Its been almost a week since the 84th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and normalcy still escapes me. Waking for 4 days in a row, hours before dawn to ascend a 14 thousand foot mountain left quite an impression (as it did the year before). As the sun separated the horizon line and the lifeless gray shapes around me formed the spectacular landscape of Colorado Springs – I found myself wondering ‘ why did you sleep in all these years?’

I’m working on a follow up to 2009’s Climb Attack. New driver, new car, and same class – Time Attack 2WD. Its my hopes that the film leaves your mind with the same sense of wonder – that mine experiences being on the edge of Bottomless Pit.

Bonjour, from France. It will be strange to see Porsche 911 GT3 cars in their natural environment at Paul Ricard this weekend.

While in Philadelphia on Keep Drifting Fun, I went and explored West Philadelphia with Andy, Jacob Chills, and Linhbergh. I brought along my Canon 7D to do some ARTPANTS‘ing, but ended up shooting some video as well. When I downloaded the clips, I really liked their feel. Dark skies, off and on rain, really nice lighting to show off the Love Letter murals; so I cut them together with a new Roots track. The Roots – “Dear God 2.o” works well because it feature the Monsters of Folk who I am hooked on and the Roots who are Philly born musicians. It was important to me that the music add to the message of the art and not just be something to cut with or be a background to the image. The track adds another layer of meaning to the overall composition.

I was stunned when I did a quick search of YouTube and found little to no coverage or video of the Love Letter murals. They are significant and important pieces of art. They help to define and inspire a community with a rich heritage of hand illustrated graphical art. Hopefully, this edit will expose more people to Stephen Power’s murals – Love Letter For You. Enjoy!

On YouTube too

Happy birthday and Happy Father’s day Dad. This is for you.

Linhbergh and I rode the express to Paddington station and then hopped on the Underground to explore downtown London. We had a few hours to kill before our flight to Atlanta for Formula Drift. Linhbergh is a solid photographer and being able to travel around the city and take photos with him is a blast.

As part of Keep Drifting Fun, Hobo Herron and I have been growing out our beards since Long Beach. So this is about 2 and half weeks of beard’age for me.

So much bokeh, you would never know that I’m in Paddington station. London was chilly during the entire week I was there.

It also means that I can try out some of Linhbergh’s arsenal of Canon glass. Pristine “L” Glass. Running around the bank holiday deserted streets.

On the banks of the Thames by the London Eye.

Then we swung by NERO coffee for some breakfast outside of Big Ben and Westminster. Looking rather homeless on the steps.

Praying or getting a puddle reflection shot with my Canon 7D.

There is an indoor ski and snowboard hill inside the mall of the Emirates in Dubai. It’s incredibly cheezy. Fake snow in a gigantic refrigerator. I personally enjoy the snowmen and penguins – oh and the ski lift.

The Address Hotel in Dubai is a nice place to stay. Plus it looks like a gigantic future sail ship space craft.

This is a few moments after the fountain show at the Dubai Fountain.

On ARTPANTS, I posted  shot looking up from a different location at the Burj tower. Here is another angle.

Here is the view from the observation deck of the Burj tower. If you look in the lower left hand corner of the image you can see the undeveloped and construction areas around the tower. Dubai is still young.

Same view after the sunset.

That’s it, that’s all. Deuces Dubai.

Less than 24 hours from the first official day of the Sundance Film Festival and the snow is still coming down. This is my third year working at the festival. Which makes me feel more relaxed and comfortable with the event. Plus that I have more great Sundance friends than the previous years. The light at the end of the Sundance tunnel is two days of snowboarding in Utah powder.

I’m stoked. Here are some images from around Park City and day 0 of the festival.

Our offices are in the same place as last year – which is the silver star lift base of the Park City Mountain Resort. Silver star used to be a silver mine.

Look familiar?

Because the sky is blue… because I LOVE clouds.

Banksy is in town. Dropping some new pieces.

Fire hydrant knuckle deep in the pow pow gnar gnar.

Joe producing and locking down a location for a future shoot.

Stay posted for Day #1

Chris Adams shot and cut together this quickie edit from our recent trip to Bittersweet Ski Resort in Otsego, Michigan. I eat it on a small method grab within the first minute, but redeem myself with a clean gap over an iced tree. Thanks Chris for cutting this together. All shot on a Go Pro HD in 720/60p.

Mustaches, cherry doughnuts, and method grabs.

On the last day of the decade, December 31, 2009 – I’ve put together this highlight post of my 2009. The year has been great for me, I started my own production company, had several firsts (NASCAR race, Bonneville Speedweek, Pikes Peak, and FIA GT), and crisscrossed the United States on road trips no less than three times. I also got to visit friends and meet up with friends in new areas of the country. Snowboard more than previous years and get recognition for my work. Thank you to everyone for your support and friendship in 2009. Cannot wait to go bigger in 2010. Happy new years.

