Seb Rogers: mountain bike photography

Cover star

Well, almost.

After writing recently about the fact that pictures of me are scarcer than, erm, a very scarce thing indeed, I had to laugh when this month's free MBUK DVD fell out of the mag... with a picture of me on the cover, hauling ass through a loose berm aboard my long-term loaner Stumpy.*

No, really. And here it is:

Thanks to Rob Kitchin for the shot. And don't worry, the advice dished out on the DVD is from pro riders who really do know what they're doing...

* One of my other hats is bike tester for UK mags What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK. It's not a big part of my income, but it keeps me supplied with a steady stream of new bikes and gives me the perfect excuse to grab an hour during the day to go for a ride.

This week I have mostly been...

... chasing invoices, catching up on some overdue writing, sorting images for a German magazine, making wheels look sexy, organising four days' shooting next week, catching up on some much-needed sleep...

But in between all that, I also found some interesting bits on the web:

- Mike Johnston at theonlinephotographer has some interesting views on how legacy issues are driving current camera designs.

- Top Nikon pro Joe McNally has had hands-on experience with Nikon's new D700 and SB900 flash, and writes about both in his inimitable style on his blog. Joe is that rarest of photographer breeds: not only is he vastly experienced and talented, but he writes extremely well and with a wry sense of humour.

- Nikon commentator Thom Hogan has several updates on his site worth reading, including an analysis of where the D700 leaves Nikon in the scheme of things and some excellent advice for any photographer thinking of making the leap to pro.

If I had a penny...

Aaron Johnson's What the Duck strip rarely fails to raise a chuckle, particularly when it so closely mirrors the reality of earning a living from photography...

Creative juices

In a creative rut? Need some inspiration? Look no further...

Keepin' it local

The image library that represents me doesn't divulge full details of its clients in its sales reports, so I often have to hazard an educated guess as to where my images are going to turn up. Or, as is often the case, simply watch the money trickle into my bank account and remain happily oblivious.

But there are patterns that I can spot. So when, a couple of months back, a shot that I'd taken in my Mendip back yard showed up on the sales report, I raised half a metaphorical eyebrow. Sure enough, a few weeks later Ordnance Survey introduced a new map of the area, with my image on the cover. It replaces the previous version, which showed a caver (the area's riddled with caves and potholes) and brings my map cover tally to, er, five. Or six. I can't quite remember...

And strangely enough, the trail where I took this shot is currently bone dry, hardpacked, dusty and deliriously fast.

Mountain bike photo course: £3.99

Well, almost...

Nikon D300, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/320sec f/8 @ ISO200

Digital Camera magazine asked me to help out on their regular 'instant expert' slot recently, for a reader who wanted to improve his mountain bike shots. Turns out the reader in question was Gary Lambe, who's also booked on my October photo course.

Anyhoo, I roped in team Giant rider Chris Smith to help out, and we all pitched up for a day of bikes 'n cameras at Cwmcarn. Cramming the equivalent of a long weekend's worth of instruction into a single day didn't prove to be easy, either for me or for Gary. But he coped with my barrage of instructions very well, turning in some impressive images that run over more than 6 pages in the current issue of the mag.

So... if you want a crash course in improving your bike images, it's all there in the June issue of Digital Camera. Props to Gary, and thanks to Chris for riding every trail 'just one more time'...

Happy 20th birthday, MBUK

Mountain Biking UK, Britain's best-selling bike mag, is 20 years old this month. Happy birthday, MBUK!

If you're not a UK-based rider, it's hard to appreciate just how large the mag looms in the consciousness of just about anyone who's ever taken an interest in riding off-road on this small island of ours. Despite its consistent sales success, it's attracted its fair share of criticism over the years. Giving over page space to minority niches like trials, deliberately supporting young talent and cheerfully going out of its way to challenge preconceptions, MBUK has often been derided as a 'comic', 'for kids', and generally unsuitable for 'serious' riders.

To which I've always replied, well, it's aimed at kids of all ages (cos bikes are great, and allow all of us to relive a little bit of our childhoods every time we ride). And it's also, as far as I know, the only mag anywhere to cover cross-country, downhill, freeride, trials, dirt jumping, street and every variation in between. For all its faults, I think MBUK's great.

