Seb Rogers: mountain bike photography

A century of covers

I'm not actually quite sure exactly when it happened, but I realised when I was putting together the final touches for my portfolio site redesign earlier this year that I'd notched up over 100 magazine covers in 12 years, including 40 in the past 2 1/2 years alone.

Blimey, eh? That's a whole lot of 'that was great, can you do it again's...

So, by way of a rather belated celebration, here's an unapologetically self-indulgent look at just a few of my favourites - less than 10% of the total - from the past 8 years or so:

Yep, they're mostly pictures of people riding bikes (with or without engines...). But what's always fascinating about shooting covers is coming up with a new approach, a fresh angle, or a different technique to make that month's mag stand out on the newsstand. Some months work better than others, of course, but it's never boring and there are few better places to showcase a photographer's work. I love it!

Oh, and here's one more - one of my first MBUK covers. From December 1996, this is Steve Peat in his team MBUK days. Yep, that's full body lycra. And yes, Peaty really has been riding - and winning - for over 12 years...

Cover: Nissan Sports Adventure Freeride mag

The guys at Nissan's publicity department have been busy, judging by the amount of money they've been lavishing on a range of adventure sports events and media over the past couple of years.

To mark their support of both the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup series and the eponymous Qashqai Challenge, Nissan has commissioned a one-off mini mag called Freeride. And they chose one of my pics for the cover... and a couple more for the extended-caption, double page spread treatment inside.

Now, if only I could persuade them to loan me an X-Trail for a year or two...

Cover: What Mountain Bike July '08

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/320sec f/10 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

My eighth cover of 2008, and one of the best cover shoot days I've had recently saw me submit no less than four (count 'em!) location choices to What Mountain Bike's art ed. Yep, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. We'd found a fantastic, barely-used section of singletrack and notched up some decent cover choices.

Ironically, this is the very last shot of a long day - and one of just a handful grabbed at this location (I had an appointment in the evening and we were running out of time to beat the traffic). Tsk. Now if I'd had a time machine and knew that was going to happen, I could've spent the day riding sunny, dusty trails and got the job done with just five shots...

Cover: What Mountain Bike June '08

So here's the brief: go to the Lake District - one of the UK's most gob-smackingly beautiful areas, chock full of great riding and jaw-dropping vistas - and come back with a cover that sums up both the riding and the scenery. Simple, huh? Well, you'd have thunk so.

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/9 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

Problem number one was that, on the designated day for the shoot, the weather closed in. I mean really closed in. Sixty mile an hour winds and driving hail - the kind of weather that you'd think twice about going out in at all, never mind with a bike and several thousand pounds' worth of camera gear.

So I waited for the worst of the weather to blow over and used the time in the afternoon to brave the elements and do some exploration on foot. Which was when problem number two hove into view - combining a good riding shot and epic scenery in a format that suits a UK magazine cover isn't nearly as easy as you'd think, even when every corner you turn presents another picture postcard panorama. See, there are lots of boxes to tick:

- bike and rider occupying around half the frame, roughly central
- riders' eyes clearly visible
- bike brand (and preferably model) clearly visible
- rider 'doing' something interesting - cornering; climbing or dropping off something steep
- trail visible in both foreground and background
- space above the rider for the masthead; space below and to each side for coverlines

So where does the scenery go? Good question. To one side. And that means finding a trail that's kinda fairly extremely on the edge of something pretty darn steep, with the right kind of view just off to one side. Harder than it sounds.

But after about three hours of trudging around an area that looked promising on the map but which was yielding frustratingly little in the way of both trail and view (though plenty of either on their own), I finally stumbled upon - literally - this nice little rock drop with a great fells-and-lake backdrop. Perfect.

Luckily for me, when we finally got back there two days later, the sun remained obstinately behind the clouds. That would normally irritate me, but since it would've been directly behind the rider's head and a potential source of flare and contrast problems, I was quite happy for it to have the day off - it let me add my own artificial sun. To paraphrase Joe McNally, available light is any old light source I happen to have available at the time...

