Rodney's Shovel

I first met Dave at a show here in town. SpeedMetal had some bikes there and I was out with a camera doing my thing. He saw me snapping some pictures and we struck up a conversation. I ended up getting some decent shots at the show that day and sent them on over to the boys.

A couple months later Dave called me up and asked if I wanted to shoot Rodney's Shovel. Someone had wanted some pictures taken of this bike, but nothing ever came of it so I thought I'd share them here.

I showed up at the SpeedMetal shop and met Rodney.

The shop

Dave & Rodney

Rodney was funny - it was his bike, he had hours of labor into this thing and he just kept jumping out of the shots like he didn't want any of the credit. He's come around a lot since then though, take a look...

Here's Rodney at first, jumping out of every shot...

...trying to hide...

Look at him now, doesn't even know I'm there. What a pro.

Anyway, I started off getting a few shots of the Shovel inside the shop. This bike was righteous and I had a blast photographing it. The whole thing flowed seamlessly, yet somehow every different angle I shot it presented me with a different stance.

Next we rolled it out of the shop and took it up to an old graveyard up the road. I mean old too. This place makes you think. The oldest graves go back to the end of the Civil War era and the 'youngest' date back to the Depression Era. In the middle of industrial Denver there's this tiny patch of ground that's looked the same for 150 years...

Most people would tell you not to shoot a purple bike in a graveyard, I think it came out alright. The paint work in the sun was incredible, that deep purple popped in the bright sunlight in a way that just can't be captured by a camera.

By the end of the day Rodney was getting comfortable around the camera...

Well, it's been a few thousand photos since that first shoot and they've all been a good time. Lookin forward to a great summer, boys!

-Kris