It's also been a blast to work for. Although the mag's been around now for longer than I've been riding (I got my first bike muddy in 1990), I'm slightly amazed at the realisation that I've been a contributor for 12 years. Cue this unashamedly nostalgic random trawl through some of my early MBUK images:

Jo Burt, Devils Dyke, South Downs

This picture was actually never published in MBUK, but it was shot for a 'last ride of summer' feature. Jo and I headed out for a blustery trundle over the downs under a sky that was changing every few minutes. We'd stopped here for a rest, and I spotted the shaft of sunlight from behind this cloud. Jo climbed the hill, I snapped off a couple of frames... and the light was gone (the signpost has long since, disappeared, too, replaced by a far less aesthetically pleasing fingerpost).

Brett Tippie, Kamloops, BC

Richie Schley and Brett Tippie, Pemberton, BC

In 1998 the bike media was just beginning to pay attention to the burgeoning freeride scene in British Columbia, but there was scant interest in the UK. So I packed my bags, headed over to Vancouver for a couple of weeks and spent a total of three days shooting with Rocky Mountain's 'Froride team of Richie Schley, Brett Tippie and Wade Simmons. MBUK ran the resulting pics in three separate features, and the 'Froriders went on to become international stars (though the two facts aren't, I suspect, related).

Jo Burt, Shoreham airport

MBUK's cartoonist-in-residence, Jo Burt, needed a new set of suspension forks from Yorkshire-based manufacturer Pace. He also knew someone who knew someone who had access to a small twin-engined plane based at nearby Shoreham airport on the south coast. A couple of phone calls and a slightly singed credit card later, and we were both crammed - with Jo's bike - into a tiny aircraft, on a mission. Less than 9 hours later we were home with a shiny new set of forks...

Solar eclipse, Dartmoor

How d'you shoot a total solar eclipse for a mountain bike mag? Perch a bunch of riders equipped with lights on the edge of a big rock on Dartmoor, ignore the new-age chanting from the neighbouring rock and watch in subdued amazement as daylight turns to dusk in a matter of a couple of minutes. There's no trickery in this shot - it really was this dark. Very strange - shame we couldn't actually see the sun (the camera was pointed in exactly the right direction, but there wasn't much I could do about the thick cloud cover).

MBUK Olympics, private pool, Somerset

The 2000 Olympics gave the mag all the excuse it needed to invent its own version... with added bikes. Cue much classic MBUK silliness and a mad day of shooting. Somehow - I'm still not sure exactly how - we'd managed to persuade the owners of a high-end private health spa to let us use their outdoor pool for a couple of hours. Paying guests looked on in polite bemusement as we held impromptu high-dive and synchronised swimming competitions. Portholes in the pool wall gave me this underwater view - which was just as well, because I hadn't thought to rent a housing for my F5.

Jeff Lenosky and twin towers, NYC

As far as I know, the iconic World Trade Center twin towers have only ever appeared in MBUK once - in this image. Which, in a classically ironic piece of unfortunate timing, hit the newsstands on 12th September 2001. Events beyond our control, and all that...

Josh Bender, Utah

Josh Bender was the maverick rider who, almost out of nowhere, shook up freeride by attempting drops that no-one thought possible. Whilst he received huge publicity and some notoriety as a result, he also attracted an almost unprecedented level of hostility. I was heading out to Vegas in early 2002 anyway, so I gave him a call and asked if I could go for a ride. I found a friendly, surprisingly self-deprecating rider whose smooth, fluid style on his local Utah trails would probably have silenced many of his critics. The resulting pics ran in a interview-style feature in MBUK.

Oli Beckingsale, Cwm Carn

This is still one of my favourite cross-country pics, shot on a section of trail that's since been clear-cut. I remember this shot because I was running out of light, shooting at 1/125sec and f/2.8 on Fuji Provia 100 pushed a stop to ISO 200... and with a single remote flash hidden away behind a tree. Yep, I was shooting remote flash waaaaay before digital.

Thanks for the memories, MBUK. Here's to plenty more...

New screensaver, updated site

I've just completed the biggest update yet to my main portfolio site. There's an excerpt from Singletrack's interview with me last year, dozens of new images and, best of all, the new screensaver has more pictures to inspire you to get out and ride and is now available in higher resolutions to suit bigger monitors.

Check it out!

Tech note: if you have a previous version of the screensaver installed, delete it before you download and install the new version. The new screensaver sometimes doesn't install and run properly if there's an older version still installed.

