The first issue of FREERIDE 2010 is now on the shelves. This pic is the opener for the Enduro test done down in Finale Ligure, Italy. With 14 bikes + some big bikes to test, the lads were hammering this trail for 2 solid days. It’s really an eye opener to see how much these guys work their asses off doing their best to get an accurate and balanced test report. Although I was there as the photographer, I did get to ride most of the bikes and must say I agree totally with their final rankings.

I liked this spot and knew I wanted to return there once they had more time for pics. This one of Schleker the Machine is unusual since he has both wheels on the ground, however, what I did aim to do instead was  to catch the speed at which he slotted the bike between those trees. No room for error. Light was flat and grey, so I set up two flashes firing head on and a third firing in from the left behind the foreground tree.  Got as low as I could, literally lying along the deck with the 14-24mm resting on my hand on the ground. Wanted the front wheel to be exiting the frame and still to maintain some motion blur, so at the max flash sync speed I knew I had to get damn close. When you have that type of glass exposed full on and his elbow shaving the hairs off your head then staying cool is challenging. Had to adjust the height of the front flashes a little but on the 3rd go we got it. Or was it the 4th? Or 5th?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 22:37 and is filed under Common. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.