People always ask if I just shoot weddings or if I shoot other things as well. I always have to stop for a moment before answering to decide whether to proceed with the “my parole officer has asked me to deny shooting anything or anyone” response or the “just weddings? What’s the matter with shooting just weddings?” response. In either case, the answer is no. I shoot all kinds of things (sorry, officer). It’s one of the things I love about shooting weddings – the diversity of shooting opportunities. Weddings are like whole academic photography curricula condensed into a single day (or a couple days in some cases). A little sports work, a little portrait work, a little studio lighting work, some posed group shots, candids, emotion, action, direction, observation. So much goes into planning a wedding and I get the gift of being able to witness and document those things. It’s not just shooting weddings like anybody could do it. It’s a wedding!
What is not a wedding, however, is this post. I warned you in the About Me section of my blog that my interests were more diverse than just weddings and that those topics would emerge eventually in my blog. Among them, motorcycles!
So a client of mine called me and told me that he built a motorcycle. Obviously this caught my attention because I like motorcycles and I have a sense of what it would take to actually build a motorcycle. Also, I know this man is a manager at the Home Depot in NE DC so moonlighting as a motorcycle builder is pretty awesome. He asked me, like usual, if I just shoot weddings or if I do other things as well. I smiled to myself and told him I would shoot whatever he wanted to have shot. So he told me about the motorcycle which sounded pretty spectacular and we set up a time to make some images.
So I was chatting with Mike while photographing his bike about the bike and the process. Before it got cold last season, Mike decided to move the motorcycle, then a stock 2006 Harley-Davidson Road King, into his garage for a major face-lift. He then described the process of hibernating in the garage for the winter working on the bike meticulously. As the spring rolled around, it was time for Mike to get his bike rolled out of the garage and start riding again. And the finished product was even more spectacular than he had hoped.
Mike is not one of those prissy motorcycle owners who has a motorcycle, works on it all the time, and never rides. Mike prides himself on both having a beautiful bike that he rebuilt from the ground up and actually riding it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate a good show bike like the best of them. Wouldn’t even mind having one or two myself. But, like Mike, I’d ride them. That’s what they’re meant for anyway, right? There are few things more glamorous, manly, or honest than polished chrome and the open road.
