New England Verge Cyclocross Series

On Sunday the 25th of October I traveled up to Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, ME to watch race 8 of the 2009 Verge Cyclocross Series.  My timing was perfect for Sunday, this is a two day race and on Saturday it rained all day long and blew a cold wind.  Now I do not mind suffering in the elements to get a great shot but luckily I was busy that day.  Sunday was gorgeous with a bright blue sky and lots of sunshine.  I arrived early enough to warm up on the masters, cat 3 mens and junior racers while waiting for the elite mens and women's races. Saturday's rain had turned the course to mud along much of the course.  The last cyclocross race I photographed in Portland was bone dry and I knew this was how it usually is for the racers. Blue skies, thick mud and some great talent riding in the coming races I knew would make for some awesome images. Pineland farms is a beautiful and scenic location and with lots of color still on the trees provided an idillic background for this race.  In the end Maureen Bruno Roy from MM Racing and Seven Cycles won the women's elite category.  Dan Timmerman from the Richard Sachs / RGM Watches / Radix team took the men's elite race.  All of my photos from the race can be seen here.

Casco Bay Cyclocross Race

On a perfect Saturday this past weekend I made it out to the 1st Annual Casco Bay Bikeman.com Cyclocross race held on the Eastern prom right here in Portland.  The turn out was better then expected at about 130 riders. With blue skies a brand new course and perfect conditions it was a great opportunity to photograph this great style of bike racing.  This was Pat from Casco Bay Sports first Cyclocross race and with the help of Bikeman.com the race was well organized and well supported.  I spoke with Jeff Tarling of the City of Portland and it was great to see the City's support for the race as well.  I hope to see this race and the fan base grow over the years  to come.  I had a blast and have instantly become a cyclocross fan. Photos from this race can be seen on my Jeffscher.smugmug.com site.

Return to the Kingdom

East Burke Vermont is tucked into a beautiful corner of The Northeast Kingdom and boasts some of the finest mountain bike trails in all of New England and maybe even the entire East Coast.  The Kingdom Trail Association has done an amazing job to manage, build and maintain the trail network to create what is as close to a mountain bike mecca as one could ask for.  This place is truly a stellar location for the quality of the trails the low key atmosphere and the sheer beauty that surround you in all directions.  I now know that this is my favorite place to ride a mountain bike.  This is the third year in a row I have taken a Fall trip to the NEK with my regular mountain bike crew from the Portland area and once again the NEK showed us what a magical place it is.  Being a photographer in a place like this it is hard to not want to photograph everything, everywhere, all day long, but this was a vacation and the camera only really came out on the third day.  I took limited pictures and really focused on staying on the trail but those images can be seen here.  Things have been super busy this Fall and three days of riding and camping was exactly what I needed to recharge the creative batteries and get ready for the winter ahead.  

Helicopter Ride Over Rockland

For the 7th year in a row I was hired to photograph the 2009 Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors Show held in Rockland, Maine.  This is a fantastic event that brings together some of the best boat builders, furniture makers, home designers and artists and craftspeople from Maine and the Northeast.  The weather was perfect for the entire weekend except for about an hour on Friday when the winds picked up and the rain poured cats and dogs. Before the rain fell I hopped into a bell 47 Helicopter at the Owls Head Airport for a quick tour of the harbor and to capture images of the Boat show from the air.  

Catherine Culley

Last week I received a phone call from Catherine Culley one of the principals at Redfern Properties to do a quick portrait session.  Catherine is contributing info about their Redfern House project that recently sold for a Magazine article. She needed a contributer photo and also needed an image(s) that could be used for other professional marketing avenues.  We decided to do in indoor and outdoor portrait so she would be covered no matter what context she wanted to use the images for.  For the indoor portrait we set up in the dining room of her wonderful home and the outdoor portrait was done on her dock and along the rocks of the Presumpscot River in Falmouth. The soft light outdoors was perfect for the river location and I think it all came together very nicely.