What’s going on

Mar

2014

Highline Festival, Australia

Call it an unofficial festival call it just a coincidence that so many highliners happened to turn up at the same spot but happen it did at a spot not far from Sydney. Despite the wet and windy weather a group of highliners came together to set up lines and help boost the popularity of the new sport. Highlining is the big brother of slacklining, a sport that has been rapidly growing in popularity of late. Highlining is done at such a height that an unrestrained fall would lead to serious injury in the best scenario.

It didn’t slow those who gathered though and many people who attempted their first highline were happy to get up and take a few steps. People came from Melbourne, Brisbane, Germany, Austria, and France. The clouds also came by for the weekend making for some beautiful atmospherics. Unfortunately the clouds also brought with them rain showers.

Dec

2013

The Cannonball, Thredbo, Australia

The Cannonball in Thredbo is a new race on the circuit. Its a weekend event that is held on the flow track and also on the downhill course. I made the trip down there with Gil my colleague from OuterImage though we were not covering it in any official capacity. The night we arrived in the mountains it snowed and everything was covered in a beautiful blanket of white. Instead of hurrying to Thredbo for the race Gil and I took our time moving through the mountains and shooting landscapes while we had this unique chance. Gil stopped for a bit of fly fishing and I used the time to snap off a few frames of him which I shall share with you at a later date.

It was great to be back in the mountains. Riding up and down the lift and taking in all the scenery. And then to combine it all with the chance to shoot such a cool race, bliss!!

Oct

2013

Greenvalleys Freeride Mountain Bike Park

I went down to Greenvalleys Freeride Mountain Bike Park last Sunday. The boys had set up a big old gap jump over a creek and were threatening to hit it. Unfortunately by the time I got down to Greenvalleys a change in the weather had moved in bringing strong winds with it making the Creek Gap a dangerous prospect. Instead we walked part of a new downhill track and did some shots on there. Looking like it is shaping up to be a great track.

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 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

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.