Seb Rogers: mountain bike photography

Ideal Christmas gift for the mountain biker in your life - and now at 20% off

Update 8th December 2012: only two frames remaining. Get your order in now!

If you're looking for the ideal Christmas gift for the mountain biker in your life, I may have the answer: a limited edition triptych* print. Framed, signed and ideal for filling that awkward-shaped space on the wall in a workshop, lounge, study or office, for the rider who has everything it's an unusual, distinctive gift that'll bring a bit of mountain biking magic indoors all year round.

Each print is limited to a run of 10.

Last year I ordered too many frames. So to clear the surplus frame stock, this year I'm offering, on a first-come first-served basis, a very limited quantity at 20% off the previous price.

Yep, you can get a signed, limited edition framed triptych delivered to your door for £79.99 (previously £99.99).

The surplus frames I have number in single digits, so don't hang about. If you'd like to order one, please drop me a line and I'll send you payment details.

Themes? Here they are (some now available in very limited quantities indeed). Click to view at a decent size:

1. Best of British

2. Mountain 2

3. Speed

4. Mountain 1

5. Sky

6. Water

* Tripwhat? A triptych is a series of three prints on a theme, mounted in the same frame. More distinctive than a single framed print, the rectangular frame shape also fits well in rooms with limited wall space.

 

It's all glamour

Sometimes shoots don't go quite according to plan. On the whole I try to avoid hailstorms, particuarly when there's a gale force wind powering those little pellets of ice. But there are occasions when you've just gotta get on with it. And it's at times like this that I have to keep reminding myself... part of the reason I'm paid to do this stuff is having the ability to extract a good result from what looks, on the face of it, iike a disaster. Hint: it helps to have head-to-toe Goretex and the ability to repeat 'it'll be fine' ad infinitum.

I'd add a picture to this post to show you what I'm talking about, except that that would defeat the purpose of the entire shoot. All will be revealed in 2012.

Cover: Cycling Plus Nov 2011

Although I spend most of my riding and shooting time on bikes shod with fat tyres, there's more to life than mud-packs and compression damping settings. Road is massive right now. A perfect storm of resurgent British pro cycling fortunes, subsidised bikes for riding to work, rising fuel prices and a whole bunch of other factors are conspiring to drive (no pun intended) more people out of their cars and onto bikes.

As a result, road bikes are sexy again. And, although there are some differences in the way that road and off-road bikes need to be shot, the basic principles are the same. So, although I sold my own road bike years ago (I was weary of dealing with the stress of too many near-misses caused by poor driving), it's great to be involved again with a sport that's very much alive and kicking.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/320sec f/9 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

To prove the point, here's my first Cycling Plus cover in, ooh, over a decade. Smooth Tarmac, blue sky, warm sun... what's not to like? I gave my neck muscles a good workout by lying in the middle of the road for a beetle's eye view of the passing rider. It almost makes me want to go out and buy a road bike again. Now that can't be bad...

Canon 1DX: finally, fast full frame

Canon's pre-announcement of their new range-topping 1DX will have that there internet awash with commentary. Much of it, inevitably, will be predicting the imminent demise of arch-rival Nikon if it doesn't immediately launch a competitor that does everything Canon's camera does, plus make the tea. So, for what (very little) it's worth, I thought I might as well add my ha'pennorth:

1. Canon got there eventually

There's nothing magic about full frame. DX works just as well, most of the time, and has a significant cost advantage. But Canon and Nikon both have many thousands of pro users out there with large collections of legacy full frame lenses. A fair few of them have even been around long enough to remember film. And there's no doubting that if you want to go wide AND fast, full frame is where it's at. Plus, of course, all else equal, bigger sensors work better in low light.

For years, though, Canon users had to choose. Full frame, slow and expensive... or cropped, fast and (marginally) cheaper. Canon has cunningly simplified the choice to one. Full frame, even faster and, er, expensive. Cunning.

2. It's gonna cost

Yep, that's the big downside of the new camera, as far as I can see. The asking price is around the same as for Canon's high pixel count 1Ds series of old. There'll be a lot of pro snappers wincing at that price tag. It always was a bit of a reach, but in the past you could opt for the slightly less wallet-pounding option instead. Not any more. With pro rates stagnant, clients' budgets stretched and more competition than ever, pro snappers with their heads screwed on will be pausing before reaching for the plastic.

