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Two weeks ago I was asked to join a group of retired US Secret Service veterans for a one week event know as the Rundle Ride XI. This was the eleventh year of it’s history and the retired agents hosting this year’s event asked me to be the Unofficial Official Photographer for the group. For the past ten years the Rundle Ride had been in the western United States and bringing it this far east was a big change.
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This year the hosts, John Barry USSS Ret. and Kent Sincox USSS Ret., chose to hold the event in St. Louis Missouri and the surrounding area in an effort to include more USSS agents who lived east of the Mississippi River.
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All except one of the agents rode Harley-Davidson Motorcycles. They had a great history to share having protected US Presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower through Bill Clinton but anyone observing the group would have never guessed who they were. There was one retired agent on a BMW motorcycle who, though in his seventies, had ridden from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America in 2011. He and his wife are now planning to ride around the world this summer via the northern hemisphere. Another agent was the great grandson of the President of Mexico when the Mexican Revolution occurred. All of them had great stories to tell and I was mesmerized listening to their recollections of humorous moments in their careers.
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On the first day of the Rundle Ride XI we went to the St. Louis Arch, Anheuser-Busch Brewery and a St. Louis Cardinals Game. The photos today are from the brewery tour and a road trip to Hermann Missouri for a group photo.
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The brewery images are all handheld HDR images from a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures while the group photos were shot using a tripod and cable release. I used NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to merge the brackets into HDR images which were finished using Aperture 3.
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The above photo of the group shows that neither cold nor rain could slow these folks down. When we began our ride to Hermann Missouri the temperature was 55 degrees and there was light rain falling. Not one of them complained about the weather and all made it safely.
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While in Hermann we did a little sightseeing and I found these two beauties hanging out in an antique shop on the main street. This is a three frame bracket processed in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2, Aperture 3 and Topaz ReStyle. I made several versions of this image using different presets in Topaz ReStyle which I am including below.
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The image above shows the fantastic esprit de corps of these men and women and their zest for life. I am very honored that they asked me along and can only hope that the images I have shared reflect that emotion.
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The last image in this post is of Edie Rico with a cardboard cutout of Paul Rundle the founder of the Rundle Rides. Unfortunately just before Paul was leaving home to ride to St. Louis he had to undergo surgery for his gall bladder. In a show of solidarity and caring John and Lisa Barry printed out this photo and made sure that Paul was with the group in spirit.
