I'm not dead...

It's been a few months since I last posted. Many things happened. I had exams, which didn't go too well, my pc crashed, I went to the masters in Cologne, worked some more, went to Benidorm with the girlfriend, had some more exams which went even worse than the first ones, then I worked some more, and yesterday was the first day of the new schoolyear.
So now you're up to speed, I'll let you in on some of my plans:
-first of all, buy a new pc. Trying to edit photo's on this 4year old laptop is horrible, and any attempt at colorcorrection is thwarted by the bland monitor.
-get more photo's online again. I've been riding more and photographing less, but I've still got some gems slumbering on my harddrives, waiting to get out.

I'm also going to stop the whole monthly desktopbackgroundcalendarthings. It's been real fun, but it didn't work out. I will however be putting out desktopbackgrounds, but without the calendar, and not always on a monthly basis.

I'm working on some photo's now, untill they arrive, here's something to keep you keen:



I had recently bought a Canon AE-1, and decided to shoot some film. Three rolls (one of which came out unexposed) and some 40euro's processing cost later, the results haven't been all that great. I do like this one however, and I hope you do too.

Trip to Dusseldorf: Riding

As promised, here are the ridingshots. It's a miracle I managed to get some, we drove right through Dusseldorf, misled by our gps systems, and the wrong adres. GPS's are great, as long as you feed it the right adress that is...

But we arrived there none the less. For me it was the second visit to the illustrous university, my first visit being 2 years ago, albeit with my mtb which limited me quite a bit. It's a great spot, as the photo's will undoubtly tell you. And what can be seen in the photographs here is only a fraction of the great streetspots on campus. Other spots will be up for viewing in Iron Productions' Video, due out in the next days. Keep an eye out on his blog.

Trip to Dusseldorf: Lifestyle

For as long as my blog exists, the subtitle under the header has always been "Riding and Lifestyle". And there's a lot of riding shots on my blog, but not as many "lifestyle" shots. I recently bought a new (second hand) Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8, so I had to test it out last weekend, while on a trip to Abflughalle.

Wait, Abflughalle? I thought the title read "trip to Dusseldorf"? Indeed, we headed for Abflughalle, but when we got there the place was packed, and it had only been open for half an hour. The decision to head for Dusseldorf, a mere 20min drive, was quickly made.

The photo's here were shot on the road from Antwerp to Venlo, on a picknicktable next to the highway. I decided to make two separate posts, with todays e-youths short attention span and the abundance of photo's. Here are the "lifestyle" shot, the riding pics will appear in the next few days.




toine talking. I challenge you to take a picture of Toine NOT talking.




Still talking...




Wes has had enough of the talking, and decide to take matters into his own hands.




And succeeded! Silence there was, for a short period of time...




Paparazzi! (notice, Toine is talking...)




Wes, definately "De Lekkerste".




Fabio eating. Equally hard to find a picture of Fabio not riding or eating.




Mario, loving the camera...




Dries' hands. Hands gotta love BMX...




Ivo filming.




Told ya... The poor bag of chips never knew what hit it.




Ben, overcoming his camera-shy-ness (yes it's a word. look it up!).




Gesündheit.




Our chauffeur for the trip.




Groupshot.

Desktopbackground February

Just three days overdue, I think I managed the deadline pretty well this time. Keep in mind I had my last exam only Friday, and me being a terrible procrastinator, and I thing I managed very well!

For this month's background, I had to go back in time a bit, as the sunny weather in the shot will probably tell you. Last July, a group of friends went to go ride in the mountainbike paradise called Les Deux Alpes, in France. This is one of the shots of that trip. I hiked down the entire mountain, stopping at about every 3 turns and at every single jump, to take out my camera and make a few shots. This one I liked best, and I hope you'll like it too, after all you're gonna be staring at it for the next month...




Rider: Wes.


To get the backgrounds:

(if you don't know what screen resolution you have, check out my previous post, of the desktopbackround of January, there's an How-To in there.)

(right-click the link, then click "save as")

800*600px

1024*768px

1152*864px

1280*800px

1280*1024px

1400*1050px

1440*900px

1600*1200px

1680*1050px

1920*1200px

A few skatepark shots...

I've been quite busy lately, so I haven't been shooting much. I've got exams untill february the first, so I havent' been riding alot lateley. Ofcourse in winter there isn't really much to ride but skateparks as local trails have turned into ponds, but it keeps you in shape for when the dirts are ready to go for another season.

Anyway, a few days ago I picked up my camera again, and shot some photos at the local skatepark. They're not fantastic, but it'll have to do.

Enjoy.









Now, I don't like the next one at all, his face if covered by the tire, and the background isn't all that, but it gives a better idea of the set-up.





This is a shot of the brother of a friend of mine, he asked me to take a picture so I did. He's still young, and has only been to a skatepark 2 or 3 times, but it looks promising.




Oh and by the way: Happy 2008 everyone!

It's going to be an exciting year, I've already planned 3 roadtrips at least, and I've got a few ideas in my head for some projects, but those will have to wait until February.

CTC n°3: Waregem - Demo and Lakejump!

Ok, I admit, it took me about a month longer than it should have, but I've been busy lately.
So finally, the pictures of the last CTC demo are in. Don't be too lazy to scroll down, because the lake jump pics are on the bottom, and they're definitely worth checking out!

If you like 'm, you can always leave me a comment on the bottom. Takes you only 2 seconds anyway.

Oh, and as always the pictures are clickable. you'll be redirected to the flickr page. If you want to see the bigger version, click "all sizes" there.


Here's a picture of the audience. quite a lot of people really.
































A nice picture with all riders on the jumpbox:




And now for something completely different:



double frontflip for ya:




this one was absolutely amazing. The one jumping is Lesley. He had an accident in Bosnia, where he lost a leg. He does have a prosthetic, but it doesn't give you all the feeling you need for the run up to the lakejump. He had to be towed in by another biker to get up to speed, steer the bike towards the jump over slippery wet wooden boards. he took it 4 times, before he even made it to the lip. And then he finally jumped it, and I'd never heard the audience clap as much that day.
Seriously sick!






that's all folks!

check back in a few days, I've still got some pictures lying around waiting to be uploaded, like a trip to abflughalle, pics from the roadtrip to Les2alpes, and more!


oh wait, this one is just too funny to pass up on:



D.

CTC Demo nr2: DirtE19 Demo Wetteren

I had to ride during this demo as we were one man short, so I don't have any pictures of it. My girlfriend however did take some pictures.
they'll be on here any day, so stay tuned!

City Team Challenge Demo n°1: Geraartsbergen

Last sunday we, DirtE19, had our first real demo. We'd done some before, but not as big as this one. A big mountainbiking event in the middle of a big city, with more than a thousand spectators. It took a lot of preparation to be able to be there, but in the end it was all worth it. We destroyed the place, the crowd went mad. And that's what you're looking for, as an entertainer.

We still have 2 demo's to go, also for the city team challenge, which will be the next two sundays. Hope to see some of you there!

Enjoy the pictures. I've saved the best for last.