From the horse's mouth

Joe McNally is a living photography legend, if you'll pardon the hyperbole. With decades of experience shooting for the kind of titles to whom most photographers would happily donate at least one limb in exchange for a commission, there's no doubting his talent. He's also one of the rare breed of photographers who can both write - his blog's well worth a visit - and has a sense of humo(u)r.

Joe's new book, The Moment it Clicks, has just landed on my doormat. At just shy of £30 it's expensive for a middling-sized softback with ok-ish print quality, but forget about all that value for money stuff. In terms of content it's probably one of the best photography books I've ever seen.

Think of it like this: over 200 pages of world-class, inspirational images... each one accompanied by a comprehensive back-story explaining the background and technicalities behind it. What makes this book different from so many others that have tried the same trick is both Joe's breadth and depth of experience, and, crucially, his humo(u)r-filled delivery. I've never read a photographic technique book before that made me laugh out loud. Here's an excerpt:

'No matter how much crap you gotta plow through to stay alive as a photographer, no matter how many bad assignments, bad days, bad clients, snotty subjects, obnoxious handlers, wigged-out art directors, technical disasters, failures of the mind, body, and will, all the shouldas, couldas, and wouldas that befuddle our brains and creep into our dreams, always remember to make room to shoot what you love. It's the only way to keep your heart beating as a photographer'.

Most photography books risk splitting into one of two camps: arty pretentiousness on the one hand, or nerdy technicality on the other. Joe's very personable approach brings photography back to where it should be - a very human endeavour.

Yep, I like it. A lot. If you're looking for inspiration and some technical hints to take your photography up a notch, I reckon it's money well spent.

Off the wall

Over the past five years I've used the purpose-built trails at Cwm Carn in south Wales countless times - both to ride and as a location for shoots. Here, for example, is a cover shot at Cwm Carn. And there's another here. Oh, and another one. Er, and one more.

It's versatile like that. Rideable in all weathers with a huge variety of trail surfaces and backdrops, it's a great backup option when most UK trails are six inches deep in slurry. It's also great to ride, particularly now that the natural vegetation has had a chance to grow back and blend the hand-cut trail back into the land.

Nikon D200, 12-24mm f/4, 1/80sec f/5.6 @ ISO100, single radio slave

I like it a lot as a place, so when the council-run visitor centre re-opened recently with some very blank-looking walls in the cafe, I offered to fill them with a few prints. Hand-printed and hand-framed with natural oak, I'm quite pleased with them - and it's a good opportunity to give something back in a small way to a place that's helped me out so much over the years.

Next time you're there for a ride, pop in for a cup of tea and check them out.

You mean there's more to Photoshop than the clone tool?

Photoshop's wonderful. Oh yes.

(Raised a smile? See more Whattheduck shenanigans here...)

Farmer Jack vs the Athertons

This made me chuckle, so I thought I'd post it by way of a little light relief on a Monday morning. You never know when you might discover an unknown talent...

Aw, shucks

About a year ago I was contacted by the editor of a new book on sports and action photography, asking if I'd like to be involved. It's always flattering to be approached in this way and, when I heard the names of some of the co-contributors, it was hard to say no.

To pick just a few at random: Tom Jenkins' work often graces the Grauniad's sports pages, Bob Martin is a sports photography legend in his own right, Dave Willis is arguably the UK's leading adventure sports photographer, Charles Coates' iconic Formula One images are amongst the best in the business, and Andy Rouse has carved out a name for himself at the highest levels of wildlife photography (and if you think wildlife photography has little to do with action, you need to take a look at his images in this book...).

It would be an understatement to say I'd never have imagined that I'd be sharing page space with photographers like these, but it's right there in front of me... and I've got a whole 16 pages to myself. Chuffed, is all I can say!

The book is stuffed full of great images and, unlike many sports photography books, loads of practical information and advice as well. If you fancy giving yourself a little treat and picking up a few hints on how to improve your action photography, it's well worth a look.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

German mountain bike site mtb-news has chosen one of my images for its 'Foto des Monats' slot. Wunderbar!

Coals to Newcastle

I've just signed up with a Vancouver-based image library that specialises in adventure sports. You can check out my initial (rather small, at the moment) portfolio here.

Funnily enough, a few years ago I had pretty much exactly the same idea: bring together photographers from all over the world who specialise in adventure sports, and put together an online one-stop shop. The idea crumbled to dust for a variety of reasons, not least of which was that I didn't really have the skills - or money - to build a web-based business of that size.

