Seb Rogers: mountain bike photography

Mixing it up: Cycling Plus, skinny tyres and a whole bunch of techniques

Although most of my work involves taking pictures of people riding bicycles off the beaten path (or at the very least away from traffic), I'm a big fan of just about anything that happens on two wheels, particularly when the engine is a carbon-based biped. So when the opportunity arises to shoot something a little different, I usually jump at it.

Cycling Plus magazine caters to a broad church of riders who mostly use their bikes on the road, whether it's for commuting, racing, training, touring or just for the sheer joy of pedalling. Although I've been a contributor in the past, it's been a while since I shot anything for the mag. So earlier in the year I approached the art ed, asked if he had any work available, and found myself with a big commuter bike test to shoot and a deadline 10 days away. I was busy already, but how could I say no?

Given that it had been a while, I treated the shoot as a first-time job. Which is another way of saying I wanted to impress the client. So I chose a gritty urban location that would give me a mixture of backdrops, lined up a bunch of willing riders... and prepared to open my Big Bag of Techniques.

We started with some straightforward long lens pics, using shallow depth of field to make the riders stand out against some industrial architecture. Er, that'll be an old railway bridge, then...

Nikon D300, 80-200mm f/2.8, 1/500sec f/2.8 @ ISO400

Next I dropped the shutter speed right down to emphasise the riders' speed, choosing a couple of different backgrounds. Can you say 'panning technique'?

Nikon D300, 80-200mm f/2.8, 1/30sec f/9 @ ISO400

Nikon D300, 80-200mm f/2.8, 1/15sec f/7.1 @ ISO200, two radio slaves

Finally I broke out the Magic Arm, the fisheye and Capture NX's magic fisheye straightening function to shoot some on-bike action:

Nikon D300, 10.5mm f/2.8, 1/25sec f/5.6 @ ISO400

Nikon D300, 10.5mm f/2.8, 1/30sec f/18 @ ISO200

I'm pleased with the results, on the whole. You can't put a skinny-tyred commuting bike in the same kind of dramatic scenario that you can (say) a 150mm travel full bouncer, so it's a question of coming up with techniques, backdrops and angles that play to the bikes' strengths. Which, in this case, is covering the (tarmacced) ground fast.

Incidentally, if you've been paying attention you'll have noticed that I broke out my rather neglected D300 for this shoot. There's a simple reason for that: working with DX and FX bodies alongside each other can easily lead to a rather cumbershome lens selection. Since I knew I'd be shooting some onboard pics with the Magic Arm (the D3 is just way too big and heavy to even consider it for this job), the D300 was already in the bag. I figured I might as well do the whole shoot with it. Although the day started out pretty dull and I was pushing the ISO for several pics to 800 and beyond, it held up remarkably well and reminded me why I bought it in the first place.

I think I need to use the D300 more...

Bike photo snafus

I'm writing a short piece on bike photography technique for publication. Yes, in actual print. Part of the feature will look at common problems and how to avoid them.

So... I'm interested. What do you regard as common or recurring problems in your bike photos? I think I've got most of the bases covered, but several heads are often better than one in this kind of situation. Feedback and comments welcome...

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

Facebook: a request

My blog posts here are also published on my Facebook page. Which is good. The trouble is, while my posts are automatically copied over to Facebook, any comments that you write don't find their way back here. Which means I can sometimes find myself having different conversations about the same topic in two different places.

So... at risk of being awkward, can I ask that you post comments to the blog and not on the Facebook version of the blog? That way everyone gets to see them and all the interaction happens in one place. Thank you!

The problem with camera reviews

Update: in a piece of comic timing that couldn't have been better scripted, I've just been asked to compile a mini camera review. So in the spirit of putting my words where my mouth is, I'd better make it a good one. Watch this space...

//Warning: mild rant content ahead//

The other day I happened to read the final part of a head-to-head review of two top end 'prosumer' dSLRs. The conclusion surprised me, then got me irritated, and finally got me surprisingly cross. The 'winning' camera emerged on top not on the basis of its build, handling or image quality. No, it earned its position on the podium because it has an in-camera 'rating system'. Say what? You can 'rate' images while you peer at them on the 3 inch wide screen. This, apparently, is a Good Thing.

Really? I mean, really?

