www.davegerhardphotography.com

Well. Just registered the domain....that is step 1. Hoepfully that bodes well for getting a self promotion website of awesomeness off the ground in the near future.

Also coming in the near future. Tales from down under, castles, and some cracking and unique shots from muliple trips to Germany and France.

Watch this space!

This is Austria

Snowboarding is awesome. The Alpenrider Hostel is aweome. Jagermeiseter is awesome. Pretzels are awesome. Austria is, in a word, Awesome!

Even taking a week off from marathon training to go snowboarding is pretty awesome although it's not technically in any trainig plan that I've seen.

Snowboarding one week every three years is not a great way to stay in pratice. Good thing for me then that the other guests at the hostel were in a similar situation and it wasn't hard to find someone at my level to ride with.

Having picked up the new lens "Gordo"** over Christmas in Canada I was determined to bring it out on the mountain and get some cracking action shots.

Results were mixed for a couple of reasons. First, the conditions. Bright and sunny, while a beautiful day for riding, also meant for some serious reflective conditions. So not only was I figuring out my new lens and fighting the cold while trying not to get snow in my bag or on my camera, I was also struggling with my settings to get the results I wanted.

The second was skiers. I had forgotten how obnoxious they are. There's always been a skiier snowboarder rivalry but and I'm not just saying this because I'm a snowboarder: Skiiers suck. If you were walking down the beach, society would deem it unacceptable for someone to unprovokedly kick sand in your face. Similarly if you're walking down the street you don't expect to get spit on spontaneously. Why then do skiiers find it acceptable behaviour to spray snow on everyone they can find includig photographers or snowboarders who had pulled off to the side for a quick lie down because he was hungover. Ooooo skiiers you can make snow change direction in a big spray cloud...you're soooooo coool.

Ok rant over. The reaon why I brought the camera onto the mountain was that I do think skiing is cool. It's fast and graceful and a perfect test for me and Gordo to capture the action. That's why, in addition to not wanting to get snow all over my valuable and uninsured camera equipment, it's all he more frustrating to that skiers' personalities (on the mountain anyway) makes me want to punch them in the face.

The other challenge I had to overcome was the mountain itself. It's huge.

It takes a long time and a lot of riding to get from one lift to the next and when you're trying to do it with a bag full of camera equipment and a monopod on your heel edge so you don't wipe out and fall on top of your stuff so if you do decide to go wayyyy over to the other side you definitely earn your mountain side beer at the end of the day.

As an aside the little mountainside pub was great. Like a little oasis of beer and german themed music that pops up unexpectedly*** over a little riser on the run home.

Somehow, even though I kept all of my equipment safe and sound and dry and (as) warm (as possible) I managed to lose my goggles on the way back. It was disappointing for more reasons than the fact that they were virtually brand new (having used them only one other time climbing Aconcagua) but also because, well, I needed them.

In retrospect I should have just bought new ones. The goggles I borrowed were a friend's spare pair, having been relegated to spare status owing to the fact that they fog up easily. Combined with the low visibility and and snow and my desire to keep up with the group led to me boarding virtually blind for a good couple of hours. Predictably it didn't end well and I ended up face down in the snow with the front of my board wedged into about 3 feet of snow.

Although it was, by eye-witness accounts, an "amazing wipeout" I knew right away that something was not right and though I managed to get down to the little lunch place my ankle was killing to the point that after lunch I could not put any weight on it.

This would be the end of my riding for the week. Although my primary concern was whether or not it was broken (it wasn't) and what that would mean for my marathon training to which I'd already devoted considerable time and effort (it was a setback but not too serious****

Secondarily of course I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get back on the mountain to seek out the terrain park with my camera. After a day off of relaxing at the pool I could manage to hobble around well enough to get out on the mountain.

I figured free-stylers would be more acommodating to photographers and I was right. Well they paid me no mind anyway which is actually what I wanted.

The conditions were'nt great for photography, fog has never really been a good canvas on which to paint a picture, (unless fog is the subject) but with a lot of patience and until my feet started to get cold I did manage to get some decent shots.

Surprisingly the shots I ike best were not with Gordo but with the super wide angle from less than 1m from the ramp.

I also experimented a bit with the polarizing filter.

It was my first real session with my new lens and I learned a lot about capturing action ***** I think I might be getting to old for the type of holiday where you ride all day and stay up all night partying but Austria was amazing and I recommend it to anyone.

