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May 8, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 10 (Jurassic Park and Dust Devils)

So it’s “Day 10” and we’re waking early to hit up Zion National Park. Day 8 was a long 12 hour day on the bikes hitting both Archer and Capital Reef National Parks. Not only that but the ride into Escalante, UT was technical, way fun and we stopped atop a mountain pass to take some sunset photos. Waking on Day 9 still had us feeling beat so decided to cut it short. Woke later than usual and stopped riding earlier in the day. The plan was to make it to Zion National Park then call it a day in Mesquite.

Well that didn’t happen and we wound up getting a hotel about 15 miles from Zion. We figured we’d hit the park first thing in the morning and start fresh. So here we are to Day 10. We wake early and are having breakfast right at 7am when the restaurant opens. We finish that up, load the bikes and I think we’re off right after 8am.

About 25 minutes or so later we arrive at Zion National Park, one word – AMAZING. By far my favorite National Park so far. When you enter the park you see the expected sights, nice cliffs, rock walls, etc… We even stopped for a bit to get some shots of this nice little canyon with a stream. As we came up we noticed a couple (some climbers) putting all their gear on. Craig had already stricken up a conversation and they asked if it was our first time to Zion. We said yes and how pretty it was. They asked us if we had been on the other side of the long tunnel to which we replied no. They quickly informed us that this was nothing and that we would be awestruck when we came out on the other side of the tunnel.

Sure enough we got back on our bikes and headed down the road. We went thru a short tunnel and then came up to the long tunnel. Park Rangers had vehicles stopped and only let a few go at a time. By the time you know it we’re rolling. When I say long tunnel, I mean long. I’m thinking a mile or two thru this mountain. Well in this tunnel they have a few windows cut out so you can catch a glimpse or peak of what’s to come off to the right. What a breathtaking view. Unfortunately, stopping in the tunnel is no longer allowed which I wish it was because there is a view out of this world. Once we exited the tunnel, it was something straight out of the movies, Jurassic Park to be exact. There wasn’t an area to pull over and take a photo of at the top which I regret because that was the best view in the house and especially with the morning light still being good. Of course we did pull over a few times and took some photos which really don’t do the park justice.

Anyway, after Zion it was now time to light the afterburners and get going. Destination, Beatty…a town on the edge of Death Valley which would be perfect for an early morning crossing. About a 3 hour ride which would take us thru Arizona, into Nevada and to the edge of Las Vegas. From there we would head West to a town called Beatty. Of course after a magical morning of riding thru Zion, things couldn’t stay the same. Soon as we got out of Zion and close to a town called Hurricane (but pronounced Hurricon) we’re hit with 50mph gust from all different directions and various small dust storms along the way. Makes you think back to that town name. Well this didn’t let up at all for the next hour or two and I was pretty happy when we finally pulled over for lunch and fuel outside of Las Vegas (check out the YouTube vid to get an idea of how windy it was). Trying to keep a bike upright (shiny side up) with loaded cases in those conditions is a challenge. One minute you’re leaning full left as that’s the direction the wind is hitting you, to then have the wind switch on you and come from the right catching you off guard and requiring a weight shift right. Cruising at 80-85mph with a 40+ mph headwind makes it feel like you’re doing 130.

As we’re finally getting close to Beatty we decide to hit another small town (Pahrump, NV) that also offers a close stop on the edge of Death Valley. So here we are. Craig is napping and I’m blogging. In a bit we’ll grab some grub, get some good rest and be ready for tomorrow’s adventure. Tomorrow we’ll be crossing Death Valley, going thru the mountains and ending up in Bakersfield, California. Check out the Google Map because it looks like it’s going to be a fun ride!

The one and only Zion National Park

On the road again.

Vid

May 7, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 8 & 9 (National Park Euphoria)

2 Days, the continuation of a MotoPhoto Adventure and the Euphoria one can only get in such scenic places. Now I’m just going to start off by saying I’m still pretty tired. Not only editing photos from this trip but also some of my Fashion work.

