MTB, Cave Hill
Hello all! I was gutted to miss the Northwest 200 yesterday..... but a few friends were going mountain biking today and so as my bike is at home home (30 miles away) I went up with my camera to take some pics. The weather was superb, apparently it was supposed to rain but it was one of the nicest days we have had for a long time.
So off we went, up to cave hill, which overlooks Belfast. The grass was green, the Bluebells were blooming, and the sun was shining. When we got to the top, beyond the tree line, we saw a photo op, with the city and sky in the background. It took a while to get the off-camera flash setup, but thankfully Pete (the guy in the pic) is not just one of the best senior riders in Ireland, he is a damn good photographer too, so he was patient with me. The shot below isnt the best one, but imageshack is being an arse tonight so its one of the 3 better ones. He is tailwhipping the bike in the best one, and the flash is out of frame, otherwise its almost the same.
I then tried to get some of my trademark panning shots but I wanted a bit of a difference. So I took this one from a hole in the ground to try to get grass / bluebells in foreground and background.
Then it was on for a head on shot. I was shooting up a slope and wanted to get a really blurred background. Unfortunately at 70mm the background wasn't compressed enough to give it the look I wanted.... but I managed to get the focus pretty good at f4.0 and shaggy was cranking on the pedals so hard the bike launched the crest. Its one of my faves... I love the reflection on his goggles.
Then we moved to the big stepdown. Trees were blocking a simple panning shot, so I went for another off camera flash shot. Took this at a wide angle to give it a context / magazine cover look. Underexposed the background by a stop or two, and then dialled the flash up to pop the rider out.
Then we had more panning shots....
As I said, imageshack is buggering about so thats all I can post.... All comments appreciated, C&C welcome! Hope you like them.
So off we went, up to cave hill, which overlooks Belfast. The grass was green, the Bluebells were blooming, and the sun was shining. When we got to the top, beyond the tree line, we saw a photo op, with the city and sky in the background. It took a while to get the off-camera flash setup, but thankfully Pete (the guy in the pic) is not just one of the best senior riders in Ireland, he is a damn good photographer too, so he was patient with me. The shot below isnt the best one, but imageshack is being an arse tonight so its one of the 3 better ones. He is tailwhipping the bike in the best one, and the flash is out of frame, otherwise its almost the same.
I then tried to get some of my trademark panning shots but I wanted a bit of a difference. So I took this one from a hole in the ground to try to get grass / bluebells in foreground and background.
Then it was on for a head on shot. I was shooting up a slope and wanted to get a really blurred background. Unfortunately at 70mm the background wasn't compressed enough to give it the look I wanted.... but I managed to get the focus pretty good at f4.0 and shaggy was cranking on the pedals so hard the bike launched the crest. Its one of my faves... I love the reflection on his goggles.
Then we moved to the big stepdown. Trees were blocking a simple panning shot, so I went for another off camera flash shot. Took this at a wide angle to give it a context / magazine cover look. Underexposed the background by a stop or two, and then dialled the flash up to pop the rider out.
Then we had more panning shots....
As I said, imageshack is buggering about so thats all I can post.... All comments appreciated, C&C welcome! Hope you like them.