January

Flew to Chicago to visit with the MWS, Mid-West Surf crew and snowboard in Michigan.

Sundance Film Festival. Worked on the Live @ Sundance crew for my second year in a row. Then got to play in some Utah pow pow afterwards.

February

Colorado trip. A Thousand Miles of Colorado. Drove all over the state.

Started at Streetfire.net – started with this video and ended up producing over 50 more videos for them during my time there.

March

Visited Texas for the Texas Mile event.

Utah trip number two. With Blake and Chris.

April

Formula Drift – Long Beach edit released.

Ford Mustang GT500 press trip. Clicked off a 12.7 Quarter Mile ET in my second time drag racing.

May

Licensed to drive a motorcycle. Picked up my 2005 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R.

Formula Drift – Atlanta edit released.

Italy trip with Speedhunters to cover the FIA GT race in Adria. Films released with some of my work behind the lens.

Road Trip – Atlanta to Los Angeles in two days.

June

Formula Drift – New Jersey edit released.

Medium Monster, LLC. My production company is started with Ricky Chu.

Pike’s Peak testing with Rhys Millen, first footage for what would become Climb Attack.

Redline Time Attack shoot at Willow Springs.

July

Formula Drift – Las Vegas edit released.

Pike’s Peak International Hill climb with Rhys Millen and team RMR.

Scion Racing – Titan Motorsports Drag raicng in Richmond, Virginia.

Mitsubishi Lancer shoot from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Climb Attack released.

August

Formula Drift Seattle. Hitched a ride up to the event with Shaun Carlson and the NuFormz team. Good memories of Shaun. Rest In Peace, honored to know you.

Attended my first X-Games. X-15 in Los Angeles for the Rally event.

Bonneville Speedweek. With Speedhunters: Rod, Linhbergh, Rachel, and John Brooks. Great trip.

September

Four Hundred released. Linhbergh says this my best of the year. I agree.

BFGoodrich Nation of Go Tour starts in San Francisco, California. On the road for 23+ days – working out of a van. With some amazing guys who would become great friends.

October

Road trip – Richmond, VA to Los Angeles, CA – Buffalo, NY and Cleveland, OH thrown in the mix to visit friends and family. All in a 2010 Mitsubishi Ralliart Sportback.

Microsoft Store launch in Scottsdale, AZ. Medium Monster behind the scenes production.

November

SEMA 2009 and the start of ARTPANTS – Linhbergh and I’s 365 daily-photography challenge.

Nashville, TN – Bash Bash Bash with some DM family.

December

Utah, first snowboard session of the 2009-2010 season.

Happy 2010 from me.

I’ll admit, most of the work I do allows me to travel. In the past couple of years, I’ve been able to visit some amazing places with jobs. When my schedule started to ease up towards the end of 2009 I decided to take a break, and… gasp, go on a vacation.

My friend Katie proved to be a good adventure buddy and we decided to travel to Costa Rica for 6 days.

Prior to departing, I got food poisoning from El Tarasco – which was devastating. Not only because I was puking my internals out, but because Tarasco is one of my favorite spots to grub. It felt like being cheated on… by a carne asada plate.

Our first flight got cancelled and pushed back our travel plans by 12 hours.

Once we finally made it to San Jose, Costa Rica, we stayed at the Adventure Inn – which was a great place to stay. The staff made it easy for us to pick up our rental car and get started on the trip to Jaco. This duck caught my eye at the park at the end of the street.

Hotel Canciones Del Mar was right on Jaco Beach.

Rental Car – Suzuki Alto, as the Japanese call it – a Kei car. Little car.

Ricing out cars is still big in Costa Rica. Like this Sentra with 16 inch wheels and a muffler. Made me laugh.

Heavy duty Street Fighter style fiberglass wing on an Eclipse in Jaco, Costa Rica.

The chef from a local bar and grill catches up with a friend.

Complimentary colors, green wall and red dress – make for a cool shot. My travel buddy Katie ponders what to order for dinner.

End of day #1.

A Day with Will is the post category that came out of ‘A Day in the Life of…” challenge. Which was a single day photo exchange between myself and KD almost a year ago. It has since evolved into being a day in my life. Any day that I pick and have my camera around to document with photography. This post is a preview of my trip to Costa Rica. I’m going to cut the characters and let the pixels do the talking.

Dropping in on some Jaco mush. Photo by Katie DeWolfe.

Until the end of the trip.

This story starts in Richmond, Virginia and ends back in Los Angeles, California. It takes place in the places in between. The states along highway 80 ranging from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah. Then on to highway 15 through Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California.

