About

Who am I?

• I am a husband and dad.
• I am a photographer, have been since 1990. I used to shoot wedding and portraits at my own studio, but decided to retire from that type of photography and focus on taking pictures while riding my bike. Yes, I’m serious.
• I am currently employed as a corporate artist concentrating on graphic design, video editing and photography.
• I have been using digital tools on the Macintosh platform since 1997.
• I have prematurely graying hair.
• I love to laugh and try not to cry.

• I have a border collie that catches Frisbees and loves visitors.
• I love to ride my bike far, far away
• I love to ride my bike as the sun rises and warms a cool morning.
• I will chase a good looking storm before I run from it.
• I love Hot Tamales.
• I like communicate. Feel free to contact me by email here.

Why This Site?

We all need adventure. The Adventure Monkey is inside of us all. Without feeding our Adventure Monkeys we get at the minimum restless and at worst clinically depressed. Some people feed their Adventure Monkeys with daredevil X-game types of adventures. Others feed them with travel, meeting new people or raising a family. There is an unlimited number of ways to feed our Adventure Monkeys. If we don’t, we end up with a stale, tasteless and boring life that lacks the excitement we all crave. Ever feel that way? It’s because your Adventure Monkey is hungry or worse yet, starved.

I got the idea of the Adventure Monkey while on a long bicycle ride. I was considering the simple needs that must be met for us to live happy, fulfilled lives. No forebrain or higher level human psyche to get in the way. We tend to forget or repress these simple needs and desires in our logical forebrain dominated world. I found myself seeing these inner needs as little monkeys, cute yet destructive if left unfed.

Much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I imagined a barrel of monkeys instead of a dry, dusty pyramid. If any one of these monkeys doesn’t get fed, it gets hungry and becomes irritated, antagonizing the other monkeys inside of us. It’s not hard to think of a family member or friend that didn’t (or doesn’t) get their Love Monkey fed. It affects their lives in a negative way. I may refer to other monkeys, from time to time, but this blog is dedicated mainly to the Adventure Monkey inside of us.

Why was I riding my bike thinking about needs?

Working my day to day office job was boring me to death. Office politics irritated me. Meaningless small talk annoyed me. Futile work assignments drained me. In the cubicle world, there is nothing “real” to fight for so we make up stupid, idiotic things to worry about.

I started to feel useless, tired and depressed. I came home and was tired. I would watch people do cool things on television. I was tired of watching people do great things as I sat there doing nothing. My Adventure Monkey was starved!

When the weather turned, I started bicycling again. I was enjoying the freedom and relaxation of a nice cross country ride. I found myself challenging myself, going farther and farther each ride. My mind would clear and I would reflect and learn while on a long bicycle ride. I didn’t feel depressed. I felt as if I was accomplishing something great on these rides. I was feeding my Adventure Monkey.

I found that pushing myself physically, frees myself mentally. I believe that bicycling has mind altering capabilities. My bicycle rides have become my anti-depressant medication.

So there you go. That’s me and how this blog got started. It will evolve and adapt to how things change in my life. I will write about cycling, photography and everything in between. I will talk gear and answer questions anyone has. Hopefully this will blossom into some workshops or photography bicycle tours. Who knows? Just make sure to Feed Your Monkey!

Thanks!