 7 shades of black using Piezograpghy. He handed me his card, but he also took my contact info, because he did not want to loose contact.

I took the opportunity to borrow back the print I gave Robert Rodriguez to bring back to show Richard and created quite a stir. It is true that a picture can speak more than a thousand words. It was really flattering getting my talent and skill recognized at this level. All agreed at the Leica booth that the image needed to be printed big/huge, and they were deeply impressed.

Next I was commanded to talk with the big cheeze in the Leica Booth. I was directed to show this older guy with a German accent my SL2-MOT and my print. Two major things happened. I was asked if I ever get to the West Coast because that is where he is located, almost like I could get a show. When I told him that the Leica Gallery in NYC was just sold in a real estate land grab, he said "I didn't know that." When I further inquired about gaining some artistic support he told me to contact Wetzlar directly.

The next big event was that I possibly "Strong-Armed" a vender from the PhotoPlusExpo into possibly offering generous support to the "NYC 2016 Camera Olympics." If this becomes real it will become amazing. I can't reveal more until I get a response from my E-mail that I sent today. Brian was witness to my "mugging." LOL.

BTW Jimmy Kimmel has a great skit last Friday where he riffed off of Spike Lee's classic "Do The Right Thing" except he beat on the Brooklyn Hipster scene that exists today. He really tore into them, and boy was it spot on. The name of the spoof was "Do The White Thing." LOL. BTW Jimmy Kimmel plays a pizza man.

Cal
 
Cal,

I missed the last couple of meet-ups as my Sunday routine has changed. That may also explain how I missed the Uniqlo's feature of your gal. But, it came to my attention as I was flipping through the Uniqlo magazine in store and saw the article on her. It said "... striking black and white pictures of her ..." Congrats to both of you!

John
 
SuperUJ said:
Cal,

I missed the last couple of meet-ups as my Sunday routine has changed. That may also explain how I missed the Uniqlo's feature of your gal. But, it came to my attention as I was flipping through the Uniqlo magazine in store and saw the article on her. It said "... striking black and white pictures of her ..." Congrats to both of you!

John
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John,

Those shots were not mine. I'm just an accidental fashion photographer.

Since those shots a lot has happened. Designers are now sending clothes (gifts), all kinds of collaborations and interviews, over 21K followers many influential like the Art Director of the New York Times...

All this in just over a year.

Cal
 
jsrockit said:
Of course... hindsight is 20/20 as the old cliche goes.
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John,

I know it seems crazy for a guy that's pushing 58 to consider competing in a sport that has inherent dangers and requires speed, strength and stamina, but realize that at this point I also have some skill.

I intend to race single speed which limits downhill speeds and also I will be using a bike that has no suspension so there are some limits as well as advantages.

Imagine owning a Porshe. I can't imagine me not going to some remote road or track and really seeing what a car like that can do. In fact a friend and I did about a week's worth of driving in about an hour in a Porshe 911 Turbo convertable wide body that was "Triple Black" (black top, black interior, black exterior).

We zoomed through Babylon, Islip and did repeated cloverleafs in Bayshore, and then zipped back to Babylon several times. The experience is very much more like flying a car than driving because at one point we were doing the cloverleaf in Bayshore coming out of the turn at 90 mph, and Steve (a big guy at 250 pounds) was using all his stength to steer the car because when you approach 1 G it is as if your body weight doubles.

We were doing 135 mph going through traffic like in a video game when we ran out of highway and came upon Babylon Town Hall, when Steve said hold on and tested the ABS braking system. The car squated and the feeling was as if a jet plane came in for a landing and upon contact with the tarmac opened up the thrust reversers.

Anyways mountain bike racing is pretty much the same except slower because it is all about understanding physics, momentium, and acelleration in real time.

I have enough experience where I don't break my bikes anymore. Understand that I broke a titanium frame, broke a fork, broke a seat, destroyed pedals and many a set of wheels, but I don't really crash that often anymore. The last crash I had was in West Virginia. Imagine getting your front wheel trapped by one rock and then going over the bars and then rolling on a large boulder like that is in Central Park. Basically only scrapes that are now the scars on my left shoulder.

Only real injury over the decades was a broken collar bone, but I only recently found out that it was broken.
 
Calzone said:
Anyways mountain bike racing is pretty much the same except slower because it is all about understanding physics, momentium, and acelleration in real time.
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Cal,

I raced for many years. Began mountain bike racing in the 1980's before there was any suspension. If you think it was slower then road, you're very mistaken. Speed carried you over "baby heads", through "rock gardens", and helped one propel over logs. Yes, maybe the speed was slower than on the road, it had to be, wider fatter tires, heavier bikes, but speed, good handling skills was what got you to the finish. Did you ever see John Tomac or Ned Overend, both legends, race? Tomac was known for his speed and handling skills. Overend nickname was "The Lung". Man he could climb.

Cycling is an awesome sport. One that can be done young and old.
 
kbg32 said:
Cal,

I raced for many years. Began mountain bike racing in the 1980's before there was any suspension. If you think it was slower then road, you're very mistaken. Speed carried you over "baby heads", through "rock gardens", and helped one propel over logs. Yes, maybe the speed was slower than on the road, it had to be, wider fatter tires, heavier bikes, but speed, good handling skills was what got you to the finish. Did you ever see John Tomac or Ned Overend, both legends, race? Tomac was known for his speed and handling skills. Overend nickname was "The Lung". Man he could climb.

