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.

Oct

2013

Fly Fishing in the Central West

Fly fishing in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia

As I have been spending more time lately in the mountains I decided to embark upon a new project. I was looking for something that incorporates the beautiful landscapes found around mountainous regions as well as something that will attract the type of people passionate about what they do. Fly-fishers fit the bill perfectly.

After a recommendation from a fly-fisher I met on the Kangaroo River, I approached Josh Hutchins of Aussie Fly-Fisher. Josh has made a name for himself on both Facebook and Instagram with his fly-fishing exploits. As Josh hails from the Central West region of NSW, he knows the rivers and streams out there intimately and always knows where the fish are biting. He has recently started guiding out that way so if you are thinking of heading in that direction and want to know where its all happening be sure and look him up.

Josh is a fair bit taller than me but seems to have much longer steps. I seemed to be almost running along behind him when he decided to change locations. Far from being a nice relaxing day as I had expected, it became quite an energetic day for me as I trotted along beside him from spot to spot. Most locations shut down over winter but last weekend heralded the start of a new season. I’m looking forward to getting out there again and shooting some more soon. I’d better get my fitness up first.

You can see more images from the shoots here on my website

: Fly fishing in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia

: Heading through the bush to the streams.

: Josh Hutchins casting into one of the many small dams in NSW’s Central West.

: It’s all in the fly selection.

: Aussie Fly Fisher with a rainbow trout.

: Fly fishing in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia

: Josh Hutchins casting into one of the many small streams in NSW’s Central West.

: Fly Fishing near Carrington Falls on the Kangaroo River, Australia

: Fly fishing in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia

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.

Jul

2013

Shane Yates, Highlining at Manly. POTM

Shane Yates walking a highline at Manly on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

I took this photo last weekend at Manly. We had planned on a sunrise shoot but it never worked out that way. The sun just didn’t want to agree with us first thing in the morning and hid behind the only cloud in the a beautiful blue sky. I chose this image from all the ones I took on the day because of the boat. I think it really gives you some idea of just how high the highline is. Highlining is like a slow motion action sport. It all takes place at a very relaxed pace but it has all the adrenalin and focus of the faster sports.

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.