The Kathmandu Adventure series is a multi-sports race that takes place in some of the most picturesque spots around Sydney and beyond. This year I was there to cover the event in the Blue Mountains National Park near Sydney as it took place in the Glenbrook section of the park. The event included rogaining, mountain biking, kayaking and trail running.
Jetblack’s 12hr mountain bike race recently went down at the James Estate Winery. Situated in N.S.W.’s beautiful wine region of the Hunter Valley the winery has constructed a series of trails that runs through the vineyards and single trails into the bush at the back of the land. As you might have guessed Gil and I were up there as OuterImage to cover all the happenings and goings on over the weekend. Also there was Jason English in order to defend his title which he did successfully making it his 5th 12hr in a row.
The James Estate Winery is near the small town of Denman in the Upper Hunter Valley. Graeme Scott, the winery’s manager, has worked hard to open up and maintain the trails around the vineyard and the land bordering the Wollemi National park. For Events such as this he also opens up one of his paddocks and turns it into a campground. Many people took advantage of the camping while others set up base in the nearby towns.
This year’s race drew in almost 400 competitors raced and around 200 spectators. Many were familiar faces for Gil and I from the Shimano GP series but there was also plenty of new faces as well which was great to see. The race was run on the same track as this year”s Shimano GP. Originally planned for a 9am start race organisers decided to delay until 10 to give everyone a chance to warm up a bit after the cold night before the race started. The start area was amidst the tents of the campground with stalls for tasting wine and local produce. At 10am the race got underway.
Gil and I wandered the track over the day. Gil took the vineyard this time while I set off to the single trail in the back. It was great conditions as far as the weather was concerned, at least where I was, cool but not to the point of being cold at least until later. Gil mentioned something about a cold gusty wind where he was up on the hill but in the sun and protected by the trees things were lovely. As the race moved on into the evening and darkness fell so did the temperature. Those watching and those waiting for their next lap moved closer to the bonfires burning around the basecamp and we all rugged up tighter. Gil climbed the hill behind the Vineyard and got a wonderful view across the area and the lights of the centre and competitors circling it. I stayed around the base and shot the competitors as they came in through the camp again. After the race people gathered around the bonfires near the start area for presentation.
Gil has created a wonderful slideshow with some of the weekend’s highlights that you can see below. And below that you will find few of our favourite shots from the day.
Enjoy
Every year for a couple weeks at the end of April Sydney switches on the lights for the Vivid Festival. Various buildings around Circular Quay are lit up in a variety of fashions. There is also sculptures and artworks around the foreshore who’s principle design is based around light. It is a beautiful way to see the city, all lit up like this and it is very photogenic. It is rare to see so many photographers out and about at the same time in Sydney but everyone with a camera makes the trip down to the waterfront over the 2 weeks.
This year I somehow managed to avoid taking any photos of the Opera house though this is one of the main features of the festival. Not sure how I managed that but didn’t realised until I returned home after shooting. Oh well, there’s always next year.
A large highlining project recently took place in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. It was an attempt to set and walk Australia’s longest and highest highline. The line came in at around 70m long and at its highest point was about 220m high. As is normal for the Blue Mountains the line took place in spectacular surroundings.
By the end of the weekend the line was walked but not all in one go so unfortunately the line remains classed as unfinished. I’m sure another attempt will be made on it soon and hopefully then we will see some closure.
Below is a selection of images from the weekend.
A damp weekend greeted riders for last weekend’s Rollercoaster and Downhill State Championships at Thredbo. With the mountain bike season drawing to a close for the winter down at Thredbo the decision was made to run the races in the rain anyway. Including the training runs on the Friday the event runs over three consecutive days. Gil and I arrived early on Saturday morning and missed what was proclaimed as a very wet and soggy training session on Friday. Many bike were still hosting a fine decoration of mud though come Saturday morning.
On Saturday the training runs for both the Rollercoaster and the Downhill continued through the morning. The first section of the Rollercoaster track needed to be closed due to an excess of mud and water, it was ankle deep in places. In the afternoon the Rollercoaster got underway. By then the rain had eased a bit. We started shooting at the top then made our way slowly down. Gil covering many of the tight switchbacks on the tracks and me shooting more out in the open. Since we were shooting more for fun we had a good play around with angles and panning shots. Not good if you want to read competitors numbers but fun for us anyways.
After heavy rain overnight all that remained was a couple of low lying clouds which burnt of quickly leaving Sunday to the blue skies. A few training runs in the morning and then straight into the downhill in the afternoon. Both Gil and I shot around the top section of mud and rock gardens. I found myself a great little spot and barely moved for the entire race.
It was the usual dominant faces that took the podiums minus the exceptions that are away for the world cup races at the moment. South Africa was held on the Saturday night while we were down there.
The full gallery of images can be found here on the OuterImage website.
And now for something completely different (at least for me so far) Fire-twirling and the art thereof. Last night I was invited along to a fire-twirling meet on the Northern Beaches. It is something that has always impressed me so I jumped at the chance. I was both intrigued and beguiled by the display of talent. I approached it as a test shoot as I had very few ideas of how to go about it. When I looked at the internet the images I mostly saw were a blaze of orange on black or faces aglow. I wanted to do something different and to be honest I am not sure I achieved what I set out to do though I did get a couple where I think I scratched the surface. But as I said. it was a test run to get ideas of angles and settings and of these I got plenty. Next time I will step it up a bit. and look for some new angle.