You could argue, I suppose, that the last thing a Vancouver-based image library needs is a bunch of mountain bike images from a UK-based photographer. But hey, I'm quite enjoying the irony - and I can now reach a north American market that I otherwise probably wouldn't be able to tap into.

Goodbye 2007

It's been another busy year. Hard to believe it's my 12th year shooting bikes professionally. Time flies when you're having fun, eh?

Although I didn't quite match 2006's record numbers, I still managed to notch up 14 magazine and book covers, plus the odd supplement and map cover. Oh, and two catalogue shoots.

It's tough to pick a favourite shot from a year's worth of images, but there's one that I keep coming back to. My trip to Nepal in March with Hans Rey, Richie Schley and Wade Simmons is one that I'll remember for a long time, for all kinds of reasons.

Nikon D200, 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, 1/350sec f/8 @ ISO100

This shot of Hans riding a dusty Himalayan trail at 4000m sums up the experience for me. I took this the day after suffering the worst diarrhoea I've ever had, at an altitude I'd never before experienced on a bike. I didn't, in all honesty, feel too good. But it was hard not to be inspired by the incredible backdrop - and I was also in the unusual position of being able to shoot purely for pleasure, because I wasn't the trip's official stills photographer.

I like the look of concentration on Hans' face, the dust he's kicking up, and the awesome Himalayan mountains behind him. But most of all I like the memory of being there.

Roll on 2008. Happy new year!

What's it worth?

Every now and then I'm contacted by a photographer who's been approached by a manufacturer or a magazine for use of one of their images. It's happening more and more as the boundaries between pro and amateur blur, and image buyers attempt to cash in on amateur snappers' commercial inexperience.

The obvious question is, 'how much do I charge?'

Nikon D200, 10.5mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/8 @ ISO100
This image of mine was sold recently for use on the front cover of a trade magazine for a non-profit organisation, circulation 10,000: price US $395

It probably won't come as any surprise that this is one of those 'piece of string' questions that doesn't really have an answer. The glib reply is, 'as much as your potential client is willing to pay for it', but that ignores the crucial caveat (which many photographers forget) that the image is yours to sell... or not, if the price isn't right. I turn down many more sales than I make, because there's no point in my selling images at a rate that's not commercially viable.

If you're approached for use of one of your images, here are a few things to bear in mind:

1. Money talks
In most circumstances, the potential buyer will be hoping for commercial gain as a result of using your photo. Being paid - with real money, not promises of future work, bylines or other ephemera not recognised as legal tender - is the only recompense that's worth anything. Literally.

2. Rights matter
Any time you sell an image (or images), you're actually just selling a license to use them under a specific set of circumstances - which you and your potential client should be clear about from the outset. It's a similar principle to software licensing - when you 'buy' software you're actually just buying the rights to use it. Pricing depends partly on the extent of the license a potential client needs. For example, the rights to use an image for advertising will be more expensive than the rights to use the same image in editorial coverage.

3. Copyright is non-negotiable
You automatically, by law, own the copyright to every image you take. Whilst it's theoretically possible (in some countries at least, though by no means all) to sell the copyright in an image to a third party, it's almost never worth it. NEVER, EVER GIVE UP YOUR COPYRIGHT. You'll lose all rights to your image (natch) and will almost certainly be unable to agree a price high enough to make that worthwhile. Just don't go there. Ever.

4. Don't sell cheap
Don't agree a price on the spot, but ask your potential client details about the image's intended use and agree to get back to them with a price*. You need to know the following:

- intended use (advertising? editorial? PR?)
- media (magazine? web? catalogue?)
- placement (cover? inside?)
- size (full page? 1/2 page? etc.)
- circulation / print run
- geographical distribution (single country? region? worldwide?)
- period of license (3 months? 1 year? 3 years?)

Do your research. Set a minimum price that you're happy with, then add a bit for negotiating room and make that the price that the potential client is presented with. Don't go below your self-imposed minimum and be prepared to turn the sale down if you can't agree a price that you're happy with.

Stock image pricing is fluid (and, some would say, in freefall) right now, so hard figures can be hard to come by. But you can get some idea of an image's potential worth by using one of the big stock agencies' online price calculators (Alamy's prices are a reasonably mid-range guide), or try this online calculator (the prices are in US $). These prices are intended as guidance only, but it's a better - and more professional - place to start than just blundering in with 'ooh, I dunno.... fifty quid?'