Cover: MBUK May '08

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/400sec f/5.6 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

For MBUK's May 2008 issue I shot team GT rider Dave Wardell looking slightly disconcerted as he jumped into a downslope over some particularly gnarly (no, really) roots to illustrate the mag's 'getting the best from your all-mountain rig' feature. Dave's a great rider and wasn't nearly as fazed by this move as he appears.

(Side note: this isn't, actually, my favourite shot from the shoot. Not even close, as it happens - which probably goes to show that photographers should never be allowed to make important layout decisions on their own images. This is one of the earlier shots from the day, and I was still struggling with light placement. That's why the back of the bike isn't as well lit as I'd like (I managed to sort it in the end) and why this shot is in my 'must try harder' bracket. But it clearly works as a cover, and that's all that matters.)

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/7.1 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

One of my favourite shots did make the feature opener. I was trying to lie under the roots to emphasise their, er, gnarliness. Worked well for the feature but not so well for the cover.

Shooting the feature itself was particularly fun. Dave had to keep changing kit and ride his GT Sanction in all kinds of different scenarios from cross-country to dirt jumps and freeride. I don't think his hangover helped much, but he's a total professional and pulled some great moves out of the bag. Here are two of my favourite shots from the day that didn't make the final cut:

Moto double:

Nikon D300, 85mm f/1.4, 1/320sec f/3.5 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

Mossy wall ride:

Nikon D300, 85mm f/1.4, 1/320sec f/2.5 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

Cover: What Mountain Bike May '08

What Mountain Bike's new 14-page route guide premiers in the latest issue, and this cover - shot in Smith's Combe in the Quantocks - was intended to highlight that fact. Smith's, for the uninitiated, is a roller-coaster singletrack descent with multiple stream crossings. In other words, the archetypal Quantocks riding experience: fast, swoopy, huge fun and intermittently extremely wet.

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/400 sec f/7.1 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

I knew exactly where I wanted to take the shot, and I also knew that it only has sun on it until around midday at this time of year (Smith's is north-facing and there's a big stand of conifers shadowing this particular stream in the afternoon). What I'd forgotten was that I'd be shooting directly into the light.

The sun is over Cass's right shoulder and in-shot in the original - it was, to say the least, a harsh test of the 14-24's ability to cope with flare. It passed, although not without the need for a little Photoshop time to remove some of the worst flare spots. Still, that's an impressive performance from such a complex wide lens.

Can't say the same for the photographer, unfortunately, who made a fundamental cover-shot error. The riding kit that had been ordered in especially for this shoot hadn't turned up (it eventually arrived a few days later), so we improvised from what we had available. I wanted to avoid both red and blue, on the basis that those were the colours that had featured on the previous two covers, so we settled on a neutral light grey.

Oops. I've made that mistake before and paid the price. Note to self: avoid 'dull' colours at all costs. The Photoshop gurus were kept busy giving Cass a fetching turquoise top and I've given myself a slap on the wrist...

Cover: MBUK April '08

One of the most important skills for an editorial photographer is to be able to shoot, when asked, to a particular style... or at least to be able to stick tightly to a brief. Nowhere is this more important than for a magazine cover - which, from a publisher's perspective, is a vital tool to signal that mag's position against its rivals in the fiercely competitive free-for-all of newsstand-driven sales. Thought mountain bike mag cover pics were just shots of someone riding a bike? Ah, well... see where you're going wrong there...

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/500 sec f/8 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

Two of my biggest editorial clients, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, are owned by the same publisher. Although there's obviously some crossover in content, they're fundamentally different products with their own marketing strategies, target demographic and... well, you get the idea. The important point about all this from a photography point of view is that the covers should look different.

MBUK covers have traditionally had a look that's very action-orientated, in-your-face and slightly aggressive. They are, quite frankly, huge fun to shoot. The new issue's cover features staff writer and talented all-round rider Doddy launching a small kicker into a berm. Doddy's always a pleasure to work with, knows exactly what's needed and keeps riding until it's done. The challenges of an MBUK cover are different from a lot of my other cover work, but I always enjoy them. Altogether now: "bwwaaaarp!"