Photos 1) Scenic mountain view 2) Scenic mountain view 2 3) The crew 4) The crew 2 5-7) Skiiers. I never did get a really great photo of skiing action 8) See how much more laid back boarders are? 9) Scenic mountain view 3 10) A bit of après-ski 11) A skillful boarder who could see perfectly - shot from a moving chairlift. 12) With a sprained ankle I had to bid auf weidersein to the crew for the day at an easily recognizable landmark. 13-18) Terrain park action 19) Scenic mountain view 4.

*It's great cross training especially for the first few days when you're going full out all day and using the legs differently from the everyday.
**Gordo is a 70-200 f2.8 Canon piece of super awesome camera equipment.
***It's even unexpected when you are expecting it because you forget the topography and can't remember which corner the pub is around so it's got the unexpected thing going for it even when you are looking for it. If that makes sense?

****To be addressed in a future post.

*****When shooting on the mountain I think you have to decide whether you're shooting or riding and not try and do both. I should have just picked one or two spots close together and waited for the action to come to me. That said a couple of my better shots like the photo 1 came from "the othe side".

Sitting on Couches!*

Ok so when I said "Do you want to go to Harrods and sit on the couches?" I got a funny look. It tooks some convincing. "Come on" I said "They've got a whole floor of nothing but couches. Some of them are bigger than cars and most of them are more expensive."

I still got a puzzled look as if to say "You're strange". But then I suggested that we tie it in with ice skating at the Natural History Museum and then dinner afterwards and suddenly a Saturday night never sounded so good.

As if the idea of sitting on couches did not stand alone on it's merits.

Photos from iPhone 1) I don't know who buys £10k couches but I know who sits on them. 2) Ya that's good but I could get 473 1/2 camping chairs for that so I'll keep looking. 3) Ok this one is a chair and not partcularly comfortable so I suppose there must be a secret compartment where the treasure is kept. 4) It's definitely a nice way to unwind after a session of ice skating in the snow (photos of ice skating lost to the archiving system....:(

*Without the exclamation mark it just didn't sound as fun as it actually was.

Marathon Training

Marathon training is going very well. I’m quite optimistic that I will be able to finish it and on my better days feel like revising my goal from mere completion to have a shot at the 4h barrier. But then on some days when 10k feels like a hundred-thousand miles. I come to my senses.

I’m into Week 5 of training. I’m feeling fit and healthy and energetic.

I run to work 3 days a week. Run home either 1 or two days a week. Many of those times I take the indirect route 10k from Bto A instead of the mere 4k straightline route.

Also generally make 5 or more classes per week at the gym for cross training (Aerobics and Body Pump) or stretching (Body Balance and Yoga). I tried the LBT class last week and other than the fact that the instructor kept referring to everyone as “ladies” (there were only 2 blokes in the class to be fair but “guys” would have been acceptable used in the generic sense) it was another good one that will hopefully strengthen my knees and prevent me from hurting myself on all this pavement running.

"I've Got a Spreadsheet and Everything"*

As part of the training I’ve invented the Friday Night Long Run (marathon training usually involves at least one session of >10k per week which I have strategically planned on my spreadsheet training log). Rather than get up early and run for a couple of hours on a Saturday or Sunday I run home from work on Friday nights in order to 1) keep myself out of trouble on Friday and avoid the inevitable “I don’t feel like it/I’m too hung over” excuse on Saturday and 2) To be able to sleep in on Saturdays which is a favoured pastime.

Two weeks ago I ran 20ks home from work on Friday night – This Friday I’ve scheduled a 24 k epic (map below). Each run is now my new longest and feels strangely good especially when running in winter which has been unusually cold and snowy and icey and treacherous in London – As a reward, I leave for a week off of snowboarding in Austria on Saturday.

There's no need to feel guilty because even though beer and pretzels are on the menu a week of snowboarding will be good cross training and I do like to mix up my training.

Once I get back from my snowboarding trip to Austria. I’m going to have to add healthy eating to my strategic plan. My problem right now is that I consider garlic bread to be a food group. It gives five-a-day a whole new meaning.

Photos 1) Well it's pretty much impossible to get a shot of myself running on London streets in the winter so I had to ge someone else. 2) 10 k running route. Isle of Dogs is not too crowded with pedestrians and,when there is no construction, has quite wide and for the most part level sidewalks. 3-4) Victoria park winter. 5) Friday Night Loooong Run. When you start in Canary wharf, take a lap of isle of dogs, and then continue home via blackfriars bridge you definitely deserve a beer when you get home 3 hours later.