Oh yes. And I'm always happy to help with pricing information, when I can - just drop me a line.

* Some potential clients will bluster when asked to do this, either because they haven't really thought it through or, occasionally, because they want to buy the rights to the image at the lowest possible price and then exploit it as much as possible. Most people understand the principle that wider-ranging rights mean higher prices, and one way to call a staller's bluff is to price for 'all uses' (note that this isn't the same as a copyright buyout) at a rate several times above the price for a delimited, pre-agreed license. You can sometimes close a sale this way, by demonstrating that the licensed use is good value in comparison with the 'all uses' price.

OS gets active

I knew something was up about 18 months ago, when a new batch of OS Explorer maps turned up in my local shop. In place of the sub-1950s postcard cover shot on the Mendip map was a picture of a climber reaching for a hold.

Clearly, some enlightened soul in the Ordnance Survey's marketing department had made a startling discovery: people who buy detailed maps tend to be outdoorsy, rugged types who use them to go out and do stuff.

Sure enough, new editions have cropped up since then with all manner of active, rugged types on the covers. And some of them are even riding bikes. I recently discovered that the latest Bristol and Bath map features one of my images (of the Timberland trail) on the cover.

That makes it my fourth OS map cover in a year - the others are Galloway Forest Park North, Purbeck and South Dorset and Quantock Hills and Bridgwater.

All of which begs the question, do mountain bikers use maps any more? I'll probably sound curmudgeonly and old if I bemoan the death of map-reading skills, but it seems that the combination of magazine route guides (just tear the page out), trail centres (map? who needs a map?) and GPS (paper? what's that?) is creating a new generation of riders for whom the delights of tracing an untried route out on an unfolded, crisp map are both unknown and unwanted. Perhaps that's why OS maps have suddenly become funky(er).

Happy holidays from Colorado. Er, I mean Somerset

I always seem to miss the snow, usually by the very simple means of being somewhere that it (the snow, that is) isn't.

So last year, when I woke one morning to find the field outside my office window carpeted in a good few inches of white, I called in the services of Mike Davis (of Bikemagic fame) and his pro elbows. In the space of a couple of hours we froze extremities I didn't know existed, left tyre prints in several miles of virgin Mendip snow... and I got a few good shots.

One of which has found a home on IMBA's holiday season ecard:

The guys at IMBA, being American, probably don't appreciate the irony* of a Somerset winter representing a Colorado-based organisation's public face over the holiday period... but I'm tickled pink. And Black Down gets to look as genuinely wild and rugged as it can be - all 1068 vertical feet of it.

Go on, send someone a mountain biking Christmas ecard. All the way from Somerset...

* lest I risk upsetting any American readers' sensibilities... that was a joke, guys. Put it down to the British sense of humo(u)r.

It's grumpy oop north

There are two rules in journalism: check your facts, and don't upset a Yorkshireman. Oh, okay, I made that last one up. But bear with me and all will become clear.

Although I write much less than I used to, I still put together bike tests for UK-based mags MBUK and What Mountain Bike. And in my latest MBUK bike test, I made the fatal error of assuming that cult bike brand On-One is based in Lancashire... when it is, in fact, in Yorkshire.

This seemingly trivial error has upset On-One founder and owner Brant Richards for two reasons. First, he's a Yorkshireman born and bred, and proud of it. And second, On-One's home town of Todmorden has a long history of battling to preserve its Yorkshire identity. Apparently in ye olden days the county boundary ran down the length of the High Street, but now neighbouring Lancashire is a good four miles away. Brant won't even cross the border on his training runs, he's that proud of his Yorkshire heritage.

My bad (or mea culpa, as the saying used to go). In typically forthright fashion, Brant's having a good deal of fun at my expense. But hey, I deserve it - I should've checked.

The bike, by the way, in case you're wondering, is great...

Talking head

Singletrack magazine interviewed me for their latest issue, alongside a couple of other mountain bike photographers. I'm not sure there are any pearls of wisdom in there, but (as usual) there's plenty of other bike-related stuff to look at, and a few nice pics too. Go check it out.

In case you're wondering, no, you can't read it if you open it in a new window...

