Sports

The latest news from Sydney-based photographer Richard McGibbon as he travels up and down the East coast of Australia covering athletes on adventures and high-action sports events and races.

29
Feb
2024
Mt Buller

Mt Buller

I seem to be running around a lot at the moment. A couple of weeks ago I was in Thredbo for Cannonball then back in Sydney for a Bikes Online shoot, then back south to Mt Buller for the Rocky Trail Superflow. Now I’m back in Sydney for a couple of quick shoots but will be on the road again soon. Not that I am complaining, I love getting away from Sydney. Maybe though, I should just plan things a bit better and stay away rather than bouncing up and down the East Coast.

Mt Buller is always a favourite. Well, anywhere in the mountains is always a favourite for me. The Australian Alps have a unique and distinct flavour, a remoteness, an easy place to get lost. Even standing in the village of Mt Buller (which isn’t very remote) and looking out across the surrounding hills you know there are a lot of areas where you could get lost and not be seen again.

I even managed to get up one morning and go out to take a few sunrise shots. Not something I do too often these days. While not the most colourful of sunrises smoke from bushfires filled all the valleys around Mt Buller and gave it a beautiful softness and an eerie charm.

Posted by Richard in Bikes, Events, What's going on
20
Feb
2024
A decade of Cannonball

A decade of Cannonball

This year was the 10th anniversary of the Thredbo Cannonball. For us, I think it was year 7 shooting the event as Outer Image. It’s been great to see this event go from strength to strength and has become the premier MTB event in Australia attracting athletes from all across the continent and even from abroad.

It is always a hectic week of work for Gil and I with 5 solid days shooting and doing our best to get the images tagged, edited and uploaded each night after the day’s activities. If we don’t, the stockpile of images tends to grow larger and larger as the week goes on. This year we delivered around 7500 images to the competitors on behalf of Thredbo Mountain Bike.

Below is a selection of images that I took over the week.

Posted by Richard in Bikes, Events
10
Oct
2021
One Thirty Seven Point Nine

One Thirty Seven Point Nine

I got chatting to Dan one day as he was de-kinking my body. During the Sydney lockdown I somehow managed to tweak my shoulder and Dan, my chiropractor, was straightening it back out. I knew him to be a runner. We’d discuss races and racing each time I paid him a visit. He told me how he planned to run three 100km races this year but being in lockdown and unable to leave the Local Government Area (LGA) meant that was no longer possible since races were now canceled. Instead, he had come up with a novel idea to keep his goals alive. When he told me I knew I had to document it.

Over the last couple of lockdowns, I have been slowly getting my head around video and video editing, online tutorials, and shooting little bits here and there. I hadn’t shot much though as I wasn’t quite sure what to shoot. I have always preferred videos that have a story rather than a selection of clips thrown together and wanted to shoot something along those lines. Having planned to shoot stills for Dan I realized that his story would benefit much more from being a short video instead.

The Shoot

I spent a couple of days out shooting with him on training runs in the lead-up to the day. We would just visit some scenic local areas and shoot for a couple of hours. The original plan had been just to show his training leading up to the actual run and finish on the scene of him running out the door. But when we were recording the voice-over and I heard the full story I knew I would have to include footage from the run. It went from a 2 minute short to over 5 minutes.

I didn’t get all the shots I would have liked to over the run though. The tracker I was following him on played up and only relayed his position periodically. I knew the course he was taking so I could jump ahead but I couldn’t be sure if he had come through already or was still due so just had to jump far enough ahead to be sure. Still, I think I got plenty of shots but there were a few scenic locations that I missed that I would have liked to have shot.

Moving On

For me, it was a great introduction to short storytelling. I have made a few videos before but they’re more like snippets than short stories with a maximum length of under 1 minute. Throwing myself into the deep end like this has taught me quite a few things about video editing. You can read and watch so many online tutorials but until you go out and shoot there will always be a hole in your knowledge. There is still so much to learn about video creation and short storytelling and I am excited to be undertaking a new journey. I think it might be a long one though. Like shooting still photography there will always be some new direction to head or a rabbit-hole to lose myself in periodically.

I shall keep learning and in the meantime be keeping my ears open for over great adventures and challenges of which I might be able to tell the story. If anyone has any exciting plans that they think may transfer across to a great short story feel free to contact me and let’s work on something together. In the meantime….Enjoy!!!