The places in between. The places like Lima, Ohio, where I saw this Ford Thunderbird camped out and waiting for its owner at a closed Ford dealership. A sign in its window with the owner’s phone number and name. California plates long expired on it’s bumper. Was it an omen? I picked up Joey Redmond in Lima, Ohio after driving down from Buffalo, New York. In Buffalo I met up with Dax and Elissa. Whom I had not seen since graduating from Bowling Green State University back in 2006.

Joey is a great road trip partner. He drives fast, travels frequently, and has good taste in music.

The car for the adventure is 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart Sportback. That is the longest name for an automobile I’ve heard in a while. All jokes aside, the Ralliart is a great platform. It has the same 4B11 motor and all wheel drive as the more expensive Lancer Evolution – with a smaller turbo and flex piping instead of hard innercooler piping. On WORKS motorsports dyna packs the lil blue shoe made 220hp. Not bad for dyna packs and all wheel drive.

Always representing Medium Monster – Ricky Chu and I’s production company.

When we hit Iowa, the temperatures were very low for October – close to freezing. The next day, we found that there was a dusting of snow on the ground. Word on the weather channel was that points ahead on our drive had recieved more snow.

Nebraska’s state police were a bit bored and decided to pull over us while Joey was behind the wheel. The officer ended up letting Joey shoot the radar gun and check out some of the equipment in his squad car.

On the second night, we made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Where there was already seven inches of snow.

The Ralliart’s AWC – Snow mode made it easier to drive in the icy conditions.

So did sunglasses. I let Joey borrow a pair I picked up on he trip – it really helped during the white outs. Check out the reflection of the road ahead and how white everything is around the car.

Taking a break in Wyoming -the amount of snow was impressive.

Descending into Laramie, the snow lightened up to a dusting again. The clouds were epic – white fluffy clouds pushing some of the dark storm clouds further east.

Utah.

Joey shooting some pics of the Ralliart off of an exit in California I-15.

Thanks BFGoodrich and Mitsubishi for giving me the chance to drive back from the east coast!

2009. This year, I’ve driven across the United States three times. Most recently from Buffalo, New York back to Los Angeles, California. The trip that landed me in Buffalo and back on the east coast was the BFGoorich Nation of GO tour. In June, I piloted an equipment van from Atlanta to Los Angeles for a film shoot that I worked on as a Camera Operator.

Why?

Because I love driving. The United States is a great country to drive across. It doesn’t matter if you spend 2 days or 20 days getting across it. Sea to shining sea, the US is a road trip friendly country. Our infastructure revolves around the highway system and in 2,500 miles you can see a lot of America.

For example, the image above is in a traffic jam as a result of sub-freezing temperatures, swirling white outs of snow, and over seven inches of snowfall that hit Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa at the beginning of October 2009. Days before, I was in 90+ degree heat in Austin, Texas. Followed by brisk fall nights in Cleveland, Ohio.

Here are a few of my favorite images from an upcoming post about my NY2LA (New York to Los Angeles) road trip. All shot with my trusty, Panasonic LX2 Point n Shoot.

Easter bunny blue skies and chocolate brown waters. The wind whips the surface of Lake Erie into a swirling pool out of Willy Wonka’s factory. Normally, the peaceful waters are an opaque green. Then the northern winds fetch over the calm freshwater and over mile and miles – create wind waves. The period between these waves is much shorter than the period between ocean waves. While the water being fresh, isn’t as buoyant as saltwater.

When you want to surf, none of that stuff matters, the waves matters. A wave can be a foot or twenty. You make the most with what you got and for 3 years after I learned to surf – I had Lake Erie.

When I come back to north east Ohio – I make a trip up to the lakeshore. To check out the waves. Especially if the winds are out of the north.

The first stop was the Columbia Street beach. Which I nicknamed the “rock beach”. Rock beach is great for skimboarding because it drops off rather quickly in depth and the waves tend to break right on the beach.

To get to the beach, you descend a couple sets of stairs. A path worn through fallen leaves – really caught my eye.

A small creek runs parallel to Columbia road and empties into the lake. Over a set of shale waterfalls.

After spotting these yellow leaves – I had to get a closer look.

From Columbia road it was onto Huntington Beach. Yes, Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach in Bay Village, Ohio.

Huntington Beach is a better surf break. The sand bottom and jetty help to build waves deeper into the water than Columbia Rd’s beach. If you are feeling lazy, you can jump off the jetty and be out right by the start of the break. Which is convenient. Huntington is at the base of a cliff, so part of the fun is hiking down the cliff face through a ravine to the beach.

Its days like these that I wish I had my fun shape in Cleveland instead of out in Los Angeles.