What’s going on

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.

Dec

2012

Lens Testing at Oxford Falls Downhill Track

Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

A couple of months ago I handed in my 28-300mm L lens to my local repair centre. It had been a long time since it had been serviced and it certainly gets enough abuse. It had a broken roller and wasn’t moving through the focus range smoothly. They were quick and prompt with the service getting it back to me before the week ended. I was quite happy with the service until I actually came to use it. From what was a broken roller I now had issues with my aperture, my image stabiliser and the lock that let me keep the lens shut. After jumping up and down in frustration at the camera repair man who more or less told me it was all in my imagination I took my lens directly to Canon. Almost 4 weeks later and nearly $1000 out of pocket I got it back so this weekend was spent putting it through its paces to make sure that it was all running smoothly again.

I spent a few hours on Saturday and a few on Sunday up at Oxford Falls downhill trails just shooting with a few friends and a couple of random riders. Quite happy with the shots. It’s great to have my old faithful back again and Canon, despite taking a silly amount of time to repair the lens, have done a great job at fixing, it. Thanks to all who were there and let me shoot them.

Enjoy.

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

: Downhill, Oxford Falls, Australia

Oct

2012

Shimano GP, Ourimbah

So another weekend over and this last weekend I was up shooting at Ourimbah on the Central Coast near Sydney. I was shooting again with Gil Romane and the next and final instalment of the Shimano GP put on by Rocky Trail Entertainment. Despite the threat of rain the weather turned out great. There was 2 events being run simultaneously on the day with around 190 competitors entered. Both races were run on the same track of around 8.5kms per lap. One race lasted 4 hour whilst the other went for 7 hours. There was a bit of carnage too, I think I saw about 5 people go down in front of me, though there was no serious injuries.

I enjoy shooting with Gil. We have a different style and its always great to compare our images at the end of the day. The images will be going on Girophoto so be sure to swing over to and check them out. Gil and I are starting a new co-op called the Outer Image Collective so be sure to keep an eye out for that coming soon. I’ll be sure and let you know when it happens.

Aug

2012

Shimano GP and Pub2Pub

Last weekend was a busy one. Saturday saw me out all day at the Australian Botanical Gardens shooting Rocky Trail’s Shimano Mountain Bike Race and Sunday I was closer to home shooting the Pub2Pub here on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

The Shimano MTB race was a great event. I teamed up with talented photographer Gilbert Romane of GiroPhotos so we could capture as much of the action as possible. The race was based on a circuit with each lap taking about 30 mins and was a choice of either a 4 hour race or a 7 hour race. The winner was the one who completed the most circuits in that period of time. Gilbert covered the start while I moved off up the track and set up for the first group of competitors to come through. After that we moved between different spots where we thought would capture the action best. I think between us we took around 2500 shots. We decided to pool the photos together to make it simpler for all the competitors to find all there photos all in one place rather than having to search between two different websites. If you were a competitor be sure to go over there and search for your number and check out the shots we got of you. If you weren’t a competitor your very welcome to go over and check out some of the action from the day.

Sunday’s race was local and I was shooting on behalf of Marathon Photos. Marathon photos cover numerous events and races all around the world. The photos from the day can be found over on their website though there is no way for me to isolate my shots to show you.