Photographer Tim Wemple

It’s two in the morning and patterns of light and dark dance across my tent like the shadows of Ponderosa Pine on an afternoon ride through the Black Hills of South Dakota, the ground rumbling as chromed-out stallions race a few feet from my head. It was Sturgis 2008—my first bike rally. I had buffeted two rough years before heading out on this adventure; separated from my wife after 22 years of marriage, dealing with my son’s brain tumor, mourning the loss of my father-in-law to prostate cancer, but the truth is, it was the less obvious internal chaos I needed to sort out.

The journey back to normalcy in my life has been a long one. But at Sturgis that year I felt normal, it was like an island in a sea of troubles. Sturgis didn’t cause me to have a spiritual awakening, that had happened a few years before when my son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. (I’ve always heard God wont put on you more than you can bear, but I think sometimes he does just to show us who’s in control.) That year things spiritually for me were changing, my priorities were being realigned. Paradoxically, some might think, Sturgis was just the confirmation that I was healing, and that my priorities in life were finally becoming what they should be.

I will always think fondly of my experience at Sturgis, not just the rally, but the trip there as well. Bikes have been a part of my life since grade school. They’ve always been a way for me to unwind. I felt the same sense of freedom that summer as I had as a kid riding across the fields of Illinois—only this time it was the plains of Kansas and the sand hills of Nebraska. The thing I will remember most though about Sturgis is the camaraderie. Friendships were forged in minutes, and everyone seemed to be accepted. Bike rallies are a rare place where heathen and faithful seem to be able to co-exist. Their like some amazing cauldron of non-judgmental stew, a mixture of every kind of person from the wild and crazy, to the mild and meek, but with one thing in common—motorcycles. It did’t matter what you did for a living, or what your status in life was either—you were just one of the guys.

My whole goal that trip was to become real, to find the middle ground in my life, to be myself for a change, to not have to put on pretenses, and the Sturgis rally provided the perfect place for that goal to mature. It’s a funny thing about bike rallies and being real, because bikers can be some of the most image conscious people around—urban cowboys you might say. But then there are the real bikers, the ones who don’t care about image. Some are scary, yes, but teddy bears really, as my biker brother puts it—a rough looking guy himself, but one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

That’s not to say rallies are always safe. When grown men revert to their childhood and are highly intoxicated, crazy things can happen. Crazy things! But for the most part, I loved the people and the experience. That’s why I decided to start photographing them, and it is why I wanted to start this blog. Thousands and thousands of pictures are taken at bike rallies, but few communicate what rallies are all about. I was thinking these things are so much fun and sometimes life changing, why isn’t that being expressed in the photographs? So I decided to start this blog to see if we could communicate not only the who, what, and where of these things, but the emotions as well.

I believe all of us are creative beings, that it’s a God-given ability of men to be creative. I also believe we have to find a way to express it. There’s a saying that goes, “Creativity without expression leads to depression.” Bikers are creative people but they do it with accessories and paint jobs, and not just the custom builders either. All of us do it, the custom builders are just the Micheal Angelo’s, while we’re the paint by numbers crowd. All I’m saying is think of photography as another way of being creative. Let’s learn how to put some emotion in those snap shots we are taking, just like we put it into our bikes.

I hope over the next several months, maybe even years, we can find another avenue to express our creativity other than putting another piece of chrome on our bike. (Which don’t get me wrong I’m all for.) Hey, I know all bikers are art lovers or they wouldn’t be riding mototcycles right? So let me propose a toast, ”Here’s to being an artist, because all bikers really are artists at heart.” Let’s just add to our artistry with some cool pictures too.

P.S. I should tell you too that my son who had the brain tumor is doing well. He has had two surgeries and undergone radiation treatment since his diagnosis, but is doing well. His last three MRIs over the last year and a half shown no signs of the cancer. He just graduated this year from Ozark Christian College with a music ministry degree and has plans on starting a family with his wife Victoria. God is good, but even if the outcome was not what we had hoped, God is still good because he has provided a way for us to be with him for all eternity. You can’t get much better than that.

© By Tim Wemple 2010