Cover: What Mountain Bike April '08

I love it when a plan comes together. For its April '08 issue What Mountain Bike wanted a big mountain, big travel bike cover shot. Thirty or so pounds of pimped-to-the-max, carbon-flavoured Scott Ransom was rustled up, a willing rider found... and then we started blatting location ideas around.

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/5 @ ISO250, two radio slaves

It's hard to get the feeling of a big mountain trail without going to a mountain. The trouble is, the UK's lumpiest bits in January tend to be cloud-bound, windy, cold and inhospitable places. This is after all, in the unforgettable words of a well-known US mountain bike mag, a 'windswept, low altitude island in the North Sea'. Our mountains may not be large, but what they lack in altitude they're more than capable of making up for in lousy weather.

I was pretty sure that Snowdon's Ranger Path was the descent we needed. There's a section of the trail that zigzags down the ridgeline beneath the summit with a view of a lake below. It had all the elements we needed: technical trail, view, exposure. There was just one problem. The mountain weather forecast was predicting winds strong enough to blow us off the mountain and a double digit below zero windchill.

So we waited. I became an avid reader of the daily updates, watching the winds drop down the Beaufort scale and the temperatures climb. The cloud base remained stubbornly below summit level, but with a deadline looming we didn't have any choice. I settled for dry, cold and stable conditions with a cloud base around 850m and winds that weren't life-threatening.

The trail was everything we could have hoped for - a chute of randomly strewn rocks and ledges teetering on the edge of a steep drop to the lake below. We stayed 100m or so below the cloud base, Simon periodically blowing on his fingers to prevent them from turning numb in the cold. The blue sky? Er, it's not real. But we'll be back in the summer - it's too good a trail not to ride on a warm, sunny summer's evening...

Group hug

Magazine covers are a team effort. From initial concept to a stack of mags on the newsagents' shelves, several people - editor, art editor, publisher and photographer - have an input into the final 'look'. And some months it works better than others.

Props, then, to the What Mountain Bike team for picking up a 'cover of the month' award for the February '08 issue. Nice work!

Cover: What Mountain Bike March '08

Rain and high winds have temporarily stopped play on the shoot front (back to it tomorrow, though)... which gives me time to write about the new What Mountain Bike cover.

Nikon D2X, 85mm f/1.4, 1/320sec f/7.1 @ ISO100, two radio slaves

This is Specialized R&D manager Brandon Sloan putting the company's flagship S-Works Stumpjumper FSR through its paces on a dusty Santa Cruz corner in November 2007. The cover ties in to one of the issue's main features - a behind-the-scenes look at how this expensive but beautiful machine was brought to life.

The cover itself was straightforward enough to shoot, but it was only a small part of the package that I'd been commissioned to produce. I had just two days to bag the cover, interview the engineering team responsible for the bike - on this occasion I was both photographer and writer - and get all the shots needed to illustrate what turned out to be a monster 10 page feature. Great weather and seemingly limitless help from the guys at Specialized helped, but I didn't have any time to spare (in fact, I managed to miss my flight down to LA the following day...)

Still, it was worth the effort. I spent some time shooting the bike in a workstand in Specialized's test lab, with the idea of getting a packshot a little different from the norm. Mono suited the lighting and I was pleased with the result, which ended up opening the feature:

Nikon D2X, 50mm f/1.8, 1/60 sec f/2.8 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

Although I was worried about not getting all the shots I needed, in the end it turned out that I over-shot a little. Always better to do it that way, of course, but there were some nice shots that didn't find space in the mag. Here's one of my favourites, shot on the same corner as the cover just as the sun was setting:

Nikon D2X, 10.5mm f/2.8, 1/320sec f/4 @ ISO200

Despite the time constraints, this kind of job is always satisfying to finish. Shooting features is often a logistical exercise as much as anything, juggling locations and people to get all the shots that are needed. It also stretches my photographic abilities, demanding every kind of image from well-lit product close-ups to atmospheric portraits and, of course, plenty of action. But that's the challenge, and that's why I enjoy it.