3. More, bigger, faster

Not that there won't be plenty of takers. The 1DX is all about more and bigger and faster. 50% more pixels than Nikon's D3S (note that that doesn't mean 50% more resolving power, though). 33% faster frame rate. More AF sensors. Faster processors. And all that jazz.

Does any of this mean better pictures? Nope. It's all predictable, evolutionary stuff that'll have little noticable impact for most photographers (see also 'it's gonna cost', above).

4. Video yawn

Inevitably, it's got video. And, inevitably, it's got pretty good video. But it's still not a video camera, and the very companies that were clamouring for video-and-stills a few years ago (think big print media organisations) are now backing away from the idea. Is it cheaper than a RED? Sure. Is it as good as a RED? Doubt it. 

Personally, as a stills snapper, I'd rather have the option of a 1DX without video... and pay less for it. But that's not going to happen anytime soon.

5. Everything's different. Everything's stayed the same

A new camera with bigger stuff, more widgets and faster things always gets people excited. The thing is, though, the cameras we're all using right now didn't suddenly get worse. For all the upgrade frenzy, these are straitened times for western economies in general and pro photographers in particular. The 1DX was bound to happen. But it won't revolutionise photography.

It never rains but it pours

Earlier this year - in July, in fact, at the height of what passes for summer on this windswept island of ours - I got the call from the guys at What Mountain Bike to shoot their annual Bike of the Year feature. These shoots are always full-on but big fun, and the results - spread over a big chunk of the mag - make the effort worthwhile.

Over the years various formats have been tried. None of them are particularly easy to shoot, involving as they do at least one van crammed to the roof with bikes, a number of different locations, several riders, variable weather and a brief that'll happily cover several pages. But the past two years - 2009 and 2010 - we attempted the impossible, shooting the whole thing in less than five consecutive days at the tail end of a British winter, in two of the wettest and wildest places the UK has to offer, the Lake District and Snowdonia.

Amazingly, on both occasions, we not only pulled it off but lucked out with no rain and plenty of big, blue skies with sunshine to match.

So this year we thought we'd stack the odds in our favour. Fewer bikes (a mere 10), and a shift to mid-summer to guarantee decent weather.

Hah!

British summers are rarely predictable, beyond being predictably unpredictable. And this July proved to be no exception. Day one of our allotted five days in the Lake District (yep, back there again, but in completely different locations from 2009) dawned grey, cold and variously damp or soaking. Here's art ed Robin on the fellside, complete with improvised headgear:

Nikon D300, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/400sec f/5.6 @ ISO800

Now it's fair to say that Robin feels the cold a bit more than most, but even so... the weather was pretty shocking. Having seen the forecast for the week I'd come prepared with extra ziplock bags for my flashes and triggers, towels for me and the camera and head-to-toe Goretex. I'd even had to shell out for a new 12-24mm for the D300, my D3 having decided to stop cooperating with any of my older non AF-G lenses (in other words, anything that had an aperture ring) and a packed shooting schedule having conspired to ensure I didn't have time to get it fixed. With only the 14-24mm capable of providing me with a wide enough wide, I couldn't chance waving its huge front element around in mid-summer Lakeland inclemency. Not that the lens would've minded, but the rain drops on the front wouldn't have let me get any pics. 

So I started the week £600 down. And rather damp.

Still, the upside of all the Atlantic front-driven meterological activity was some intermittenly stunning light. I made the most of it.

Nikon D300, 50-150mm f/2.8, 1/500sec f/4.5 @ ISO200

Over the next couple of days I dragged our motley and mostly enthusiastic crew up an unrideable pass or two, in search of action shots of all 10 of the team's top bikes of the year that would stand out. It's fair to say that I've never gone to so much effort to get bike test pics, though you'd probably have to be a trail-spotting anorak to work out how far we went to get the shots. Not pictured in this shot, for example, is the hour-and-a-half push and carry it took to get there (or the exposed drop to the rider's right):

Nikon D300, 12-24mm f/4, 1/100sec f/9 @ ISO400, two radio slaves

The final shot of the shoot was the now traditional group pack shot. As with most relativley complicated pictures, getting to that final 1/320sec takes an awful lot longer than you might think. We needed to be able to arrange all 10 bikes so that they'd all be visible on the page, with room for captions. There needed to be some dramatic scenery in the background, and space for a headline and copy. Oh, and the bikes preferably shouldn't run across the gutter in the middle of the page.

