This year’s BLACKRAPID Moto Ride took me through five states (Utah, Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Wyoming), and over 2,300 miles of adventure.
Each year my close photographer friends and I go on a multi-state ride, hugging the backgrounds and exploring various states. Ron Henry of BLACKRAPID puts on the event. Ron rode in from California, and we med at Mike Ridinger’s place in Lewiston Idaho.
I’m a couple-days ride away from Mike’s, so for the first few days, I rode alone to meet everyone. From Utah I drove up to Boise, then took the backroads through Banks, Cascade, New Meadows, Riggins, and Craigmont.
I love the solitude and feeling of complete relaxation that comes from long days of hugging curvy roads on a motorcycle. There’s no better way to take in everything around you, then on a motorcycle. You feel everything – the cold, the heat, the smokey fires, the smells of canyons and rivers, all of it.
One of my top highlights was stopping to meet a friend for lunch in Cascade. We ate at Thunder Mountain Burgers, and ate in the outdoor breeze.
Being photographers, we all photographs along the way. I carry a few different cameras, plus my iPhone. I particularly like to find and create abstract shapes that fit into squares. The various vignettes I find along my journey mean something to me, and remind me of the memories made in the area.
Through Cascade and upwards, it got smokey. There were forest fires all the way up, and smoke made the mountain sides look a lot different than usual.
The next day, Ron Henry (founder of BLACKRAPID) and I took a ride through some curvy roads in Washington. There’s a beautiful ride along a river, and I got some one-handed photographs of Ron steering through the curves.
You can see the smoke through the trees, even up in these Washington photographs.
I shoot these photos of Ron one handed with a camera slung over one shoulder, using the BLACKRAPID Cross Shot strap. Being right-handed, I typically carry a camera on my right side, but on a motorcycle I carry the camera on my left. That way I can steer and throttle the bike with my right hand and shoot with my left hand.
I don’t look through the viewfinder or screen at all. I carry a camera that I’m quite used to, and without looking I can reach down with my left hand, turn it on by feel, zoom the lens where I think it ought to be, aim it (without looking through the viewfinder), and snap photographs. Shooting while moving means I sometimes miss some, but the ones that turn out, look great.
We made sure to be in Lewiston for their yearly Hot August Nights event, where they shut down the main part of town and have old souped up cars drag the town all night. We got dinner, enjoyed a motorcycle club party downtown, and watched the cars go by.
The next day we headed out towards Montana.
I’ll post part 2, coming soon.
And until next time, America.