Cover: What Mountain Bike February '08

One of the themes I keep coming back to is that, in the broad scheme of things, the camera doesn't matter that much. And recently I put my D40X where my mouth is - by using it on a proper shoot.

And here's the result in print:

Nikon D40X, 12-24mm f/4, 1/250sec f/6.3 @ ISO 200, single radio slave

It's a long way from being my best ever cover shot, but I quite like the light, the bike's shadow on the trail and the look of determination on Simon's face. The sun was rapidly disappearing over the hill by this point and we had no more than 3 or 4 minutes of light left. We had to work fast - and the D40X delivered the goods, under pressure. If you get a chance, have a look at the cover up close. The image quality's every bit as good as you'd get from a dSLR costing 10 times as much.

What does this prove? Not a lot, probably. I shan't be making a habit of using the D40X on shoots - it's too slow overall and not as flexible as my other cameras. But I hope I've at least demonstrated that it's the photographer that makes the image, not the camera.

If you're not happy with the photos you're producing, try upgrading your technique before you spend more money on gear. Because if I can shoot a magazine cover on an entry-level dSLR, anyone can.

Cover: IMBA Trail News Fall '07

Another issue of IMBA Trail News, another European cover. This one is a tight crop from shot I took in Les Arcs in 2006. It was one of those occasions when I wasn't quite sure whether to set up a remote flash to put a bit of light into the rider's faces, or not. The whole point of the shot was the expansive sky and the backlighting, but that made the exposure tricky and the post-processing critical to the picture's success.

In the end I settled for the simplicity of no flash, relying instead on careful exposure and some post-capture tweaking to bring up the shadows. Much of the subtlety of the original has been lost in the cover shot; I don't think IMBA's choice of paper stock helps, because it doesn't seem to hold deep blacks. Still, it's one of my favourite Alpine riding pictures and it's good to see IMBA reflecting its global commitment on the cover.

Nikon D200, 10.5mm f/2.8, 1/200sec f/13 @ ISO100

Cover: What Mountain Bike October '07

Nikon D2X, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/3.5 @ ISO400, two radio slaves

Over the years I've had to deal with plenty of weather-related difficulties on cover shoots, from freezing temperatures to driving rain. But this shoot in south Wales was the first occasion I've had to deal with fog.

Now, I actually rather like the effect of fog in a forest. Stick a telephoto lens on to compress the perspective, stack the trees up and watch the soft light create a sense of distance. Lovely - if you're a landscape photographer. But the fog's diffuse light, reduced contrast and halo effects around external light sources (in other words, my remote flashes) aren't conducive to getting an action shot that'll work well on a cover.

Luckily for us, there were intermittent clear patches in the fog. Unluckily for us, these clear patches were small and fast-moving. On several occasions, by the time Rowan had clipped in and ridden the 50 metres or so to the spot where I was shooting, the fog would roll in out of nowhere and obscure my view.

Some of the slightly more foggy pics - like this one - work reasonably well in their own right, but murk and magazine covers don't generally go too well together. In magazine world the weather's only ever bright and crisp. It never rains, it's never too cold to wear shorts and fog is caused by the photographer not cleaning his lens properly. Compare and contrast with the reality of the UK's climate...

Cover: IMBA Trail News Summer '07

The latest edition of IMBA's Trail News magazine landed on my doormat yesterday... with one of my images of the hugely scenic descent towards Port Erin on the Isle of Man on the cover.

Nikon D200, 85mm f/1.4, 1/250 sec f/5 @ ISO100

It's a pretty tight crop using around 1/3 of the original landscape image, but the detail holds up incredibly well.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware this is the first time IMBA has run a British cover. Although IMBA's focus remains very much true to its north American roots, with 32,000 members in over 30 countries worldwide there's been a conscious effort to extend their trail advocacy influence beyond the organisation's Colorado base.

