What’s going on

Oct

2013

Thule B24 Mountain Bike Race

Last weekend Gil and I travelled down to Bright, in Victoria, Australia to cover our first 24hr race under the guise of Outer Image, the Thule B24 enduro. This was our first 24hr race together and it was certainly a lot of fun. The trip down was an adventure in itself as we were detoured due to bushfires then another due to a nasty crash which together put us about 6 hours of course (always good to take the scenic route though). We arrived in Bright midday on Friday and quickly set to walking the track and finding our locations. Bright is a mountain bikers paradise with mountains all around and trails weaving up and through the forest everywhere. It certainly was not hard to pick our location, the problem was more what locations would we not have time for.

The organisers added a new category called the Esprit De Corps. I haven’t seen this in MTB races before but I imagine that we will be seeing it a bit more in the future. It added a more social aspect to team riding. Your team needed to complete a certain amount of laps over the course of 24 hours but you had the option of all riding as a group. So if you were in a team of 6 and you do a lap with all team riders it actually counts as 6 laps.

The race kicked off at 12 on Saturday. It was quite a long weekend but well worth it. Probably not as long for us as it was for the riders though. We shot well into the night and were up again and into it before dawn. In the last couple of hours things became rather hectic again as all the riders crammed in the last few laps. The smiles which had faded in the early hours of the morning were back too with some riders even going past me giggling Delirious or just very happy I wasn’t quite sure which)

All in all a great weekend away. I will be heading back down to Bright in a few weeks and I’m looking forward to it already. I have a few plans in the making.

Oh and just in case you were wondering, the winner of the solo category was Shane Roberts who completed 22 laps or around 374kms.

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 of late 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 comes 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 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 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 back out there and shooting some more real soon. 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

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

Shimano MTB GP 4 – Mt, Annan

Round 4 in Rocky Trail Entertainment’s Shimano GP went down at Mount Annan and as usual, I was there with OuterImage to cover it. This time with Gil away chasing the peloton in the Tour de France I called up fellow photographer Mikulas Jaros to help out. Mikulas did a great job covering the stages of the course nearest the starting area.

Running through The Australian Botanic Garden at Mt Annan is a course of sweeping berms and long grass. It doesn’t often head through the trees like many of the other courses in the series and as such offers some nice views out across the surrounds. The weather turned on one of its finest winter days for the event keeping the skies nice and blue from start to finish. Rocky Trail, as is normal at their events, did a great job of organising and keeping everything running smoothly.

May

2013

Kathmandu Adventure Race, Royal National Park

Once again Maximum Adventure has put on a great day out in the form of Kathmandu’s Adventure Race in the Royal National Park just to the south of Sydney. The three day event attracted close to 1,000 racers making it the largest turn out for their adventure race series so far. Two different courses were used due to wet weather. Gil and I were there to cover the goings-on under the guise of OuterImage of the second weekend and luckily the weather shone bright over that couple of days.

The race covered 5 different disciplines which included trail running, mountain biking, kayaking, orienteering and rowing. Judging by some of the antics happening out on the river the rowing was was one of the competitors favourites. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone row a rowboat backwards up a river before, quite humorous indeed.

A big congratulations has to go out Maximum Adventure and Kathmandu for putting on such a great race and to all the competitors for making it a such a memorable weekend.