Leaving aside the fact that this amounts to little more than a tit-for-tat breakdown of the cameras' spec tables ('this one goes all the way to 11. It's louder, so it must be better'), I can't think of a single good photographer who would do such a thing. There's the time factor, for a start. Being able to review images is very useful, but while you're out there taking pictures the thing to do is, um, take pictures. Not squint at them on a teeny little screen. And if you're not actually taking pictures, it's probably time to whip out the card, stick it in a card reader and pull up those images nice and big so you can get a proper handle on which ones are worth keeping and which aren't. 

Why on earth would you even attempt such an exercise on a tiny, uncalibrated screen?

The trouble is, this is just an extreme example of the fallacy of much camera 'testing'. Years ago, when Nikon's venerable F5 was my tool of choice, I remember a reviewer complaining that the camera's various locking controls were fiddly and slowed operation down. Not if you used the camera day-in, day-out they didn't - and they were there, after all, to prevent settings from being dislodged inadvertently. I can still switch an F5 on and off (two finger operation) and change all the settings without even looking at the camera.

When you don't use a camera all the time, 'testing' one quickly becomes an exercise in comparing spec tables and squinting at resolution charts. Both of which are largely meaningless. The same reviewer who liked the in-camera rating system has also recently posted some speculation about Nikon's allegedly forthcoming D800. It amounts to little more than a wish-list of specs including 24mp, 8fps, 100,000+ ISO and - yep, you guessed it - an in-camera rating system. I don't even know where to start with what's wrong with that little lot.

There have undoubtedly been some dramatic and very useful advances in camera technology over the past decade. But in-camera rating sytems, frankly, aren't on the list. The lesson? Don't pay too much attention to reviews. Buy a camera that feels good in your hands and then go out and use it.

//Rant ends//

Digital magazines and video: a brave new publishing world?

The odd thing about the current crop of video-enabled dSLRs is that they were, to some extent, the result of big news agencies looking for a way to add value to their online content. 'We've got a photographer there already, so what if they could press a button and shoot video too?' was the line of thought and, at face value, it made sense.

If you look around, though, it hasn't amounted to an awful lot. Print media companies' web content is still predominantly stills-based. Anyone who's shot (and edited) video beyond Youtube standard will have some inkling of the reason why that's so: time. Or rather, money. Or perhaps more accurately, both. Production budgets aren't any bigger than they used to be, much online content is given away free and so the only way video is going to happen is if it's squeezed into existing working days. 

Anyone else see the problem with that?

Then today, I came across this blog post, featuring a glossy promo video all about the new iPad edition of Martha Stewart's mag. With the mag's high production values, large budget and affluent target market, they've pushed the boat out to make the most of the opportunities afforded by publishing a mag on a large handheld digital thingumy. Wide, wide panoramic stills can now be published, and scrolled by the viewer. Images can be animated. Boxouts don't need to fit on the page, they just need a scroll bar. Video links can be incorporated. And so on. It's all very clever.

The possibilities are certainly intriguing. Imagine a bike test, for example, where you can view not just a still action shot of the bike in question but a video clip of it being ridden. 

And yet... I'm still not entirely convinced. Unless the budget is there to make the extra whizz-bang features work properly, the risk is that the pressure to capture video and stills by one photographer (for example) will impact on the stills and relegate the video to little more than a gimmick. And I'm not sure readers will stick around very long for gimmicks.

The thing is, I'd really like to be proved wrong. There's scope for making digital mag editions interactive in a way that's genuinely useful, and that's to be welcomed. If the difference between print and digital editions is compelling enough to pull in a whole new (paying) audience, we could see a reverse in the decline of mag circulation figures. Will it happen? I think it depends partly on the willingness of print publishing to find a bit of extra cash down the back of the sofa...

IMBA calendar 2011: cover +

IMBA's 2011 calendar is now available... with one of my images on the cover and five gracing the inside pages. It's the one calendar likely to find itself on the wall of bike manufacturers, distributors and retailers throughout the US and the rest of the world, so it's always a pleasure to be able to contribute. And it's a testimony to the quality of the riding on the Long Mynd in Shropshire that it's found its way onto the cover. Buy your copy here and support a worthwhile cause.

Privateer issue one cover: limited edition print available

I don't think I've ever had such an enthusiastic reception to a single photo as the one I received in response to my recent Privateer cover.