There's a keen and committed mountain bike club on the Isle of Man that's been pushing to extend the island's (already excellent) trail network. IMBA's assistance - directly or indirectly - with other trail riding centres in the UK and throughout Europe will, I hope, help their cause.

Cover: MBUK September '07

MBUK's September '07 cover makes it a hat-trick of three consecutive covers for me (er, so don't expect to see any of my pics on MBUK for a few months...). Unlike most of my recent cover pics, this is a shot taken from a feature shoot. Top UK freerider Chris Smith and I visited three different locations over three days to get a variety of shots of him riding his new Giant Reign X, and the resulting feature runs across seven pages in the mag. There was some talk of re-shooting with Chris specifically for the cover, but a big crash and a broken foot put paid to that idea pretty quickly...

Nikon D2X, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/200 sec f/3.2 @ ISO100, single radio slave

This shot needed tight cropping to make a cover pic. Shot almost wide open on my Sigma 50-150mm and D2X, I was a little concerned that the lens's less-than-stellar open aperture performance (it's very good by f/4, but definitely a tiny bit soft at f/2.8) would be a problem. But there's stacks of detail on the cover in spite of the tight crop - testament yet again to the quality of the D2X's pixels.

Even so, if I were to shoot it again I'd bump the ISO to 200, stop down a bit and pull back the flash to compensate. You can never have too much detail, especially when art editors may crop the living daylights out of any of your shots... and the first you know about it is when you've got a page full of fuzzy, pixellated mush in front of you. Bleh.

Cover: MBUK August '07

I'm a sucker for silhouettes - one of the results of a mis-spent youth reading back issues of Amateur Photographer. There's something appealing about the simplicity of line and form (or somesuch). But they don't tend to sell well, probably because most people like to see some detail in the subject. So, faced with a great section of trail with a perfect, cover-friendly backdrop of Simpson-esque sky but harsh backlighting, I had to come up with a plan.

Nikon D2X, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5, 1/250sec f/9 @ ISO100, two radio slaves

There are two things you can do to open up dense shadow areas. The first is simply to expose for the shadows with a slower shutter speed and/or wider aperture. In some situations - portraits, for example - this can work well, blowing out highlights and overexposing background areas to concentrate attention on the subject. But it won't do for a bike mag cover, which needs detail in the sky and punchy colours.

The second is to add your own light to brighten the shadows. Trouble is, you're effectively trying to match the sun's output. That's a whole lot of light.

I know from experience that a single flash simply isn't up to the job. It'll add some subtle fill to prevent the densest shadows blocking up, but that wouldn't be enough in this case. With an ambient exposure nailed at 1/250sec f/9 to hold detail in the clouds, I needed plenty of power to create the illusion of strong sidelighting.

The solution? Double up on the flash. Running two flashguns on full power to the right punched enough light into the shadows to pretty much match the sun's efforts. Normally I'd use a single flash as the main light and a second one to add rim or sidelighting, but using them both in the same position worked well here, creating a fairly natural-looking high contrast effect that emphasises colours without flattening shapes.

Cover: What Mountain Bike Summer '07*

A hot early summer's day, a newly-discovered section of short, very tight and oh-so-sweet rooty singletrack, and a mental note in the back of my mind that we needed, if possible, to come away with a cover shot: a done deal.

Matt Carr works up a sweat in Leigh Woods, Bristol
Nikon D2X, 200mm f/2, 1/200 sec f/2.8 @ ISO100, two radio slaves

I'd originally hoped for a fairly ballsy rooty descending shot, but we couldn't find anything that looked right. The light on this section of singletrack was beautiful, but the shot wasn't without its challenges.

