The guys over at Retrobike - the website devoted to old skool bikes of all persuasions - have published a Q and A interview with me. Previous interviewees on the site have included some genuine mountain bike legends including Keith Bontrager, Ross Shafer, Charlie Kelly and Adrian Carter. I'm humbled and honoured to share web page space with such luminaries... though I suspect it may have more to do with the fact that Retrobike happened to have my email address.
Anyway...
As part of the interview, Gus from Retrobike asked me to look out some of my older images. I have 30,000 or so slides filed away on shelving in my office and, if I'd had the time, it would've been tempting to plunder the archives and try and dig out some pics that haven't seen the light of day for a while. Unfortunately I didn't have the time, but I did manage to dig out some old scans.
It's interesting to look at pics that I shot 10 or more years ago. In the intervening period I've switched from film to digital and now make extensive use of far more complicated lighting setups than I used to, but the old images are as intriguing in terms of their similarities at least as much as they are for their differences.
Here are a couple that didn't make the cut into the interview feature:
Nikon F801, 80-200mm f/2.8, exposure unrecorded on Fuji Provia 100
A dead simple pic, this one, and still one of my favourites for showing summer riding in all its simple joy. A hot, sunny morning at the head of the Chamonix valley, a shallow stream of glacial water (proper cold, that spray was), some flowers in the foreground... and a single, well timed pic on my 3fps F801.
What would I do differently now? Well, there'd be the temptation to throw a bit of fill light at the rider... or to track the rider with AF and squeeze off a short sequence. Would either result in a better shot? I doubt it. Sometimes simpler really is better.
Nikon F5, 16mm f/2.8, 1/30sec f/2.8 (or thereabouts) on Fuji Provia 100 pushed one stop to ISO200
Back in the days when MBUK ran all kinds of wacky features (the formula was basically 'dream up scenario, add bikes'), I managed to blag access to a disused station on the London Underground with a pair of trials riders. The station is normally used either for special forces and emergency services training, or rented out at great expense to TV and film studios. If I add that this was a month or two before 9/11 you may get some idea of how incredibly lucky we were to get access at all - it simply wouldn't happen now.
Part of the station was this beautiful spiral staircase. The fisheye opens up the space, but it was actually incredibly tight and more difficult than it looks to ride. I had a single flash on camera and a second, fired via optical slave, just out of sight at the foot of the stairs. It's the second flash that's casting a big shadow on the wall.
Digital would have made it easier to judge whether I'd got the shot, but I don't think there's much I'd do differently now. Odd to think that I had to wait at least 24 hours before knowing whether or not the image would work, though. How times change.
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