*When you start from no experience at distance running and generally have no idea what the hell you're doing it really pays to be well organized.

Christmas Traditions

It had been a while since I've decorated the Christmas tree. Like years. Maybe even 10's of years. I'm not sure. I haven't lived closer than 500kms since I moved to Ottawa in 1997 so getting home to decorate is somewhat tricky. Normally I fly in a few days or maybe a week at most before Christmas to find the house already decorated and just walk straight into the Christmas cheer but this year was different.

It was our first Christmas without Dad and we all missed him. It just wasn't the same and the motivation to decorate was waning a bit. Steve and Matt had collected the tree though* and it wasn't going to decorate itself.

Technically I was supposed to start with the tinsel garland but I couldn't find it. To compensate I just used more lights. When I ran out at the top I had to switch to outdoor lights. Then I couldn't fit the Angel on the top. Then the tree fell over. It wasn't going to plan. But once I put the Neil Diamond Chirstmas CD on it took a turn for the better. Oh and Mom finshed up with her other stuff and everything started looking sparkly and Christmasy.

The Neil Diamond CD is a Christmas Tradition.** Another Christmas tradition is Egg Nogg with just a bit of nutmeg and a candy cane garnish served from a goblet. Despite only being 11am who am I to break with tradition?

Another tradition that has come to pass is the annual random, midweek Christmas trip to Peterborough to visit Sean and Karen. Poker is the traditional game but ever since the 2007 Project Chabal inspired Bearded-Garage-Shisha-Jenga,***Jenga has also featured prominently. Probably somewhat to do with alcohol consumption 2009 Christmas Jega resulted in this:

Christmas traditions are great. It's good to have a lot of them as well. That way on the years when circumstances and family considerations necessitate the discontinuance of, say a pint and a card at Shakespeare's or the Christmas Eve pub crawl, we still have the old ones to fall back on like champagne on Christmas morning:

and Catharine snooping for gifts:

and also new ones, like Christmas eve at Sylvia's house complete with excentric relatives and some basic Hungarian lessons and magnums**** of red wine:

or maybe a nice Chrismas Poem:

Merry Christmas. Missed Dad but he was there in spirit and I am very happy to have grown up in a family that values its traditions especially the silly ones:

Photos/Videos: 1) Team Christmas 2) After the tree fell over I put it back up, reinforced the hell out of the safety wire and then decorated the hell out of the tree 3) Mom helped too of course. 4) Nohing says Christmas like Jenga and poker at Sean and Karen's 5) 7am Christmas morning. Champagne? 6) Snoop. 7) Best. Christmas. Poem. Video. Ever 8) I was looking through my memory cards to see how my time-lapse-Christmas tree setup video came out - not well incidently - and stumbled on this from Cristmas 2009. It's one of those clips that makes me glad that I have 9 4 gig memory cards so I haven't deleted anything in a long time. :)

*As I recall it was about a three-beer job and Steve did most of the work.
**Neil's rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to town annoys Steve to no end which amuses me to no end and is an integral part of the tradition.

***As seen in the Big Book of Beardvember

****You might of thought I would have learned my lesson after the Movember party....but you'd be wrong.

Running to Work2

So Monday morning when I walked into the lobby of my building I noticed the big Reuters news screen flash up that Pearl Jam had announced their 2010 European concert dates. I thought “Right. I’m definitely looking into that”.

Tuesday morning when I walked in and saw some news flash or other about Gordon Brown I thought “hey, I forgot to look into the Pearl Jam concert details. I’ll do that today.”

Wednesday morning I couldn’t wait to tell people about the high tech dentist who showed me what my mouth bacteria looked like under a microscope when the big screen headline “Michael Owen scores hat trick for Man U”. I thought “sure in a meaningless game when they're already in first place and….HEEEEYYYYYYYY. I totally forgot to look into the Pearl Jam concert ticket details.”

Wednesday afternoon I finally looked up the dates and found this

Which, if you could see what it says, would be a pretty impressive listing of the European tour dates including 22 June Dublin, 23 June Belfast, 25 June London.

Wow. I thought. Pearl Jam in Ireland. That would be cool. Dublin is great from what I recall. And I’ve always wanted to go to Belfast also so either one of those would be a good option. And O2 is my mobile provider so I seem to remember something about being able to get priority tickets through them for events at their venues. Let me check.