First, front-on trail riding shots are tricky to get right. Because you can't use panning to show movement, it has to be implied - and that means plenty of body English without making things look contrived. Second, the best shot involved me hiding in the bushes waaaaay down the trail with my 'flowerpot' lens, but that meant there were too many trees in the way for my radio slave to work reliably. We spent a lot of time re-shooting pics that weren't lit properly because my flashes just didn't fire. I found myself wishing that I could, erm, wish the flashes to work, since the laws of physics clearly weren't going to cooperate...

Still, we got there in the end, and I'm rather pleased with the result. Purists will no doubt be horrified to learn that a tree obscuring most of Matt's left arm has been removed (and his arm re-instated) in Photoshop, but the work's so neat I had to spend five minutes looking at all my original files before I a.) was certain that it had been done and b.) worked out how it was achieved.

That's a tight crop of the original image at left, and a matching crop of the donor image for Matt's 'new' arm to the right. Because Matt's body position was different, the section of arm had to be rotated and carefully matched up to fit the space between handlebar and jersey sleeve. If you didn't know about the change, you'd never spot it. 'Chapeau' to the retouching boys: job well done.

* no calendar month? Well, no. What Mountain Bike and MBUK are published every 4 weeks, which translates to 13 issues a year. Great for profitability, not so great when you run out of months by which to name the issues.

Cover: MBUK July '07

Nikon D2X, 12-24mm f/4, 1/200 sec f/5.6 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

Cover shoots can be a struggle. Depending on the brief, the location, the weather, the rider and a certain element of randomness that goes with every shoot, the process can sometimes be a long, drawn-out struggle of nearly-but-not-quite shots, out of which one will eventually scream 'pick me!'.

Occasionally, though, everything goes according to plan - and this was one of those days. With a brief to capture some technical, woodsy riding under a green canopy, I headed to a location I only discovered earlier this year with rider James Coneron and MBUK art ed James Blackwell. Shooting a rocky, rooty drop halfway up a steep slope, it soon became obvious that we had several good shots in the bag.

Nikon D2X, 12-24mm f/4, 1/320 sec f/8 @ ISO100, two radio slaves

It happened to be a beautifully crisp, clear, sunny and warm day, so, knowing that there was another possible location out in the sun 5 minutes' walk away, we headed out of the trees to see if we could shoot an alternative. Second and third locations often take some finding, but this steep, gravelled slope immediately stood out as an obvious candidate, so we spent a further half hour or so notching up another few possibilities.

In the end it was the original concept that won the day, but it was a good feeling to come back with far more than we needed - and the blue sky shot made it onto the contents page. It's good to remember days like this on those occasions when nothing seems to go right...

Footnote: On my copy of the mag James' skin has taken on an unhealthy green tinge, which most definitely isn't the case in the original image (I've cleaned up the cover shot above to remove some of the bile colour...). Printers still get it wrong sometimes, and this appears to be one of those occcasions.

Cover: What Mountain Bike June '07

Sometimes it's not enough just to supply a great image. The brief for the What Mountain Bike 'speed issue' was simple: lots of motion blur in the background, rider working hard, great sense of speed. A bike and kit was sourced for the shoot, and ex-national champ Paul Lasenby stepped up to model.

Nikon D2X, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/60sec f/4 @ ISO100, single radio slave

But we didn't reckon on a combination of slow-off-the-mark suppliers, incompetent couriers, a tight deadline and a rapidly approaching Atlantic weather front. With time running out and no sign of the new kit, a decision was made to squeeze a shoot into the last remaining hours of sunshine before the weather broke. We ended up, literally, with two hours to get the shot, but after some scrabbling around I found this location: long, backlit grass with a great singletrack trail running through the middle of it. As the dying rays of the sun disappeared out of sight over the horizon, Paul and I rattled off as many variations on the theme as we could.

I was pleased with the result - it fitted the brief and the light was beautiful. Job done.

Nikon D2X, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/80sec f/7.1 @ ISO100, single radio slave

Er, no. A photographer is often the worst judge of their own work, and so it proved in this case. Whilst the guys at the mag loved the shot, they didn't feel it was right for their 'speed issue' cover. Wrong bike (long travel rather than racy), dark kit and an over-large Camelbak all contributed, they felt, to a feeling that it didn't quite say 'speed' in the way that they wanted.