Posted by Richard in Trail Running, Video, 0 comments
07
Aug
2021
Locked Down

Locked Down

I haven’t written any posts in quite some time now, in fact almost a year. My website has taken a backseat lately. Work as Outer Image had been great this year with many more events. So much so that I left my midweek work at the gallery (it was only 1 or 2 days a week anyway) and had been doing photography full-time. And then…..lockdown.

Halfway through a weekend shooting a couple of races up near Port Macquarie, I was informed that Sydney was going into lockdown for a few days. Since event photography and lockdowns go play well I had to pack up halfway through. My 2 choices were either self-isolate where I was or return home straight away. As much as I enjoy being away, sitting in my van for 2 weeks was not really my idea of fun and excitement so I came back home so I could get organized for the following weekend’s events. It was going to be rather hectic with 3 big events over one weekend.

That was 2 months ago. Sydney is still in lockdown with no signs of improvement. I’m still waiting for the events to restart. Each day, case numbers rise. I hear of more people out in the community while contagious, people protesting their lack of freedom, people going to parties away from Sydney. I am wondering if these people will ever let me get back to work. Having family and friends who live overseas I fully understand the mess this virus plays with people’s livelihoods and lives. We in Australia have been very lucky but Delta has dug its claws in now.

At least…

Thankfully, I live near the beach. We’re allowed to move for exercise within a 10km radius and work, where essential, (not as an event photographer though). Mornings sitting on the beaches watching whales and shooting surfing have kept most of the boredom at bay. I have not shot a lot of mountain biking lately or trail running or adventure racing or been to any great landscapes. I have been shooting a little bit of product for Tyres and Soles and Bicycles Online, plus dabbling with a bit of video and planning world conquest once the lockdown is lifted. Outer Image hasn’t shut shop or such. Gil and I are just looking at it as more of an extended break where we can fine-tune a few details of our business. I’m getting to reorganize my website, shuffling photos, and rebuilding galleries and links where needed. Look, I have even managed a new blog post

Still………I wish I could get back to work.

Check the Sessions gallery here for more surf images of late

Posted by Richard in Surfing, What's going on, 0 comments
20
Feb
2020
Shimano GP Orange

Shimano GP Orange

Back out on track again with Outer Image and kicked the season off with a trip out west to Orange for Rocky Trail Entertainment‘s first round of the Shimano GP

I made a quick stop in the Blue Mountains World Heritage area to see some of the devastation brought on by the recent fires. It was a complete burn-through leaving only tree stumps everywhere. Seeing houses in still standing in amongst all this carnage is a testament to the amazing work of the volunteer bush firefighters. I hope to get back up there shortly for a better look around.

Two locations I like shooting mountain biking are amongst green ferns and in pine forests (sometimes I think I am in the wrong country) When the light is right in the pines then it can be beautiful. Plus as an added bonus pine needles are a lot more comfortable to lay around on than the native scrub usually. Kinross forest is a nice forest and there is a lot more there for me to explore. It’s a shame it’s all due to be lopped this year but that’s what the plantation is for. And I would much rather they chop that than some of the old-growth they talk about chopping.

Swing over to the Outer Image website to see the full gallery. Next up, Thredbo Super Enduro. See you there!!!

Posted by Richard in Bikes, Events
29
Jan
2020
Airborne

Airborne

After taking breaks from the camera I like to get out and shoot for a bit before I pick it up again for a job. It doesn’t have to be anything too complex or challenging. It’s so that while I am shooting, operating the camera controls just become second nature again and I don’t have to think about things too much. I think about composition and exposure, aperture and such but not about which dial do I need to turn in which direction to change my settings, it all just flows automatically.

And with my first job locked in for this coming weekend, so it was I took myself to Maroubra yesterday for a day at the beach shooting the Red Bull Airborne. They may have been small waves but they were still getting some airtime in.

I also got to play around with my 500mm lens. It’s not a lens that sees the light of day too much. It can be a little slow to focus and a little too big for the things I normally shoot. Plus you need a lot of light. It’s perfect for surfing, especially when it’s mounted on a cropped sensor

Posted by Richard in Events, Surfing, What's going on