All you ever wanted to know about photography: £1.50

If you're reading this in the UK and it's still Saturday 27th October, you've got a few hours left to go out and grab a bargain. The Grauniad has a free 'guide to photography' supplement that's full of practical advice and inspiration on everything from choosing the right camera to how to shoot sports, weddings and still lifes.

Although it isn't entirely accurate - apparently film cameras 'don't rely on electricity', and a Canon flashgun is picked out as best buy without mentioning that to owners of any other dSLR brand it'll be about as much use as a chocolate teapot - it's one of the best round-ups of photographic technique and practice I've seen for a while. And it's only £1.50 (with a free copy of the newspaper thrown in. Wahey!). Portrait insights from Jane Bown, sports tips from Tom Jenkins and Eamonn McCabe, buying advice from Dan Chung... all working pros, and more than one a living legend.

What are you waiting for...?

Intel Mac screensaver: it's here!

You wouldn't think it'd be possible for an Intel Mac-friendly software release to take longer than Adobe took to launch CS3... but I'm here to prove otherwise. An Intel Mac-compatible version of my screensaver is finally available for download on my portfolio site (in the downloads section, natch). Yay! The PowerPC version is still there, too, so whatever variety of Apple hardware you're running you can now enjoy the dubious benefit of staring blankly at a constant rotation of mountain bike images instead of doing whatever it is you were supposed to be doing in the first place...

Everyone's a critic

I can't take the credit for digging this one up, but it made me laugh so I thought I'd share it. Beware the photographic technique-literate, marker-pen wielding vandal...

What the duck

Comic strips built around photography have a long and fairly inglorious history. I'm old enough to remember Camera Weekly's one-liner cartoons, most of which revolved around a variation of the 'incompetent photographer husband / long-suffering domesticated wife' routine. Occasionally they raised a chuckle; mostly they were pretty lame.

'Lame' isn't a criticism that can be levelled at whattheduck. Aaron Johnson's unlikely camera-wielding creation is a knowing and affectionate sideways glance at the obsessive-compulsive in every photographer. Like all great cartoons it has its ups and downs, but raising a chuckle - let alone a belly laugh - out of apertures and big lenses is a feat in itself.

I like it. A lot.

© Aaron Johnson. All rights reserved

Opportunity knocks

One of the most over-saturated sectors of the photography stock market is landscape. Established and well-respected pros like David Noton and Charlie Waite head up a vast army of prolific - and in many cases talented - scenic snappers. Competition is fierce, standards are high and there's virtually no corner of the planet that hasn't already been photographed in beautiful light. But that doesn't mean it's impossible to sell landscape pics. Even if you're a bike photographer.

Around two and a half years ago I found myself halfway down a scree slope above Wasdale Head in the Lake District, waiting for the light. A bank of cloud was obscuring the sun, and for the specific shot I had in mind only sun would do. So we sat in the cold November air and waited.

It was, in fact, a bike shot that I was waiting for. But as we watched from our perch high above the valley, the sun peeked its way out from under the cloud and lit the view below us. The low angle of the light picked out every detail, from the dry stone walls to the stream running into Wast Water. It was too good an opportunity to miss, so I squeezed off a few shots on different lenses as we waited for the light to move up towards us. I knew the pictures would be saleable - I just didn't know where, or when.

Fast forward to July 2007 and one of the (bike-less) wideangle pics is running across a double page spread in August's What Mountain Bike, illustrating a feature on the best trailside views. And, completely coincidentally, one of the long lens shots has also found its way onto the Grauniad's National Parks supplement (you'll have to excuse the poor scan quality):

The net result? Ten minutes's worth of landscape shooting has netted me as much - over the course of a couple of years - as the fee for the mountain bike shoot that provided the opportunity in the first place. Which is, as far as any working pro is concerned, the whole point of grabbing opportunities as they arise...

Have we got a video?*

The TV programme I was involved in earlier this year finally has a series of viewing slots on UK digital channels this summer. If you want to see how Hans Rey, Wade Simmons and Richie Schley got on in Nepal, here's where you can catch the action:

2nd August @ 4pm on Sky Sports 3 Digital and @ 6pm on Sky Sports Xtra
3rd August @ 6am on Sky Sports 3 Digital and @ 12:30pm on Sky Sports Xtra
4th August @ 2:30pm on Sky Sports 3 Digital

These times are all BST; however I'd advise double-checking them (the show is in the Sports Adventure 2007 slot) because the information I've been sent has some distinctly odd-looking scheduling slots like 26:30 and 29:30 which don't correspond to any time standard that I'm aware of.

