Dirtopia 2010

Dirtopia, a biking festival full of fun & of course great riding!

I did quite a long write up for Pinkbike, so not going to have too much of a story with this one, but here are a few shots that didn't go into the other write up.

Impromptu Exhibition

My mom & I were asked to be part of a local exhibition & I was quite amped being my 1st time exhibiting my work. We needed to send one piece of work & a shot of ourselves & I sent my HDR of Simonsberg thinking it would be a strong shot to be put on the invite with a piece by all the other artists. They had other plans & used the shot of me on the invite & poster. It was quite a surprise when we got it & after going around town I was getting more amped on the fact that I'm holding my skate in the pic & hopefully reminding people that rolling is not dead. Who knows, maybe some kid gets amped to start or an OG dusts his boots off & get on the wheels again.

Anyway I hope to see you at the opening on the 18th at 6pm!

Peace!

What’s New Doc

I was asked to take shots of a good family friend Graham Ellis a physician & poet in his spare time. It was for an article in a medical magazine called "What’s New Doc". These are a few shots that I liked that aren't being used.

Light Tings

I've been playing with some more lighting setups the last few days. Have seen & done shots where one strobe is pointed at the BG to create a halo around the person so shadows stand out & thought I'd try the opposite. Lighting the sides of the screen very softly & played around with intensity, spread & position for a while before I was completely happy. Having a darker BG behind me meant that the sides of my face would have to be lit up to stand out, so put a strobe either side through an umbrella & played around a bit till I had them balanced with the other 2 strobes on the BG & then the fun began.

Going for something a bit smarter & not my usual silly self portraits this time & found some props & played around with the post a bit too. Somewhere between all this I noticed all the nice grey tones & thought I'd go grab my big Razors hood & with the lighting it worked better than I'd hoped for, hiding my face in shadows. A bit creepy & looked like the hood had a life of it's own, just with hands sticking out. Had a bit of fun with that & then was back to the smart ones for a bit.

Strobist:
SB-600 either side on me on 1/4 & 85m
SB-600 left on BG on 1/32 & 24m
SB-900 right on BG on 1/64 & 24m
triggered with PW's

Playing with Myself

I've been a bit unlucky with shoots lately & between work, broken bikes & no replies I havn't managed to shoot much action the last little while... so I reverted back to (what I like to call) the masturbation of photography, self portraits.

I don't mind looking silly for a laugh & got my dad's riding gear & road bike & decided to have a bit of fun with one of the most unflattering sport/hobby outfits there is. I was laughing the whole time I was working on the shots, so it's purpose was served long before I'd even finished it.


The next day I got to another prop I'd been keen to use with a model a while back, but got stood up, so I decided to have some more fun. I'm my best model, I'm always around when I need myself! Out came the old army helmet my buddy Koos found in someones attic while he was working & they kindly donated it to him. Not quite knowing what to do or what I was after as far as posing goes I tried a few funny expressions & random poses to see what was working & what wasn't. My shoot kinda got ended by the family coming home & wasn't sure if I'd actually gotten anything I was really happy with & loaded them on the PC & had a look & started working on a few that stood out & then had a little inspiration & decided to carry on with my playing in photoshop & quite amped on how it turned out. I fiddled a bit with the processing & have a manual way of getting an HDR feel & was liking it, so decided to do the real thing & have 1 shot of my normal processing & 1 HDR that I'm quite amped on. Definitely mustn't stop playing with HDR, it kinda took a back seat for a while, but think it's ready for a comeback!

Also popped in a setup shot for the army shoot for anyone keen on a behind the scenes shot.

Face to Face

On the 19th we presented a Face to Face Workshop, where we aim to help people improve their portraiture with the equipment they have. It was a good one & saw some really good images from the participants.
I shot a bit as usual & had to play with my toys a bit, but was rather tricky with all the other photographers around, but managed to get a few nice shots & even took a few without all my flashes.

A few of my faves from there...

The Ditch

We made a mission to "The Ditch" yesterday to get a few more shots for an article I'm busy with. I met the twins at Gums & had an interesting drive there, it's quite far out, but more than worth the mission! Literally miles of prefect concrete halfpipe with a few fun things on the way down. We started off right at the end of it, was a nice walk down & was a bit smaller & tighter tranny, but a nice view of the dam in the BG was good to shoot. We didn't stay too long & went further up to get a shot of something Wayne was keen for. That shot is staying hidden for now, but I will say it was one of the most challenging lighting setups I think I've ever done. Climbing up the sides with steep loose banks either side & not much to grab onto & trying to balance a flash up there was fun. We got the shot pretty quick & then to face the next challenge of packing up & getting out. We then drove a little further up to a spot with the best tranny & surface of the whole thing & had some fun shooting there with the last bit of light in the BG & got a few nice shots there. Am keeping those hidden for now too, but I have so many sick shots of Moe for this article already that I thought I'd put this textbook (as usual) Turndown in here too. Was a good day & amped on what I got, think I'll be returning to this spot for more soon!

:EDIT:
Just put up another 2 shots I'm not gonna use.
Jason getting some height & Wayne just chilling in the sunset