My blog post will be short and sweet and really just showcasing my photos and a few vids. Make sure to click on the SlideShow link below because we took a lot of shots

Oh yeah and a cool little vid of me getting on it on the VFR in Moab…man I love that bike. Now for all the skinny on Day 8 & 9 hit up my boy Craig’s blog post on MotoPhoto Adventure. I’m sure he’s not going to leave out any of the details and well it’s always funny reading his stuff 🙂

www.motophotoadventure.com

Day 8 (Archer & Capital Reef National Parks)

Day 9 (Bryce Canyon National Park)

Mooty coming to you from Arches National Park

May 5, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 7 (Cinco de Mayo Craziness)

Day 7 and we’re off! Well not really but we’re chilling in Moab, Utah and it’s Cinco de Mayo!!

So I don’t know exactly when we got this idea for a Cinco de Mayo shoot or video in our head but sure enough we did. I think Craig made a mention of it being Cinco de Mayo in a few days while on the road and the wheels started churning. I figured it would be pretty epic to get some sombreros and do a Cinco de Mayo shoot. Well from there it transpired into something a bit more than that. You know, Craig and me with a crazy idea can’t possibly be a good thing.

So yesterday morning while having breakfast at our hotel, I asked one of the front desk agents where we could score some sombreros. He didn’t know but did say a co-worker of his probably would. Sure enough, a few minutes later a guy came up to us and mentioned there was a costume shop a few blocks down where he had seen some….perfect. Well now it was back to the room to write-up the Day 6 blog since we were too tired to do it last night. After that was done we decided to head out and grab some lunch. Figured we’d grab lunch, get some sombreros and hit up a few National Parks to find a place to shoot. By this time it was already 1:30 PM with a high noon sun so we decided to just scout a few areas nearby for the photoshoot/video. Well it really turned out to be just a video greeting card type shoot so we were off.

After hitting up The Mad Hatter Costume Shoppe, LLC and getting the hook up by Carrie (store owner), we now had sombreros in hand. Not only that but she also provided some nice ponchos. With sombreros securely strapped on Craig’s bike and it was time to head North. Craig took the lead for a while, then I did. To our right and left there were some great cliff walls that would make a perfect location for a video shoot but sure enough, they were fenced off since they were National Parks, so no access. We continued down the road and after a few miles of nothing interesting I pulled over in a pretty deserted area. Well sure enough, off in the distance I noticed a tree. For some reason or another the theme music to “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” kicked in and I knew we found our spot. Well mainly because I was looking for some shade so I told Mooty, this would be perfect. He immediately said “There is no way in hell I’m walking all that way, it must be like a half mile”. I secured him it was not that far and if he trusted me as artistic director for this shoot which he replied “alright, let’s do this”. With sombreros, ponchos and a six pack of Dos Equis (oh yeah, we also picked that up in town for our vid) in hand we start walking in the direction of the tree. The reddish clay ground was very soft and foot imprints could be seen…

As soon as we arrive to the tree we immediately noticed tons of little (or large) gifts left around by cows. Craig mentioning he grew up in Pasadena, TX and had no problem kicking them out of the way started doing so. I assisted a bit and in no time we had a decent little area under the tree cleared out so I could setup. Craig got in position and I setup the camera on tripod to start shooting our “Feliz Cinco de Mayo” greeting video. While I was setting up I could hear Craig complaining (or talking to himself) about his Leatherman all-in-one tool not having a bottle opener. “I will NEVER purchase a leatherman that doesn’t even come with a bottle opener” was echoing thru the desert. Using the pliers portion of the tool, Craig got a bottle opened (well if a broken bottle is considered open) and we were ready to shoot. A few takes later I was happy with the vid we got of Craig and it was now my turn.