A couple of points worth mentioning. First, my involvement in the programme has been very limited, although some of the shots are mine and I did have a hand in the very early stages of the edit process. And second, I haven't actually seen the end result. Nor, in fact, am I likely to, because I don't have access to Sky Sports channels.

So, erm, if there's anyone out there willing to record the show (either onto tape or DVD) and send it to me, I'd be willing to trade a few beers (or something)...

Richie kicking up dust at 4000m
Nikon D200, 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, 1/200 sec f/5.6 @ ISO400

* Obscure reference to a line in the cult '80s British TV comedy 'The Young Ones'. Not that I'm showing my age or anything...

Be careful what you wish for

Me and my big mouth. When I commented last year that I'd be shooting more video in 2007, I had a rough plan that involved setting up a couple of short films for fun. I had no idea that, less than 6 months later, I'd be getting on a plane to Nepal with Hans Rey, Wade Simmons and Richie Schley to help shoot a TV documentary. Weird, eh?
Wade, not in Nepal
Nikon F5, 17-35mm f/2.8, 1/250 sec f/8 on Fuji Provia 100, single on-camera flash

The whole thing is, unsurprisingly, Hans' idea, and the trip will involve a mixture of riding Himalayan singletrack (natch) and some work for Hans' charity, Wheels 4 Life. Blake Jorgenson is the trip's official stills photographer, so I'll be flying one of these - as second cameraman - instead of my usual Nikon gear.

I'd better watch what I write in future...

In the meantime, chances are the blog won't get updated for a while. So, um, talk quietly amongst yourselves while I'm gone...

Agnosticism on two wheels

Nikon D200, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/80 sec f/5.6 @ ISO400, single radio slave

Quote of the week, courtesy of fellow bike journo Guy Kesteven:

'I don't do deities. Dalai Llama, that big bird from Dibley or bearded fanatics. I don't do drugs, drink, poetry or pixies either. I save my wild-eyed evangelism for the almost sickening fix of feedback, fear and hardwired reflexes from synapse to sticky-compound shoulder tread. Floated drops, every-last-sinew climbs, the song of tree bark millimetres from your ear and the hallelujah spray of earth from a perfect power slide. F**k the flock - find your own truth on a trail with a pearly gate at every corner.'

Couldn't have put it better myself.

There's more in the April 2007 edition of MBUK in a feature called 'Soul Biking' (there may also be one or two of my pictures in there...), in the shops March 14th.

Mac screensaver is here

The Mac screensaver is finally ready for download (from the 'downloads' section, natch). Apologies to all Mac users for the delay, and thanks for your patience.

There are, unfortunately, a couple of known issues. First, the screensaver will install but won't run on Intel Macs. Second, the fade between images seems to be jerky on some Macs (it certainly is on both my G4s). The first issue will be solved when the software used to build the screensaver is updated. And we're working on the second, though I'm told it may be caused by an inherent problem with the way Macs deal with Flash.

If you download and install it, let me know how you get on.

The ultimate ego massage

Over the past few months I've become a book publisher. A publisher on a very small scale, admittedly, but a publisher nonetheless. It's very 'now', somehow, in that user-generated-content kind of a way.

It's all thanks to discovering the 'book' section in iPhoto (Windoze users look away now), which allows even design-challenged layout beginners like me to throw together a very presentable-looking photo book - with captions - from a collection of photos in a matter of, ooh, minutes. After delighting doting grandparents with pictures of my two-year-old daughter, it occurred to me that here was the ideal opportunity to make a book for myself. As if I needed any further excuse, 2006 was both my tenth year as a full-time pro and my first 100% digital year (I think I might have mentioned that before, actually...)

The result - 80 pages and over 100 of my favourite pictures from the last 12 months - landed on my doormat this morning. And it looks pretty good, even if I do say so myself. My pictures, chosen by me, laid out by me, and no-one but me to blame if I don't like the choice / size / position / caption.

The trouble is, I spent so long agonising over it all that I'm actually sick of the sight of most of it. Which kind of defeats the purpose, to an extent. I'll have to file it away for a couple of years and come back to it...

UPDATE: It didn't occur to me that anyone would be interested in buying one, but Chris Ratcliff's comment (see the link below) makes me wonder. Bear in mind that it's an eclectic and very personal collection of pics with no common theme (other than bikes), and the book isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, cheap. It's not even hardback! But I'm happy to sell a copy (signed, or not, as the case may be) to anyone who's interested for £70 (which is cost + p&p + a small amount to cover my time). If that hasn't put you off, email me...

