Enduro

Feb

2014

AMB 100, Mt. Stromlo

It’s been awhile but I’m back from my Christmas break. I have been working on personal projects over the preceding period (which, surprise surprise, does include MTB photography amongst other things).

But now the race season has kicked off and I’m back at it with Gilbert Romane and our team effort, OuterImage. First up was the AMB 100 put on by Australian Mountain Bike and Rocky Trail Entertainment. What a scorcher. Knowing that temperatures were supposed to climb over the course of the day Rocky Trail decided to bring the start forward an hour making the 100 milers start at 5.00am and the rest start at 8.00am. This provided some great opportunities for Gil and I to get some great shots in the beautiful early morning light and kept things a bit cooler for the riders.

We have shot at Stromlo before but Gil and I both wanted to find some new locations and keep things fresh. The track was 25kms long much longer than the 10km track used for the enduro so there was plenty of new spots for us to choose from. Gil scouted locations the day before and picked some fine spots for us.

As the day progressed the heat played a definite factor. At 1.00pm they closed the track. Most everyone who had set out to do their laps had finished and only a few stragglers struggled on in the heat. By the end of the race the temperature had soared to 39C and it was good to come off the mountain and find some shade.

Nov

2013

In Print: Australian Mountain Bike Magazine

I have a few photographs published in the latest issue of Australian Mountain Bike Magazine. The images are from Rocky Trail Entertainment’s Jetblack 12hr out at Dargle Farm.I decided I wanted to play around a bit with the riders headlights and just the whole night-time feel which is what makes these long endurance events so special.

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.

Sep

2013

Shimano MTB GP 5 – Stromlo

Last weekend was the final round of this year’s Shimano GP enduro series held on the wonderful trails of Mount Stromlo Forest Park near Canberra. Again I was there with OuterImage to capture the action. There was forecast for rain but once again the weather held and we had beautiful clear skies. That did mean the track was a bit dusty for the riders but it did give us the chance for some interesting shots.

Stromlo Forest Park is situated on the side of Mount Stromlo near Canberra. There is some beautiful trails there. Some years ago the area was destroyed by a fire which burnt most of the trees to the ground. A massive replanting program has since happened and slowly the area is regaining a lot of its trees. With the trees being quite small though views around the trails can be wonderful looking out across the surrounds and across Canberra.

Over 300 competitors competed this year at the Stromlo event and after shooting the whole series I recognised many familiar faces there too. Eliza Kwan and Troy Herfoss took out their 7hr solo categories while Kyle Ward and Wendy Stevenson took out their 4hr categories. Just in case you were wondering, as a rough idea the course is usually around 10km’s in length. Troy managed to complete 15 laps or around 150kms in 7 hrs.

So that’s it for this year as far as this series goes. We are quite often out shooting for fun at many local tracks around the Sydney region. If you see us out there be sure and stop for a quick hello. If you are competing in any races soon there is always a chance we will be around too, we tend to swing by a lot of them even if it’s just as spectators.

As this was the final in the series Gil and I would like to say a big thank you to all the competitors who raced this season and made our work as much fun as it is. A big congratulations to all the winners from the races and the series. And of course a huge thank you to Martin and Juliane from Rocky Trail Entertainment for all there hard work in putting on such a wonderful series.

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.

Apr

2013

Shimano GP Round 4 – James Estate

There is a new course on Rocky Trail Entertainment’s Shimano GP’s circuit and that’s the trails of James Estate Winery, where round 2 was recently held. The race marked the opening of the trails to the public. The 10km track winds in and out between grape vines, out the back towards the edges of Wollemi National Park before bringing you back through the vines and even weaving you through wine-vats on the way back to the start. The start was conveniently located by the cellar door where plenty of sampling of the local produce was done.

Well done to Rocky Trail, Graeme Scott and all involved withe the James Estate Winery race for putting on such a great day.