Cycling is an awesome sport. One that can be done young and old.
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Keith,

I too date back to the 80's to mountain biking pre-suspension. I still have bikes from that era. From what I understand Ned still races. Funny thing is I use to race with a guy that was sponsored by Specialize and raced for Team Specialize that looked so much like Ned that he was often mistaken for him.

I have one of the earliest titanium mountian bikes from that pre-suspension era that has all these purple anodized boutique parts. Many of the parts on my bike are totally retro like Grafton Speed Controlers, original small Paul Component Moon units, Cook Brothers cranks, Sun Tour thumbshifters...

For me it is about exploiting my strength to weight ratio, maintaining momentium, and moderating my speed because that is when I open the opportunity for a crash.

I'm a better mountain bike racer than a road racer, and I'm known as a guy who hammers aggressively. Really the competition is not about winning, but competing with myself and most of all having fun.

Cal
 
I owned an original 1990 Fat Chance Yo Eddy in "grellow" for 12 years. Graftons, Syncros, Suntour, Shimano XT, Specialized, Mavic, Ritchey, Nuke Proof hubs, Gary Helfrich ti bars. I cried when I sold it. I should have donated it to a museum.
 
kbg32 said:
I owned an original 1990 Fat Chance Yo Eddy in "grellow" for 12 years. Graftons, Syncros, Suntour, Shimano XT, Specialized, Mavic, Ritchey, Nuke Proof hubs, Gary Helfrich ti bars. I cried when I sold it. I should have donated it to a museum.
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Keith,

That really hurts. What a great-great bike. Plenty of style, great engineering and craftsmanship with a sense of history. Chris Chance was one of the founders back in the day.

I'm a big fan of Gary Helfrich and interestingly my new Ti IBIS Mountain Trials has some of Gary's influence when Gary made the move to the left coast and joined Scot Nicol at IBIS.

Anyways Gary is an interesting guy that is an amazing legend. Here is a guy that threw away a full scholarship at MIT so he could be a roadie for Aerosmith. After that he decided to work at Fat City.

"I slowly floated from being a drug-crazed roadie into becoming a framebuilder. The interesting thing about Fat City back then was that it was honest-to God rock and roll. The only difference was that you didn't have to get on and off a bus every night. You'd work, 16-17 hours straight, 'til you just dropped. Then you'd get up and start all over again. The working conditions sucked... everything about the place sucked. I never had more fun working anywhere," Gary said.

Then there is this epic tale of how Scot Nicol gets Gary to move to California. The deal was that Scot would pay for the boxcar shipping of all of Gary's stuff across the country, but Gary exceeds the boxcar's 40 ton limit and loads it with 80 tons of machine tools. At one point this overloaded box car is somewhere in Kansas doing 100 mph, and luckily no one got killed.

Scot Nicol is a real funny guy. On this one picture you are directed to mouse click on the stain on Gary's shirt to get a PDF of the article.

At IBIS Gary developed internally butted Ti tubing "Moron Tubing" for more thickness on the ends (When Gary was at Merlyn the tubing was externally butted). Scot had already designed the "Mojo," but with Gary soon there were "Ti Mojo's."

The 1994 Ti IBIS Mountain Trials I now own is the result of that collaboration and features a "Hand Job" for the rear brake cable. This bike is a lot like the Trials bike that Chris Chance developed because it features a 24 inch rear wheel, a 26 inch front wheel, and aggressive geometry.

My forensics indicate that my bike was once owned by a guy named Todd who is one of the owner's of Era Ski And Bike in Lancaster Pennsylvania, and Todd says that he bought the first Mountain Trials ever built in titanium. I've been in contact with Scot, who is a NORBA Champion and is in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame; and Scot says that his guess that they made between 1 to five, but in fact I might have the only one.

Wish you still had your own piece of history. I still own my steel version of the Mountain Trials that dates back to 1989.

Cal
 
I still have the card that came with the bike that had everyone's signature on it. All who had a hand in building and finishing the frame.

The "hand job" was a great rear cable hanger/guide!

Things we do for love....
 
SuperUJ said:
What a year!

I believe the reference to the original B&W images on the blog were yours.

John
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John,

The B&W images originally were what set "Maggie's" blog apart from others, but then we leaped into color via a D3X.

Now all the photography is not mine.

Cal
 
kbg32 said:
I still have the card that came with the bike that had everyone's signature on it. All who had a hand in building and finishing the frame.

The "hand job" was a great rear cable hanger/guide!

Things we do for love....
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Keith,

On our levels of bike, what was created 25 or more years ago can be still regarded as the best today, they were made in the U.S.A., and they were hand built. In a way these retro bikes are still highly regarded and have not been eclipsed, even though there have been other great advances.

The aggressive geometry that Chris Chance developed of short wheelbase, tall bottom bracket and steep steering angle on a strong, but light bike is still hard to beat. I know I would love a purple Wicked Fat Chance.

Similarly Scot Nicol built another breed of aggressive handling bikes. Interesting that both companies had "Gary" factor.

Today a titanium bike from "Seven" is not really that big a jump from an IBIS Ti Mojo made 25 years ago except perhaps in price.

Cal
 
You bike heads really need to go down to Philly and visit Via Bicycle. I'll show you around. We're moving back next week. There exists just about 100% of modern safety bicycle history at Via and Curtis has quite a bit before that, to just after the boneshaker/velocipede era.

Phil Forrest
 
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