We basically did the same thing when it was my turn. I asked Craig if he had taken a sip of the beer and he said yes, that it was a clean break and the cap had the remaining bottle pieces. While shooting I took a swig and let me tell you…some cold XX in the middle of some hot desert in the shade of a treee with a sombrero is pretty dang good. I suggest you try it sometime. During the 2nd take I dropped the bottle in the dirt and sure enough while cleaning it I managed to cut my hand. Not a bad good but it was bleeding. At this moment we realized the first aid kit was back in the hotel and our SPOT GPS was on the bike which was parked 1/4 to 1/2 mile back. This being the thing we’re supposed to have on us at all times in case we need to use the SOS feature to save us should we have an unfortunate accident. We laughed about this, wrapped up the things, packed our gear and started our hike back to our bikes.

a shot of Mooty

Below you’ll see the two videos we both chose to share on Facebook. Then you’ll see some “behind the scenes” and the alternate take vids, enjoy…

Vids we shared on Facebook

May 5, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 6 (Moab, Utah)

So it’s about 9:07 AM here in lovely Moab, UT and it’s Cinco de Mayo!! Rode in yesterday from Taos, New Mexico and are planning to stay the day to find some stuff to get into. Well it was agreed that we were going to sleep in today seeing that I’m totally a night owl but Craig rises earlier than most roosters. So while enjoying breakfast a few minutes ago I hear him tell Cindy (his beautiful redhead wife) that he’s been awake since about 6:30 AM typing on his blog, I made the comment “I’ve been up since 6:30 AM listening to Craig type on his blog”, haha. Anyway, I think Craig (who calls himself Tech Tard) has picked up blogging quite well. That after all was the goal. To have Guru (me) get him up and going with the best of the blogging nerds. This right about now reminds me of Mike who I met in Ruidoso. He would be having a blast right now hazing us about our blogging. Guess this is a good moment to reflect on the ride so far.

The funny and cool things that have happened so far…

– We’ve ridden 1450 miles since we departed Wimberley, TX which is outside of TX.

– Riding temperature has varied from 22 degrees in Ruidoso, NM to over 106 through the Chihuahuan Desert outside of Ft. Stockton in route to Carlsbad, NM.

– There is no explanation for the feeling one has when riding a motorcycle through all these National Forest/Parks and scenic places.

– There IS an explanation for the feeling one gets when opening up a Honda VFR with a power commander, Erion racing exhaust on a nice long straight in full tuck but we’re not going into details. Wait…you do know I used to race cars professionally? 🙂

– I am now doing TSA type pat downs of Craig at every fuel stop seeing that he left a credit card in Ft. Stockton, lost the Goldwing key in Ruidoso (luckily he had me stash away the spare on my bike) and almost left his wallet in Durango, CO. I’ll let you read about it on his blog www.motophotoadventure.com

– Outside of Taos, NM we passed this Earthship home community. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen with houses looking like they’re straight out of Mad Max or Road Warrior. Check out these links for some info and Google images – http://www.earthship.org/, About – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship, Google Images

– We crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas at an elevation of about 11,000 ft.

– I’m thoroughly enjoying Craig and myself being retards on camera, video then deciding what you guys (the reading audience) get to see. Of course I try to keep the cool rockstar photographer perception going on in my blog and then have Craig post all the behind the scenes stuff like me rocking blue camo PJ’s.

– Bugs REALLY like my face shield.

Back to the blog and more importantly, photos and videos!

Photo List –

Crossing the Rio Grande Gorge outside of Taos, NM.
Entering Carson National Forest and what’s that? Snow!
Had to get a shot of the bikes with snow as a backdrop
View before we dropped back into the valley
Notice that little dot, well that’s a car down there.
Mountains as far as the eyes can see
Craig getting a shot for his blog as we’re rolling into Moab, UT
Perks of having an awesome photographer with you. “Yo Craig, I’m going to climb that, get a shot of me!” About 2.5 hours later and after like 2 senior citizen couples passed me up I made it to the top. Who said a chubby latin photographer dude couldn’t climb like a goat!?
The non-perks of having a good photographer friend taking your pics. He catches you falling down on film

