Was shooting and riding at the Alpbachtal Green Day event yesterday.  Primarily I was getting some pics for Rock Machine, a Czech company who make a cool freeride bike called a “Whizz”. Maxi Dickerhoff was caning it’s ass off testing it on the trail and was just great at giving me those in your face action pics. One of them was actually in my face :-/ In the pic above Max Schumann is on his tail.  After a very pleasant lunch time break, I shot some pics of the FlowSisters – more coming soon !

Took a couple of color pics just after this lower down on the trail.  But, since I’m a sucker for black and white pics, I thought I’d post this one.  The approach track over is narrow in places passing through some cuttings and tunnels.  This one had a small kicker going into it so all the lads had to air it. Tobi got the whip just at the point I needed it for the composition maximum separation and contrast. Awesome !

Pic shows Max nailing it….

Out this early catching some morning light with Fabi Dude.  And testing some 1080p/24 using the Panasonic GH2 and a couple of different lenses ( Panny, Nikon, CV ).  Was a little apprehensive as to how the 24fps would cope with some action but it seems to handle it okay. Filmed in 16:9 then cropped to 2.35:1 in post.

Beautiful weather in Bavaria this weekend. Mid level trails are dry and dusty, which is hard to believe this early in the season. Got this pic 5 mins into the ride. Spotted a cool rock rib above the water and the whole scene was just oozing light. Lin was riding beside me so I knew there wouldn’t be an issue asking one of Munich’s best riders to just ride down that rock over there for a pic…

Decided to take the Nikon DX kit out for some fresh air.  Used the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 on a D300 to take this pic. Although the D300 is now some years old, there are still some features that I really like compared to the D700. Slightly higher frame rates and 100% view finder for a start. It’s just a shame the low light performance isn’t that great but in light like that I wasn’t caring.  Also meant that higher up the trail I could use the 10.5mm fisheye again, which is another beautiful piece of glass.

Shot some more Lupine pics a few nights back. This is one of the pics up at the hut just before the descent trail and before I hooked the flashes up.  Pic shows Max chilling and enjoying the sunset. For evening rides this is the best time to be on top. Just chilling watching the sun go down, enjoying the light and the changing colors. Peaceful and mellow. A beer would have been nice as well but the hut was already shut, unfortunately. With Lupine lights everybody focusses on the descent fun in the dark but one of things that’s often overlooked is being able to stay high and catch the mountain top sunsets. The lights makes this possible and actually one of the reasons I wanted Lupines:- to be high up and shoot the sunset light until it vanishes and then be able to ride down safely. They’re awesome tools for photographers as well as bikers

(Nikon D700 + 85mm f/1.8)

Spent the day at Hochfügen, above Zillertal, with Andi recently. Snow conditions were crap, since, with bad visibility, we were limited to the lower half of the mountain. Temp’s were warmer and the snow heavier. Not great for the landings, kinda makes them heavy and hard hitting, so Andi says. Before 1pm we spent 50 / 50 on the slopes / in the bar. Was going to drive home early but we couldn’t at that moment:-)  Sun poked through the clouds for a second. Andi re-collected the tickets from the ticket bunny. We went high and shot some more. Snow was still heavy. Alcohol wore off and we managed to get a handful of cool frames. Glad we didn’t give up early after all.