The Reason I Ride a Motorcycle

This bike is in the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley N.C. It is one of Evel Knievel's actual jump bikes. Growing up and watching Evel made me fall in love with bikes and is probably most responsible for my desire to ride. I know I killed enough tires and wheels on my bicycles trying to be like him ;-) I had to do a LOT of work to this photo because of where the bike is in the museum the lighting really sucks. I used the lasso tool to outline the bike and save that selection for later. Then I lassoed between all the spokes and other small areas to be able to use the gaussian blur tool. Finally I blurred the background as well and did some work with levels and contrast. Lots of work, but ultimately it made it as my computer wallpaper.

Capt. America

This is a great replica of the Capt. America bike from the movie Easy Rider. It's at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum and is upstairs near the edge of the balcony. The picture was a pain to take because the bike is so close to the rail. I had to use the flip out screen on my camera and hold it up and out while looking at the little screen to frame the shot. Also, teh lighting in this area is really hard to work with because of the outside light coming in along with the shadows from teh inside of the museum. Once again Photoshop to the rescue.

Huey at the Museum

I started volunteering at the Southern Museum of Flight right after they finished this restoration. That's kind of a shame since I worked on these and was a Crew Chief for 10 years in the Army on this very aircraft. Oh well, it got my attention and got me started helping out around there. Too bad the new Director made all the volunteer's mad so they quit, but we'll be back there one day. Nothing special about this picture except that I like it ;-) The painting on the nose is 1st Aviation Brigade and unit that did great things during the Vietnam era. The paint really doesn't match the aircraft since it was painted in the early Vietnam war style and this aircraft is a UH-1H and the Army had gone to a more subdued paint scheme by then. This Huey is also equipped with the wire cutting system (The pointy thing on the roof) and has the mounts for the APR-39 receivers (anti tracking radar system) on the nose. Still, it was a good cosmetic restoration and the aircraft sits on a pedestal outside the museum now.

Batcycle on a shady road

I took this picture on the entry road to a cool little cemetery near me. It took a few tries to get what I wanted, but I really like this one and didn't even feel the need to adjust colors or anything. I like the way the light and shadows play across and around the bike.

Interesting angles?

These pics are of course of my former 77 Sportster and my 70 Triumph chopper. Both pics were taken last winter and are good examples of how the right angles can make a picture (especially a bike picture) much more interesting. I like to get down low and shoot the bike kind of at an upward angle. I plan to expand on this with some other techniques if I ever get a decent tripod so that I can play with zooms and stuff. Both of these pics were kind of blah and washed out looking originally because of the blah winter weather when I took them. Lucky for me I have PhotoShop and was able to play with the levels and to adjust the various colors to warm up the photos. You can frame a pic perfectly, but if the lighting or other things are off the picture will not be great, BUT with the right software and techniques you can make them into what you originally had in your head. ;-)

The Chopper Graveyard at teh Wheels Through Time Museum

This pic was taken at the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley N.C. Basically it was just a display of a bunch of old chopper parts piled up to look kinda neat. Lots of cool pieces in this pile so I took the pic and then made it into my signature post that I used on Delphi forums. I LOVE this museum and wanted to help promote them. They are on a limited schedule now so good luck getting in to see this stuff, but if you can it is worth it!