So it was back to the same location with a new, racier bike, brighter kit and a smaller Camelbak. We didn't manage to replicate the same gorgeous end-of-the-day light, but we came away with an image that everyone at the mag was happy with. Which, when all's said and done, is the most important thing.

But I still prefer the original...

Cover: Cycle Apr/May 07

Anyone who's ever tackled Winnat's Pass in the Dark Peak will know that it's a climb to be reckoned with. Beginning with a deceptively shallow pootle from Castleton to the base of the cliffs that mark the beginning of the gorge, it's all too easy to set off with the enthusiasm of a puppy chasing a ball... only to discover that the ball's always juuuuust out of reach.

Jo Burt and Andy Pegg winch their way up Winnats Pass. It's much steeper than it looks. Honest.
Nikon F5, 28-70mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/8 on Fuji Provia 100

As the road winds its way up the valley the gradient only gets worse. What looks like a final bend turns out to be the sting in the tail, with another gradient increase and a never-ending false summit. The first time I climbed it on my road bike the only thing that kept me going was the sight of a mountain biker ahead of me, drooped motionless over his top tube in defeat. I was running a 39x23 low gear next to his 24x30, but so what? I couldn't give up, even if it meant popping my knees out of their sockets...

Cover: What Mountain Bike April '07

And talking of remote flash... here's my fourth cover of 2007, courtesy of two remote flash units and a persistent art editor who wouldn't let me quit.

By the time we got to this spot I'd shot three or four potential covers at different locations, all of which were usable but hardly inspiring. That's sometimes the way it goes, though, and at the end of a long, overcast day I was ready to say 'enough'. But Robin, What Mountain Bike's tenacious art ed, wanted one more shot here.

Nikon D2X, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/250 sec f/2.8 @ ISO400, two radio slaves

The stream in full spate (you can see it over the rider's right shoulder) made an unusual backdrop, and a series of roots on this short, technical climb made for interesting riding. But the light was both flat and in short supply, so I had to rig up two lights to put some contrast and depth into the bike and rider: the main one on the left behind the tree, and a second unit on the other side of the trail to add a rim light. This was one of the first shots that I took with that setup, and the best of the lot.

Worth staying on an extra few minutes, I reckon. Which just goes to show that my decision-making isn't always at its best at the end of a long day's shooting!

New IMBA trail book

After choosing three of my images for its 2007 calendar, Colorado-based IMBA has put another of my shots on the cover of its latest book. Building on the books covering trail building and maintenance that it already offers, 'Managing Mountain Biking' looks at the bigger picture of planning, designing and managing successful trail networks.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm f/4, 1/200 sec f/9 @ ISO100, single radio slave

As for the picture, it's one of my personal favourites from 2006 and is currently gracing my office wall. Shot on a hot and sunny August day in Chamonix, Jez's perma-grin was spontaneous (but may well have had something to do with the conversation he'd been having with Ian before setting off). Harsh overhead light is normally the worst time of day to shoot, but the clear mountain air meant we got away with it - and a hit of fill-in flash from a remote unit a few feet to Jez's left opened up the worst of the deep shadows. And yes, that's Mont Blanc in the background.

Cover: What Mountain Bike March '07

Cover number two of 2007. This isn't one of my favourites. I sometimes find myself disagreeing with a picture editor's choice, and this is one of those occasions. But cover pics sometimes have to reflect arcane magazine design considerations like coverline positioning, and ultimately it's not my job to choose the best image for the job.

Les Arcs
Nikon D200, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 @ c.50mm, 1/200sec f/9 @ ISO100, single radio slave

What I do remember from this shoot is a stunning day high up in Les Arcs with that thin mountain air feel... and more singletrack than you could shake an overheated sintered brake pad at. It's not a bad way to earn a living, when you stop and think about it.