Bikes

BMX, Mountain Bikes, Dirt Jumping

Dec

2013

Matt Staggs: Downhill Mountain-biker

As a junior Matt has been leaving his mark in Rocky Trail Entertainments Redass downhill series. At the age of 14 he was shooting above his age by racing in the Under 17’s and consistently finished in the top 10. Now 15 he is setting his sights on bigger targets.

How long have you been racing for?
I started racing at the start of this year. Did about 4 club rounds and then competed in my first state round at Del Rio in June. So less than a year

Who are your sponsors?
VR Transportation/No Nice Racing, Deity Components. (Also although not a sponsor a big thanks goes to POC Australia for helping fitting Matt out in this shoot)

What’s bike do you ride?
I ride a giant glory. Almost bone stock, except for a new rear wheel which was wrecked in the rain.

What is it about riding that fires you up?
I love downhill riding because the adrenaline rush you get when you try something new or bigger than you have ever done before and get it really clean is amazing. That feeling is the best. Also the fun of riding and chilling out on the local track with mates if fun and relaxed.

Favourite tracks?
Lithgow – Loose dry dust is so fun. Awaba – Difficult in the rain but get the adrenaline pumping which is exciting. Warrimoo – My home track has to be, it’s where i started and is the reason I am where I am now, Thanks Marty (The builder)

If you could ride anywhere where would it be?
Most people would say Whistler Bike Park. I would ride anywhere that has a good technical track to test and grow your skills. If that place has good mates to hang out with while riding, that’s where my place would be.

Home trails?
Warrimoo, St. Ives. A lot of work has gone into the trail, keeping it maintained. The builder, Marty, deserves everything for the amount of time and effort he puts into keeping the track running and fighting the council to keep it from being bulldozed. Every single time I ride there he is there either fixing, making a new feature, or maintaining the track. I always offer to help but he never takes up my offer, or anyone’s for that matter. He deserves way, way more credit for the amazing trails he has created. Thanks Marty!

Tell us a bit about your competition results?
State Rounds – DelRio – 10th U17, Ourimbah 9th U17. Lithgow State Champs – 9th U17. Awaba – DNS.

What plans does the future have for you?
I really want my life to revolve around riding. Anything to do with riding I will be happy with. But my main goal is to actually be a riding at the elite level. I am working everyday to try and make myself fitter, stronger and faster. Aiming for that goal is going to be a long and hard journey but I am willing to take it if it will get me where I want.

Nov

2013

King’s School MTB Classic

King’s School at Parramatta was the venue for last weekend’s mountain bike race that I was covering with OuterImage. It was on a short course of around 4km’s and a short race of 2 hours but this just meant that the pace was stepped up and laps were knocked out at high speed. The short course also meant there was a constant stream of people coming by once the field had spread out a bit, everyone from the head down and go hards to the just out for a few laps and a giggle with my kid type of people.

The temperature warmed up through the day and started to push up into the 30’s adding to another test of endurance for the riders. Shooting down in the shade of the trees things were a bit cooler. Being busy like that and the short time meant that it was all over before I knew it.

We tried a few different things this race including a series of black and whites and Gil setting-up some strobes to get a set of portraits from before and after the race.

To finish off the day Cadel Evans and Jack Haig, two of Australia’s cycling superstars, were present to give out the trophies and also to cut the ribbon officially opening the track.

Sep

2013

Shimano MTB GP 5 – Stromlo

Last weekend was the final round of this year’s Shimano GP enduro series held on the wonderful trails of Mount Stromlo Forest Park near Canberra. Again I was there with OuterImage to capture the action. There was forecast for rain but once again the weather held and we had beautiful clear skies. That did mean the track was a bit dusty for the riders but it did give us the chance for some interesting shots.

Stromlo Forest Park is situated on the side of Mount Stromlo near Canberra. There is some beautiful trails there. Some years ago the area was destroyed by a fire which burnt most of the trees to the ground. A massive replanting program has since happened and slowly the area is regaining a lot of its trees. With the trees being quite small though views around the trails can be wonderful looking out across the surrounds and across Canberra.

Over 300 competitors competed this year at the Stromlo event and after shooting the whole series I recognised many familiar faces there too. Eliza Kwan and Troy Herfoss took out their 7hr solo categories while Kyle Ward and Wendy Stevenson took out their 4hr categories. Just in case you were wondering, as a rough idea the course is usually around 10km’s in length. Troy managed to complete 15 laps or around 150kms in 7 hrs.

So that’s it for this year as far as this series goes. We are quite often out shooting for fun at many local tracks around the Sydney region. If you see us out there be sure and stop for a quick hello. If you are competing in any races soon there is always a chance we will be around too, we tend to swing by a lot of them even if it’s just as spectators.