So I'm making this image available as a limited edition print, just in time for Christmas. Good timing, eh? Printed on super A3 (483x330mm) fine art paper with a rebate and narrow black border to allow for framing without cropping, the size and texture of the paper do the subtle colours justice. It looks, even if I say so myself, stunning. Yes, you'll need a decent sized frame and a reasonable amount of wall space on which to hang it, but I make no apology for that. It's a picture that needs to breathe.

Hang this on your wall. Without the Privateer masthead and logo, obviously...

The edition will be limited to just 10. Each print will be numbered and, if you wish, signed. And the price? £70 delivered. That's barely more than one of my standard A3 prints.

Interested? Drop me a line, or your significant other a hint...

The perfect mountain bike Christmas gift: signed, framed prints

This post is a sticky and will remain at the top of the front page for a while. Not what you came here to see? Scroll down for the latest content...

Update, 16th December: 

I've just received my last pre-Christmas delivery of triptych frames. If you live in the UK there's still time - just - to order a triptych in time for Christmas. The last day I can post for delivery on or before 24th December 2010 is, well, Thursday 23rd December. 3:30 GMT, to be precise. But that's cutting it pretty fine, so please make sure you have your order with me by Wednesday 22nd December at the very latest. I need some time for printing, mounting and packing...

Now shipping to Europe at no extra charge

Finding the right gift for someone who eats, breathes and sleeps bikes (or would like to, given half a chance) is never easy. But following the success of my limited edition triptychs a couple of years back, I've put together a new collection of images for 2010. 

Each one features a series of three themed images beautifully mounted, framed, signed and individually numbered. The 20x60cm (approx. 8"x24") frames sit well on even the most limited wall space, and the deep black surround matches most decor. I'll only be making a maximum of 10 (yep, ten) of each.

Not much wall space? No problem...

Individually signed and numbered. I'll only be making 10 of each...

Oh, the themes? Here they are (the framed versions obviously won't be watermarked). Click to view at a decent size:

Best of British (Lakes, Long Mynd and Snowdon, since you asked)

Mountain 2

Speed

Not quite what you're looking for? I also have very limited quantities of 2008's run of limited edition triptychs. Be quick if you want one of these - once I've printed 10 that's it!

Mountain

Sky

Water

I'm confident you won't find anything like these prints anywhere else. And the best bit is the price, which hasn't changed since 2008: £99.00, delivered to your door. Yep, less than £100 for a framed, signed, limited edition print.

Go on, put a bit of riding magic on the wall of someone who'd rather be out on their bike...

You can pay by Paypal ([email protected]), or email me if you'd prefer to pay by cheque or direct bank transfer. I'll need to know which print you'd like and your delivery address. Please allow up to 28 days for delivery. For delivery before Christmas, please ensure I have your order before December 10th. If you need your order urgently, I will do my best to get your prints out to you quickly, but please ask before placing your order to avoid disappointment.

FAQs

- can you deliver outside the UK?

Yes, I can ship to Europe, but not further afield than that due to the fragile nature of the frames. If in doubt, please ask.

- how big are the prints?

Each print is roughly 9.5x14cm (3.75"x5.5"). The frames are 20x60cm (8"x24").

- how long will the prints last?

Print longevity depends on a lot of factors including temperature, humidity and exposure to light. I've used the highest quality inks and paper and a professional printer to ensure that my prints are as resistant to fading as possible. With a little care in handling, display and storage they should last decades.

- can I choose which three pictures to put in the frame?

I've put a lot of time into matching each series of three images, so the answer is no, I'm afraid.

- where were the images taken?

Nepal, the South Downs, Exmoor, the French Alps, mid Wales, the Lakes, the Long Mynd... Each frame will have full captions on the rear.

- I have another question...

email me.

Ordnance Survey cover: Crawley and Horsham

I've had a few map covers over the years, but this one crept up on me unawares. Nice to get a surprise from time to time... 

Last time I looked (and with the greatest of respect to the residents of the two places in question), neither Crawley nor Horsham looked this good. Nope, that's Mr Burt of Mint Sauce infamy, on a late summer's evening, enjoying the expansive view over the Sussex Weald from one of my favourite spots just below Devil's Dyke.

Originally shot in landscape format, the same shot also graces a double page spread in Footprint Guides' new Adventure Britain book, along with several more of my pics.

So? So it's another lesson in copyright, licensing and maximising revenue. I got paid once for taking the original image as part of a commissioned shoot... and then once more for the map cover... and then again for the book dps. Retaining both copyright and the right to re-sell (they're not necessarily the same thing) is a Good Thing.