May 3, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 5 (Taos, New Mexico)

Alright, it’s Day 5 and we’re back on the road. Started off in Ruidoso, NM at 22 degress (pretty damn chilly) with Taos, NM as the destination (total of 339 miles). After I defrosted on descent of the mountain we decided to make a stop in Albuquerque and have lunch with my friend QiaoQiao. Well lunch was at this pretty sweet place called Frontier Restaurant. The food was great and the atmosphere even better. QiaoQiao had about an hour or so to kill, so after lunch we crossed the street and headed to the University of New Mexico campus to take a few impromptu shots. Of course I knew this was going to be fun because Craig was with us and well, I credit him with getting me back into photographer and he’s a pretty damn talented photographer.

Well funny thing is that in the last 5+ years or so that I’ve known Craig and have done a few shoots around him, I’ve never really gotten to much advice from him. You know a bit here and there about composition, colors, what to look for etc… But now that we’re taking a few shots of QiaoQiao (pronounced ChowChow) and her being a fine arts major/fellow photog, the advice and wisdom was flowing like Niagara Falls. Hell, he transformed into this philosophical photography guru and explained how the light bounced from one object to another, picked up some color along the way etc.. The guy was on a roll. Hell I should have had a note pad with me. Note to self – bring a beautiful girl around Craig and the knowledge will flow.

After lunch it was back on the road. A few stops along the way bring you the below photos and videos including a nice view from a gas station, the incredibly cool Valley of Fire (can you say lava!) and rounded out with a shot of the Rio Grande Gorge. Tomorrow we’re going to head towards Utah and guess we’ll see how far we get.

Photo List –

QiaoQiao!
Getting some fuel, a view of the mountains and Mooty.
Rio Grande Gorge

May 2, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Hanging in Ruidoso

So it’s Day’s 4 and we’re still hanging here in Ruidoso, NM. It’s been a few chill days and allowed us to do some laundry and for me to get some much needed photo editing done. So you’ll also see a few new blog post of some shoots I did in West Texas last month.

Mike the guy we’re staying with is funny as hell. He’s an old school cat. A total gear head, knows a ton about bikes and just way cool. Hell he just got a cell phone like 4 years ago. Most of the fun has been the hazing Craig and me receive from him about blogging, Facebook, etc… haha. Some memorable quotes are “I woke and I saw pretty snow flurries, let me put it on the blog”, “we just had a divine lunch”, “have you two heard yourselves, all you need is the lisp”, ahh…good times indeed.

Tomorrow we head out to Taos, New Mexico and will make a stop in Alberguerque for lunch. Maybe I can meet up with my friend QiaoQiao 🙂 Anyway, how about a little vid I shot at lunch today. Had to catch the snow flurries on vid you know!

May 1, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 3 (Ruidoso, New Mexico)

Day 3 – May 1st, 2011

Alright, so it’s Day 3 of MotoPhoto Adventure and we find ourselves in Ruidoso, New Mexico. We woke to some snow flurries from high in the mountains and it was pretty cool. Not enough for photos but still cool.

We’re currently crashing at Craig’s friend Mike’s place here which is pretty sweet. Mike’s an old school bike/gear head and is fun to chat with. Going to be here thru Monday and heading out Tuesday morning. Of course while on this Moto ride one of the most important things to check is the weather. Some of our destinations were possibly going to be re-routed due to snow or other weather conditions which would make the riding pretty hazardous. Luckily weather in Durango, CO looks favorable next week so we’ll still be on track.

Downtime here in Ruidoso also allows me to post some of the photos from yesterdays ride.

