KEVIN “TEACH” BAAS, AN INSPIRATION
October 27, 2021
“You need a nickname, and it’s going to be Teach.” So said someone at an early Rockingham Smokeout after learning Kevin Baas was probably the first high school shop teacher to offer an actual chopper class to his students. And that’s how “Teach” has been known in the motorcycle world…
October 13, 2021
So many great bikes, so many familiar faces! Of course, Born Free is a bike show and one of the best in the world at that. But for me and so many others, it is also a well-deserved reunion. With the show canceled due to Covid in 2020, and then…
PLAN B – BILLY LANE REBUILDS IN TENNESSEE
September 28, 2021
As the proverb goes, “the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.” I deal with this daily, and I have a hunch you do as well. Before my travel shoots, there are the travel arrangements to be made and a schedule to be built. There are builders to…
“MORE METTLE” EXHIBITION – THE SURVIVORS!
September 15, 2021
It is hard to believe that I have been producing themed motorcycle-based exhibitions to coincide with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for 20 years. Roots for the series were planted back in 2000 when I dipped my toe in the water, staging a smaller version of this at the Apex Gallery…
September 1, 2021
My final installment of this six-part series, Sturgis through the decades, brings us to the recent rally that so many of us just experienced—the 81st. The energy and excitement came on earlier and more vigorous than had ever been seen. Vendors were reporting great sales a whole week before the…
August 8, 2021
This feature, the fifth in my Sturgis through the decades DK Blog posts, will bring us almost up to date. There will be just the current rally to kick off my next post on the 2020s—with perhaps a few predictions. Many ask, “When were the best times in Sturgis?”…
TMMR RECAP: BUSTING OUT IN TENNESSEE
June 2, 2021
Sean and I made it! This event was our first real outing in almost 15-months, and to say we enjoyed being out with friends, seeing fantastic bikes, Tennessee, the change of scenery (Sean’s first time there!), the energy and smiles on all the faces would be the understatement of the…
May 18, 2021
As I see it, the history of Sturgis is the history of our motorcycle subculture, and our subculture tells the bigger story of our country’s history. It shows in the fashions, the trends, the economic ups and downs as well as the politics. This may be more obvious in the…
June 29, 2021
I’m not sure if Roland Sands has always had an air of rebelliousness about him, but I saw it in the early 2000s when I first photographed him. By the time he was building Glory Stomper in 2004 for Biker Build-Off, there was a side of him that wanted to…
June 15, 2021
KA-BOOM! That’s what happened all around the world in the 1990s—from technology, to the economy, to the arts, the pace accelerated. It was a prosperous time for the USA, and much of the world. It was the decade in which the World Wide Web came into everyday use, and we…
THE CROSS COUNTRY CHASE – SECRETS OF THE OZARKS
July 28, 2021
What more can you ask than to have an incredible adventure? And that’s exactly what participants of this year’s Cross Country Chase got. For anyone not familiar, “The Chase,” as it is more commonly known, is an endurance riding event produced by Jason Sims. The 2021 Chase was limited to…
STURGIS IN THE AUGHTS: THE BOOM CONTINUED—UNTIL IT DIDN’T!
July 14, 2021
We not only rang in a new decade at midnight on January 1, 2000, we rang in a new century. All sorts of Y2K conspiracy theories built up around what was going to happen at that moment—including the end of civilization. But I for one, literally put my head in…
ARLEN NESS: THE KING OF CUSTOMS (1939-2019)
May 4, 2021
It was just a few weeks ago that we hit the second anniversary of the passing of Arlen Ness. Given that I started photographing Arlen almost 40-years ago and our long relationship that followed, I thought it appropriate that I dedicate this first DK blogpost on a builder, to Arlen’s…
April 19, 2021
For those of you who may not be familiar with me or my photography, I look forward to introducing myself to you through this and future blog posts as part of my new relationship with Dennis Kirk. In recent years, Dennis Kirk developed their “Garage Build” program to support and…