Seb Rogers: mountain bike photography

Bike bivvy: telling a story

The current issue of MBUK carries a feature that I shot late last year. The premise was simple: take a few friends, put together a fun ride, then set up camp overnight and sleep out under the stars. With two experienced outdoorsmen on board - including Mendip-based survival guru Ady Boots' foraging and wild camping expertise - we had it all covered. And as a bonus, the sun didn't stop shining. Er, well, until it got dark. Obviously.

Funnily enough it's this kind of simple-on-the-face-of-it story that can be quite hard to get right, visually speaking. For a start, it splits slightly uncomfortably into two rather discrete halves: the ride, and then the camping. I needed to make sure the two bits were linked together. It's also not inherently dramatic to look at. Since MBUK relies very heavily on visuals to pull the reader in, I needed to make the whole thing - from the riding to the camping - look as interesting as possible.

Here, then, is my mental checklist for visual story-telling on a shoot like this:

1. Variety is the spice of, er, something. Shoot wide. Shoot long. Shoot close in. Pull back to show the context. Preferably, and where time and logistics permit, do all of these options at every opportunity.

2. Don't forget the details. Close-ups of bikes being fixed, fires being lit, gear in use and whatever else comes along all make handy fillers. Of course, I've only got one pair of eyes and one pair of hands, so these 'extras' tend to have to fit into what would otherwise be dead time.

3. Make sure there's a narrative. It's a story. The words will help, but it should be reasonably obvious what's going on from the pics, too.

4. Remember page layouts. Openers need space for headers, standfirsts and some copy. They can also be (randomly) single page - and therefore portrait format - or double page spreads - and therefore landscape. I need both.

That's a lot to remember. Luckily I've been doing this long enough for it to be (almost) second nature, but UK mags are very demanding in terms of quantity - as well as quality - of pics. Whereas a north American or European mag may run a 6 page feature on the back of 6-8 images, the mags I work for will want at least double that quantity (with no sacrifice in quality).

Anyhoo, the weather cooperated and it all fell into place quite nicely. And I was able to shoot available light for all but a couple of the action images, pushing the D3 all the way to ISO6400 and the limit of hand-holdabilty for firelight-and-headtorch pics in the evening. Here are a few that didn't make it into the mag:

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/30sec f/14 @ ISO200

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/1000sec f/6.3 @ ISO200

Nikon D3, 80-200mm f/2.8, 1/640sec f/5 @ ISO200

Nikon D3, 80-200mm f/2.8, 1/200sec f/2.8 @ ISO1600

Nikon D3, 50mm f/1.8, 1/50sec f/2.8 @ ISO1600

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/40sec f/2.8 @ ISO1600

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/30sec f/2.8 @ ISO6400

Going to extremes

It's all too easy to get stuck in a rut. Doesn't matter if it's five inches of travel, autofocus or a favourite trail... every once in a while it's good to get out of your comfort zone.

Shank's pony. Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/1600sec f/6.3 @ ISO200

So yesterday I did something I've been meaning to do for a while. I packed minimalist camera gear, roped in a willing companion / model, and tackled a mountain route from an old guide book that's been beckoning for the past few months. Partly for fun, partly out of curiosity. Described with characteristically British understatement as 'very severe', I was curious to see if 22 years of mountain bike development since the route's publication would make the going any easier.

It goes much bigger if you click on it. Nikon D3, 16mm f/2.8, 1/320sec f/6.3 @ ISO200

How did we get on? There are a couple of clues in the 'B' roll pics here. For the rest of the pics - and the full story - you'll have to wait until later in the year. It's probably not what you're expecting.

May photo course: just one place remaining

What it says on the tin: very nearly sold out. Drop me a line if you want to snap up the last available place. 

Cover: What Mountain Bike March '11

Nikon D3, 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/7.1 @ ISO200, single radio slave

Back in the mists of time (well, OK, about 7 or 8 years ago) most of the mag covers I was involved with weren't set up, they just sort of happened. That probably sounds rather random. And perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, it was. Which is one of the reasons why, sometime around 2004 or 2005, cover guidelines were drawn up, budgets set aside and the era of the 'cover shoot' was born.

And since then, the vast majority of my mag covers have been deliberately shot as, well, covers.

This is one of the rare exceptions. I never intended this to be a cover shot and, in fact, I went to the trouble of dragging this bike (which was the allotted cover star) on a 500 mile round trip to get a dramatically scenic shot. But, as is the way with these things sometimes, the scenic shot actually wasn't as good as this one. And so this one found its way onto the cover. Funny how these things work out sometimes.

The bike in question is a rather spangly 2011 Stumpjumper, which was pitted against its 1995 counterpart. Yes, really (and the outcome isn't necessarily what you're thinking - read the mag to find out more). Shooting a bike that pre-dates the start of my professional bike photographer career by a full year was a bizarre enough experience in itself. Shooting it on a digital camera was, for some reason, even weirder. It felt... wrong. I would have felt more comfortable using my F5 and film. Er, except the F5 wasn't launched until 1996...

Who said cheesy album cover poses don't work? Nikon D3, 17-35mm f/2.8, 1/320sec f/6.3, two radio slaves

Steel is real. Man. Nikon D3, 17-35mm f/2.8, 1/200sec f/5 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

My that's a long... stem. Nikon D3, 17-35mm f/2.8, 1/250sec f/8 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

The bike in question has been lovingly brought back to life with period components by Tim Bowden. Every detail is as it would have been in 1995, right down to the new old stock tyres (which, up to our shoot, still had the chalk from the factory on them). And yes, Tim's also sporting period kit from Specialized.

But this is no trailer queen -it's going to be used and enjoyed out on the trails. Respect is most definitely due.