Nurse, the scalpel!

It's a modern cliche that Photoshop (TM) is capable of wreaking wonderful, strange and sometimes disturbing changes to photos, but it's still fascinating to see it in action. The Feb 2007 issue of MBUK features a cover shot on an extremely wet and windy day in Wales.

The sky's always blue in Wales... even when it's not

Not that you'd know it from a quick glance, because the pre-press pixel pixies (ha!) have been hard at work. Although the searing red and saturated blue sky aren't exactly true to life, that's more an attempt to grab browsing eyes at the newsstand than a slip of the mouse. I've seen the original file and the sky, in particular, is a lovely job. It (almost) looks real.

Even the best tools in the world need skill to make them work, of course. You don't have to look far on the web to find examples of pictures hacked about with all the alacrity of a drunken lumberjack on a chainsaw rampage. One of the best (or perhaps that should be worst) I've seen recently reminds me of the bad old days - I'm harking back to the '80s here - of graduated tobacco filters slapped over dull, lifeless British skys. And professional photographers - who really ought to know better - are far from immune from the lure of the magnetic lassoo and the clone stamp.

Whether it's appropriate or ethical to alter images isn't the issue here - as far as I'm concerned, it's about how well they're altered. If you're going to do it at all, at least make sure it's done properly.

Which brings me, in a roundabout fashion, to my point: just because I have a scalpel in the pen tidy on my desk, it doesn't mean I'm a brain surgeon. Or, to put it another way: I'm quite happy to convert photons to pixels, provided someone else shunts them around.

12 months. 17 covers

It's been a busy year. I've netted:

1 CTC mag cover
5 MBUK covers
11 What Mountain Bike covers

Plus 3 Ordnance Survey Explorer map covers, a DVD cover and the IMBA calendar cover. But I'm not counting them...

PC screensaver is here

Looking for a way to brighten up your computer while it's snoozing at your desk? My new PC screensaver is ready to go from the 'downloads' section* of my portfolio site. The Mac version should be available in the next week or so.

Both screensavers include some of my favourite pics (the one below is from an early beta and doesn't appear) as well as a clock and date function, so you can kid yourself that staring at mountain bike pictures serves some useful purpose. Enjoy!

*If you can't see the 'download' section, try emptying your browser's cache before trying again. You'll need a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 to use the screensaver. Larger resolutions will display the images within a grey border.

South Downs, Brighton
Nikon F5, 17-35mm f/2.8 @ 17mm, 1/30 sec f/2.8 on Fuji Provia 400

Close, but no cigar

One of my pictures recently made it to the final cut in Professional Photographer magazine's Photographer of the Year competition. Despite being quite an old pic from 6 or 7 years ago, it's one of the few shots from that time that I doubt I could improve on now. The location is Middle Moor near Hayfield in the Peak District, and the light is courtesy of half an hour of low sun that we'd waited the entire day for. The camera's fixed to the bike with a Manfrotto 'magic arm' and, for some reason I can't quite fathom, I decided it would be better to run behind the bike with a remote release cable in my hand rather than ride it myself. Safe? Not really. Undignified? Yup. Hilarious to watch? The other riders on the trail at the time would probably agree. But I still like the shot. The arms, by the way, belong to Mike Davis of bikemagic.com.

Middle Moor, Peak District National Park
Nikon F801, 16mm f/2.8, 1/30 sec f/16 (or thereabouts) on Fuji Provia 100, single on-camera flash

IMBA calendar: a year of trails

Although the IMBA calendar can't claim the notoriety and broad appeal of, say, Pirelli's cheesecake offering, it's become something of an institution in the mountain biking world. Showcasing photography from some of north America's best known and most influential fat tyre photographers, it features the likes of John Gibson, Scott Markewitz and Sterling Lorence. For the past few years I've been the only contributing UK photographer. This year three of the twelve shots in the calendar - including the cover - are mine. All contributors donate their images free of charge, so it's my way of putting something back into the sport that's given me so much pleasure - and paid my mortgage - for over a decade. You can see more and order your copy here.

Haldon Forest Park, Devon
Nikon D2X, 85mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec f/3.2 @ ISO 400, single radio slave