Destination Unknown

20 years ago, I started a second career as a motorcycle journalist, and I’ve been lucky enough to see many of the beautiful places in the world and publishing stories and photos of my adventures. I’ve started documenting my bicycle adventures in a similar fashion, and will be sharing those stories here. Please join me.

“The idea is to die young as late as possible

Ashley Montagu

The Latest Stuff…


  • And this is the Nikon 1 V1 with the 1 Nikkor 10mm f/2.8 with the electronic shutter. This combo focuses so fast and shoots absolutely silently – not even the ant fart sound of a leaf shutter – that it may become my candid camera of choice. I would like a little more low light…


  • If you ever get down to Maggie Valley, NC, be sure to visit Dale Walksler’s Wheels Through Time Museum. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen – a large space filled with vintage motorcycles and cars (mostly American origin). They’re not pristine restorations but rather working machines. Dale’s not a stickler for cosmetics and is more…


  • The teeny Pentax Q hangs around my neck when I ride, the lens protected by a vented lens hood. When I find myself staring at something like this, with one hand I am able to turn on the camera and grab a shot. And then I look down and realize that I’m really low on…


  • Thank you Nikon for this Attention to Detail.

    It’s such a little thing, but this is the first rear cap that I’ve seen with a physical alignment marker. While others make do with little raised dots or triangles, this one is much beefier and truly tactile. I can now install and remove body caps in complete dark and with my eyes closed. It’s…


  • Seriously, if you had a tail like that, wouldn’t you stare at it too? While I spent _most_ of the day shooting the Nikon 1 V1 with the 30-110 zoom, I did play with the Panasonic GH2 paired with the 100-300 zoom. Looking at the pictures now, it’s obvious that the Panasonic is doing much…


  • Seriously, if you had a tail like that, wouldn’t you stare at it too? While I spent _most_ of the day shooting the Nikon 1 V1 with the 30-110 zoom, I did play with the Panasonic GH2 paired with the 100-300 zoom. Looking at the pictures now, it’s obvious that the Panasonic is doing much…


  • Big land. Even bigger sky. A horizon that stretches for miles. Mountains in the distance that seem so far away, but eventually you get there and you find yourself riding in a chromatic alien landscape of rock and sandstone and scrub and things that are hard to put into words to tell your friends back…


  • Taken with the Pentax K-5 with the DA 70mm F2.4 Limited @ 1/350s, f/8.0, ISO80.


  • Taken with the Nikon 1 V1 with the 1 Nikkor VR 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 @ 35mm, 1/60s, f/9.0, ISO360. Consistent with the Photozone reports (www.photozone.de/nikon1/700-1nikon301103856v1), this longer zoom is a bit soft at the long end but quite nice at intermediate focal lengths. It’s still kit-zoomish in its overall quality; there no apparent magic pixie dust in…


  • Nikon 1 V1 took 784 shots on a single battery.

    Nikon 1 V1 took 784 shots on a single battery., originally uploaded by john m flores. This is the very last one, in Manhattan at 9:08PM. About 15 minutes earlier a warning popped on the screen saying that the battery was dead, but while waiting in line for the movie I tried one more time…