As this was the final in the series Gil and I would like to say a big thank you to all the competitors who raced this season and made our work as much fun as it is. A big congratulations to all the winners from the races and the series. And of course a huge thank you to Martin and Juliane from Rocky Trail Entertainment for all there hard work in putting on such a wonderful series.

Aug

2013

Mountain Biking at Ourimbah and Oxford Falls

Mountain biking at Oxford Falls on Sydney’s north.

Sunday I took my Einstein strobe out for a play. I use Odin triggers by Phottix to fire my flashes remotely. They are fantastic with my speedlights allowing me to access all functions of my speedlights from my camera. Just recently Phottix released a firmware update for the triggers which included giving me the power you use hi-speed sync with studio strobes.

Einstein syncing at 1/1000th

Normally I cannot use my Einstein past a sync speed of 1/200th of a sec with my 5dmkii. With the new firmware update I can now push the speed up to 1/1000th of a sec. giving me much more stopping power. This means that even in the shadows cast by the Einstein I will be able to freeze motion. Its all still early days and it takes a bit of fiddling around to get the settings right. I can only seem to sync them at full power at the moment which is kind of limited. I will need to make myself a cheat-sheet and write all the working settings down.

So I took it all up to Ourimbah downhill track on the weekend to test it all out. I had a bit of a dual reason for visiting there as next weekend is one of the Redass Downhil series races and I wanted to get some ideas for shots. On the way back as I still had time I swung by Oxford Falls downhill track to see if there was anyone there and got to fire off a few shot there too. So at this stage I am looking forward to next weekend.

: Mountain biking on the Ourimbah trails north of Sydney.

: Mountain biking on the Ourimbah trails north of Sydney.

: Mountain biking at Oxford Falls on Sydney’s north.

: Mountain biking on the Ourimbah trails north of Sydney.

: Mountain biking at Oxford Falls on Sydney’s north.

: Mountain biking on the Ourimbah trails north of Sydney.

: Mountain biking on the Ourimbah trails north of Sydney.

: Mountain biking on the Ourimbah trails north of Sydney.

: Mountain biking at Oxford Falls on Sydney’s north.

Aug

2013

Jetblack 12hr Enduro

Lights on at Rocky Trail’s Jetblack 12hr enduro at Dargle Farm.

I swung by the Rocky Trail’s Jetblack 12hr Enduro race over the weekend. It took me a lot longer to get there than I had planned with me thinking I knew the way better than my GPS despite never having been there before. I hadn’t gone on any official capacity just to watch and say hello to a few friends that I had met shooting the 4 and 7hr enduro races. I did end up shooting the editorial for Rocky Trail Entertainment though.

As I wasn’t there on official business it was a good chance for me to play around with some different ideas and different angles rather than a lot of those that I shoot with The Outer Image Collective. A majority of the action shots taken were panning shots with my flash set for rear curtain sync, meaning it will fire when my shutter is closing rather than when it is opening. There is not many of the images where the numbers are visible.

The Dargle Farm course is on a working farm so the course is not always open. As I had arrived late I didn’t get too far around the track but it looks like a great course and its certainly somewhere that I plan to go back when the opportunity next arises.

I don’t have a collection of race photographs for sale for the competitors. They were all being handled by Marathon Photos.

: Crossing the line for another lap at Jetblacks 12hr enduro, Dargle Farm.

: Moving with speed at Jetblacks 12hr enduro, Dargle Farm.

: Under a starry sky at Jetblacks 12hr enduro, Dargle Farm.

: Jason English on his way to a win at Jetblacks 12hr enduro, Dargle Farm.

: The campsite at Jetblacks 12hr enduro, Dargle Farm.

: The evening fire to keep competitors at Jetblacks 12hr enduro warm, Dargle Farm.

: The evening fire to keep competitors at Jetblacks 12hr enduro warm, Dargle Farm.

: Going through a rocky section at Jetblacks 12hr enduro, Dargle Farm.

: Lights on at Rocky Trail’s Jetblack 12hr enduro at Dargle Farm.

Apr

2013

Shimano GP Round 4 – James Estate

There is a new course on Rocky Trail Entertainment’s Shimano GP’s circuit and that’s the trails of James Estate Winery, where round 2 was recently held. The race marked the opening of the trails to the public. The 10km track winds in and out between grape vines, out the back towards the edges of Wollemi National Park before bringing you back through the vines and even weaving you through wine-vats on the way back to the start. The start was conveniently located by the cellar door where plenty of sampling of the local produce was done.

Well done to Rocky Trail, Graeme Scott and all involved withe the James Estate Winery race for putting on such a great day.