Arranging everything is a matter of starting somewhere (usually at the front) and then building from there. At which point Robin normally has a look, makes a few pertinent suggestions... and we take half of the shot apart and put it back together again in a different order. Just to add to the complication, the flat lighting on our chosen day wasn't making my life any easier. I wanted to side or rim light every bike, but with just two flashes and the bikes spread over a large area that wasn't going to be simple.

In the end, with the camera on a tripod and a trusty helper to move lights around, I shot a dozen or so separate exposures and blended around half a dozen of them in Photoshop to come up with the final result. It's subtle, but every bike is lit.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm f/2.8, 1/320sec f/7.1 @ ISO200, multiple radio slaves / blended exposure

And here's a time-lapse of the set being broken down after we had the shot (with apologies for the shonky video edit, which has left a big slug of black at the end. Don't bother waiting... there's no hidden surprise).

What Mountain Bike Top 10 Bikes of the Year from Seb Rogers on Vimeo.

What are we going to do next year? I have no idea. But I'm hoping we can go back to blue skies, sunshine and dusty trails...

Ridgeback 2012 catalogue and website

Earlier this year I spent two packed and fun days in London shooting Ridgeback's new 2012 catalogue and website images. As usual, we had a very large van packed with an assortment of bikes covering the gamut from cyclocross to singlespeed via commuter and flat bar road bike. Master of ceremonies was Toby Howes, who is effectively Mr. Ridgeback and the mastermind and inspiration behind the brand's image as well as the bikes' design.

Toby's knowledge of north and west London streets is right up there with the average cab driver's, although he views it from a cyclist's and designer's perspective. We had a list of possible locations, a timetable based on model availability and a shot list longer than both Toby's arms put together. But we got it done, had a lot of fun in the process and came up with some new images that help bring the catalogue and website to life. 

One of the things I enjoy about the Ridgeback shoot is the sheer variety of techniques and kit I have to use. This year I used just about everything in the bag including the fisheye and Magic Arm, all shot on the D300 to keep things as discreet as possible. The hunt for new locations for 2013 is already on...

See that narrow sliver of sunlight under the canopy? That's serendipity, right there.

You don't need to mash the big ring to make it look fast. You just need a sloooow shutter speed.

The trouble with shooting people who are talking is you invariably grab awkward facial expressions. I had to ask the riders to just look adoringly at each other.

The simplist looking shots are often the hardest to get just right.

Working with children is equal parts pleasure and frustration, but the results make the effort worthwhile.

This is outside what has to be one of the best and most characterful bike shops in London. I would've loved to shoot inside, but there was barely room to swing a chain wrench.

Cover hat-trick

Despite appearances to the contrary on this 'ere blog, I've been pretty busy over the summer. So much so that, a couple of months back, I scored three magazine covers in a single month. And here they are.

1. MBUK, Sep 2011

Easily one of my favourite covers of the year, this is a stream crossing shot with a dramatic vibe courtesy of some punchy Photoshop pre-press by the guys at MBUK. Although the contrast, colours and sky are completely OTT, I love it. It's unusual to see a frozen water-splash on a cover, but it adds a certain something (and it just happens to be shot on one of my all-time favourite trails - Smith's Combe in the Quantocks).

2. What Mountain Bike, Aug 2011

Two rider cover shots are very hard to get right. There's not much space to cram both bikes and riders in, it's hard to avoid the second rider getting lost behind cover furniture, and then there's the timing to worry about. Still, this one came together very nicely. With a British summer theme and a location I'd come across previously on a route guide shoot (the patchwork quilt background is subtle but a vital part of the shot's overall feel), I shot a number of variations on the same theme. The longer lens shots brought the background forward more, but the dynamism of this wide shot won the day.

3. Cycle, Aug-Sep 2011

This is a stock image from several years ago. In fact, it was the first time I'd used my D2X for a commissioned shoot and, in the event, I was glad I did. Shot in mid summer in Cumbria, the weather on this day was gloomy and overcast. Out in the open I was fine at middling ISO values, but here under the trees the only way I could get a shot was to crank the ISO to 800, the aperture wide open to f/2.8 and keep my hand steady at around 1/200sec at the long end of my 80-200mm. These days it's a shot I wouldn't think twice about, but the D2X was maxed out at ISO800 and I had to use some careful - and fairly heavy - noise reduction at the raw processing stage. Even so, it's a nice shot and proof that you don't need the latest gear to produce commercially viable images.