Day 2- April 30th, 2011

Yesterdays ride from Carlsbad, New Mexico to Ruidoso was incredible. I mean taking a nice long road trip thru National Parks is cool in a car but out of this world on a bike. From Carlsbad we headed North on 285 towards Artesia. From there we took 82 to Mayhill which made a good stop for lunch. I was already stoked by the time we arrived here because of the scenery. Guys were like, just wait man, this is just the road to get to the pretty stuff. Well while having lunch I made an interesting cat named Pigpin and his wife Ms. Piggy. They were Harley riders and serious because Ms. Piggys bike was almost at 100,000 miles. Well after talking for a bit I told Pigpin I’d like to feature him in my “Reflection” book and he was down. Definitely a win for Jay Marroquin Photography and got my 2nd person for my book, only 298 more to go.

Right outside of Mayhill we made a stop at a old farm house that Ed had mentioned. It was perfect opportunity to bust out the camera and really the first time I took it out to shoot something. Just incredibly pretty. After photos we hit up a little side road (24) which headed to Piñon, NM. Well this road was absolutely incredible and a riders dream (check out the map photo at the bottom). Started off by going straight up into the mountains and was filled with switchbacks, curves, elevation changes and off camber corners for you motorsport enthusiast. It then dropped back into a valley which was Piñon. We anticipated putting gas there but when we arrived there we found out they didn’t have a gas station. Next stop was too far so what to do but ride back thru the fun stuff 🙂

Well after all the fun we needed to make some time so got on 82 and headed towards Cloudcroft. This also got us into the heart of Lincoln National Forest. Until you ride in some valley surrounded by Mountain Pines you haven’t lived, it was surreal. From Cloudcraft we took 244 continuing thru Lincoln and on to 70. From there it was a pretty straight shot to Ruidoso and Mike’s place. Anyway, enjoy the shots.

Day 2 Photos

Me and Mooty
Pigpin – One cool cat I met in Mayhill, NM
Farmhouse outside of Mayhill, NM
A shot I tried to get of this dude flying by on an old Triumph bike. Came up on me too quick and I wasn’t expecting him so couldn’t lock on focus. I like the way the shot came out anyway. Kind of a poster like feel to it.
The Mooty man riding the Goldwing
This was at a 90 degree left off of 244 in Lincoln National Forest
Sweet, finally arrived at Mike’s place in Ruidoso, New Mexico.
The absolutely blast of a road (24) outside of Mayhill, NM

April 28, 2011

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 1

April 29th, 2011 – Craig Mooty and Jay Marroquin will kick off a epic motorcycle/photography adventure which will have them traveling from Wimberley, TX (near Austin, TX) towards the Pacific and then up towards Canada and Vancouver, BC. Follow me around the world via SPOT Connect GPS!

If you need some backdrop on this adventure and how it came about, check out the following blog post – http://jaymarroquin.com/blog/2011/projects/riding-west-with-mooty/

Make sure to also check out Craig’s blog (MotoPhoto Adventure) at www.motophotoadventure.com

Day 1 – Day 14 Itinerary

Day 1 – Friday, April 29th
Wimberley, TX to Carlsbad, New Mexico
467 Miles (7hrs – 51mins)

Day 2 – Saturday, April 30th
Carlsbad, New Mexico to Ruidoso, NM
195 Miles (4hrs – 15mins)

Day 3 – Sunday, May 1st
Ruidoso, NM to Taos, NM
265 Miles (4hrs – 15mins)

Day 4 – Monday, May 2nd
Taos, NM to Monticello, Utah (via Durango, Colorado)
320 Miles (5hrs – 59mins)

Day 5 & Day 6 – May 3rd and 4th
Moab – Archer National Park
Canyon Land National Park

Day 7 – Tuesday, May 5th
Moab, Utah to Grand Canyon Village, Arizona
326 Miles (6hrs – 5mins)

too be continued…

Bike Prep, Wimberley and one kickass cloud!

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 10 (Jurassic Park and Dust Devils)

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 8 & 9 (National Park Euphoria)

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 7 (Cinco de Mayo Craziness)

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 6 (Moab, Utah)

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 5 (Taos, New Mexico)

MotoPhoto Adventure – Hanging in Ruidoso

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 3 (Ruidoso, New Mexico)

MotoPhoto Adventure – Day 1

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