As a UK customer I’m not eligible for priority tickets at O2 events in The Republic however it appears that the Hard Rock in Hyde Park is sponsored by O2 so I could buy tickets immediately. So I did. 4 general admission tickets to the outdoor festival type concert on Friday afternoon 24 June.

Still, though. Once I started thinking about seeing Pearl Jam in Ireland I started liking the idea more and more. "When do tickets go on sale?" Friday 11 December 2009 9:00am. Shit. I have a 9:15 doctor’s appointment for my annual check-up. Well, the opportunity to get tickets has to be more important than a silly physical. Right?

Ok then. It’s settled. Friday morning I’ll get in nice and early. Get my coffee. Set the Ticketmaster browsers to “dominate” and rock ‘n roll.

So Friday morning I’m running to work.* From Mile End tube It’s normally around 13-17 mins depending on traffic and motivation. I’m bit behind schedule but not too much when I pass a clock that says 8:47. Then it hits me. Shit! Pearl Jam tickets go on sale at 9:00! I cancelled a doctor’s appointment in order to get tickets! I’ve got no choice I’ve got to make it. Man it is going to be close....

So I elevated my game. Cranked it up a notch. Took it to the next Level.

And absolutely sprinted the last kilometre that I normally reserve for a leisurely cool down walking session. Rounding the corner of the Reuters building and down the stairs the "field of clocks showed 8:57".

Wow this is going to be sooooo close. I fly down the stairs and sprint through a pack of commuters crossing over Bank St and through the lobby checking the time on the big screen but ignoring the headlines. The time says 8:58.

I dash through the swipe-in gates and see that the furthest elevator has just arrived so and I accelerate to the end of the corridor and arrive and step in just as the doors close and hit 22. Elevator time still says 8:58. “If we don’t stop at the 7th floor* this is doable.”

Approaching 7 the elevator accelerates and the word express flashes up on the display. Wicked. I might just make it. Dash out of 22 though the security doors and still in my running gear and dripping with sweat dodge my way through the cubicles to my desk and login.

Thank you for purchasing tickets on Ticketmaster.
You purchased 2 tickets to: _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Pearl JamThe O2, Dublin, Tue 22 Jun 2010, 18:30 Order for: David GerhardSeat location: section BLOCKL, row 45, seats 140-141

Thank you for purchasing tickets on Ticketmaster.

You purchased 2 tickets to: _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Pearl JamOdyssey Arena, Belfast, Wed 23 Jun 2010, 18:30 Order for: David GerhardSeat location: section STHU, row T, seats 25-24


How much difference does it make?

In the “every man for himself online ticket ordering game” seconds make all the difference. All that running to work finally pays off!

The only thing now is I'm suddenly going to see 3 pearl jam concerts in 4 days in 3 separate countries.....I guess that's pretty hard core. Awesome!

*I'm really taking this running thing seriously now that I'm running the Paris Marathon in April. Also, I've moved to Bow and public transportation isn't great.
**7 is the food court and gym and coffee and dry cleaners etc. Pretty much every elevator all day long stops on 7 on its way past. I would typically stop on 7 after a run into work to y’know get showered up and grab breakfast on the way to my desk on 22.

Movember 2010 Wrap Up

Movember is over, the Mo is no more and even though all that’s left are the memories I can say that Movember 2009 was a smashing success.

Everyone was really supportive. Even in the early days when it wasn’t particularly noticeable or just looked crappy. I’m happy to report that my infectious Movember enthusiasm rubbed off on people and that:

Collectively we’ve raised over £800!

This is tremendous support. You’re helping people live with cancer. Until you’re personally exposed to it, it can be difficult to remember that there are people out there who have greater things to worry about than “what shade of brown their moustache is coming in” and by donating to Macmillan Cancer Support you’ve made their lives a little bit easier.

If you didn’t get a chance to donate yet the site is still open for a few days so if you want to help out please visit my donation site before it’s too late and I’m on to the next crazy project.

I didn’t get to catch up with most of you this month so you could see my Movember efforts (except for the lucky and people I work with). So if you missed seeing the Mo in person or just want another look then hope you like "Hats off (on) to Movember".

You might have noticed that I had a lot of fun this month working the “Mo-Mojo” on my multimedia skills.

If you enjoyed the footage why not check out the special bonus clip of me receiveing the "Mo of the Match" official Magnum of Champagne which I'm not too proud to say I got into a little over enthusiastically at the Movember wrap up bash. It really is a hell of a lot of champagne.

Anyway thanks again for your amazing moral and generous financial support!