Events

Jul

2014

Sydney Trail Series, Manly Dam

Had a bit of a fun play around yesterday shooting trail running at Manly Dam, a small dam nearby here. I wasn’t there on any official capacity more just to practice my trail running photography. It’s nice being able to shoot for myself sometimes. and not having to worry if I am getting all the necessary shots or shots of all the competitors. It let’s me try out a few ideas that have been running around my head and things that I normally don’t get to do if I am working a job.

The Sydney Trail Series is a great short to medium distance runs through some wonderful bush and scenery around Sydney. Gil and I shot the Kamay race for them previously which was held along the stunning coastline of Kamay National Park. Well worth checking out if you are into running. You can visit the Sydney Trail Series website here

Jul

2014

Gravity Enduro State Round, Kempsey

A new track is now officially on the mountain bike racing circuit, Kempsey. The State round of the Gravity Enduro was held up there a couple of weekends ago.

For those who haven’t heard before Gravity Enduro is a mix of downhill and enduro racing. Competitors will ride a technical downhill section but then have to pedal through an enduro section style of track. The bikes being ridden are also a mix of enduro and downhill styles.

This was the first time that the race had been run at the purposely built track and by all reports the track went down well among the competitors. With Gil away visiting family, I travelled up there by myself and set up camp at the nearby Hat Head National Park. This is a beautiful spot where i have camped before. There is a great spot to watch whales nearby and kangaroos in and around the campsite. I made the most of the trip and tried to capture a few landscapes there as well.

There were only a small number of competitors who made the trek up and with 2 tracks running it was difficult to get a shot of everyone. One thing that made the track really special from the photographer’s point of view was in the afternoon there was some seriously beautiful backlighting streaming in through the trees.

Jul

2014

Shimano GP: Round 3, Ourimbah

After a short break Rocky Trail Entertainment’s Shimano Gp is back. Last weekend saw the round 3 happening at Ourimbah State Forest on the central coast. Rain the day before kept the dust down but did not leave the track overly muddy.

A fine day as always at the wonderful Ourimbah track. The best thing from a photographer’s perspective about the Ourimbah track is the variation of locations to shoot at, from rainforest in the lower sections to eucalypt forests in the higher areas of the tracks. This year Gil and I focused our attention on the higher sections. There was areas up here that I had never even had the chance to visit during the years shooting here. Some of the trees in the top area are just stunning in the right light. Being not as thickly forested as the rainforest areas means it is also less strenuous on our flashes and some of the shots can be shot using the available light coming in through the trees.

If you are in the area and haven’t yet had the chance to enjoy these wonderful tracks I certainly recommend giving them a go.

Jun

2014

Vivid Festival 2014

Every year for a couple weeks at the end of April Sydney switches on the lights for the Vivid Festival. Various buildings around Circular Quay are lit up in a variety of fashions. There is also sculptures and artworks around the foreshore who’s principle design is based around light. It is a beautiful way to see the city, all lit up like this and it is very photogenic. It is rare to see so many photographers out and about at the same time in Sydney but everyone with a camera makes the trip down to the waterfront over the 2 weeks.

This year I somehow managed to avoid taking any photos of the Opera house though this is one of the main features of the festival. Not sure how I managed that but didn’t realised until I returned home after shooting. Oh well, there’s always next year.

May

2014

Shimano GP Round 2: James Estate

Last weekend was the wonderful James Estate Winery leg of the Shimano GP series. This race is completely different for us as part of its course runs through the vineyards and vats of the winery. It’s also a chance for one of us to go up in an ultralight and see and shoot the race from above. This year I was the lucky one and the flight was fantastic.

The James Estate winery is located in the Hunter Valley to the north of Sydney and is one of Australia’s premier wine producing regions. Luckily it doesn’t seem to share the same weather systems as Sydney though as it rained all weekend in Sydney while we were treated to some glorious weather.

Numbers were down slightly in this race but this was to be expected with the UCI World Cup taking place up in Cairns. This year for the event all the goings on were moved to the campsite area keeeping it all nice and central.

The track runs out to a single track on the edge of the Wollemi National Park. It zig zags around there before making its way back into the vineyard and up and round through the vines. Last year I covered the single track and Gil took the vineyard so this year we decided to swap around. Finding numerous various shots in a vineyard is harder than I had expected.

It was another great event put on by Rocky Trail and one of our favourites on the circuit.

Apr

2014

Cam’s Jam 2014

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being invited to Cam’s Hillside Dirt Jam. This is BMX dirt jumping at its finest, with some of the best riders around.

Cam White has built up a bunch of big dirt jumps on his land. These are amongst the biggest, if not the biggest, in Australia. Every year, he hosts an invitation-only event, bringing some of the best riders Australia has and a few from overseas. This year, the big overseas name was Mike Hucker Clark, who, prior to the event, took it upon himself to capture a very irate tiger snake (crazy American).

Wind delayed the day’s events, and for a while, it looked like they might have to be postponed, but it dropped off in the afternoon, and things got underway. First through the set was Danny Campbell, but it wasn’t long before others followed suit, and soon, straight airs progressed into some of the wildest tricks I have seen on bikes before. Not being too good with trick names, I’m afraid I can’t tell you even a quarter of what they were doing.

Fuel TV was there to film the events and had their own photographers, so my presence was purely to watch and hang out. I found a nice spot to sit and relax and fired off a few shots while watching the day’s events unfold. Festivities continued late into the night.

A big thanks has to go to Born To Ride Freestyle for setting things up for me. If you like your BMX, swing by his page and check it out.

Below is the highlights gallery and the preview for the Fuel Tv show.