Opted for a relatively local trail today. Had a late start, wasn’t sure about the weather and Max had to do some studying, which, meant he couldn’t ride all day and night. Just the day. Was kinda warm, we got a bit whacked with the heat at the end of the climb, and, as usual, took little food. Took a couple of nice fisheye shots higher up on the trail where there are some cool exposed switch-backs. This pic is from a spot about half way down, taken with a Nikon D700 and the Nikkor 24mm @ f/1.4.

… and then some biking

We went out to get some proper height meters done today. And it was worth every drop of sweat. Pic shows Tom riding in front of some sweet scenery. I had hoped for a bit better light on that spot, but the clouds just wouldn’t cooperate… well, I like the texture of the clouds too… (shot with Panasonic LX5)

Ok, so i recently bought the Panasonic Lumix LX5 to have a veeeery lightweight rig on those “long-carrying-much-sweating” trips. The cam has a decent interface, lets me control every aspect i need and even lets me shoot with external flashes (at 1/1000s sync ). I tested it i on a week long BikeHiker trip and  i’m pretty happy with it. The pics shows Tom riding some sweet limestone karst formations above Sella Nevea. Both pics are at the widest lens angle 24mm. Second converted to BW with Adobe Lightroom.

Felix

Had the pleasure of shooting some BIKE magazine pics in June with Christoph and Peter.  Did the shoot down around Kochelsee. Since we had a few bikes to get through, the lads decided to get their asses and bikes up to the hut by driving the rental.  Which was cool since I also had some heavy glass with me. Walked up a trail I’d been to the year before and found some sweet spots. This was the first bend we shot that day and I’m happy with the pic. Taken with the Nikkor 14-24 on a D700 with two SB900 remote flashes throwing in the extra light.

Spent an evening in June doing some urban cargo bike pics around Munich. Main aim was to do some panning pics at some nice spots around the town. As usual the light wasn’t really cooperating, every time I picked the camera up the sun went behind clouds. We thought Haidhausen would be cool, so we stopped at this corner in Bordeauxplatz, just opposite the Augustiner bar. Mike pitched in as fast as he could past me, dodging red lights, trams and old ladies with poodles. I panned with a D700 on 8fps motor drive with the 35mm f/2 and caught this. Used 1/60th @ f/10, ISO200.  Wanted to get more of a natural feel, so no flash, just available light.

Virtually the following weekend the same pic was in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, in the Munich part. Mike was / still is on his crusade for less cars and more bike transport in the cities, particularly in relation to couriers. At over 1M in circulation I was happy to see the pic there but also a little disappointed that I wasn’t credited. My name / copyright is always embedded in the IPCT so they could have checked. Here’s how the article looked, just snapped from my phone..

After this pic we stopped for a beer, just to rehydrate after some hard shooting.  Little did I know then that more interesting shoots were coming up, since, after recent heavy rains we still had loads of cool puddles around Munich.  Earlier in the day we’d checked out Kultfabrik, close to Ostbahnhof, and saw the water. Mike was mega-keen to try a water skid / spray shot and I had the flash gear in the car, so, w.t.f, and we rode over to the spot.  Ended up taking loads of different shots here, from super mans, to skids, to crashes, to no legs …

I set two SB900 flashes up, one either side of the water and zoomed in with the 70-200m f/2.8. I’d seen example pics before where the ambient was cut much more, lighting only the rider and the spray, but in this case I wanted more of the scene.  Took a while of playing around with the angles, mainly to ensure a clean reflection, especially around his head, however, we finally ended up with the following shot. Quite happy with it.

Some pics here of the latest bike. Bought as a complete set from Surly, just changed the bars, saddle, seat so far.  Flats just now, Eggbeaters soon. Perhaps a different stem / bars combo as well.  Been wanting one of these frames / bikes for a while now so happy I finally did it.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

All pics taken with a Panasonic GH2 and the CV Nokton 25mm f/0.95.

Been at the Brenner Downhill to get some impressions from the first ever Downhill Race at the new bike park. Well, it even were the first days of the bike park, with the trails opening just 2 days before… Despite (or because of?!?) a bit of mud the first day the race turned out pretty well and i got a couple of good shots. First one is Geli Plank in the ladies funclass zooming by at the bottom part of the trail. Second one is a lucky shot with the junior Kevin Frisch biting the dust (or rather the handlebar…) during qualifications run. It was a very fast and sharp corner and i just pressed the trigger whenever i saw some part of the rider move into my viewer. I only realized afterwards that i had it spot on during this crash .

Felix

Tobi and I got half way up objective #1 today and got snowed out. Should of had the skis.  After 30 mins of sun bathing Tobi suggested objective #2.  This would involve riding down to the valley then hiking back up another hill.  Kinda painfull, don’t you think Tobi? Colin, we either go home or hike up another hill. Okay, okay, we hike up again. Glad we did since the evening light was just awesome…

Was in Innsbruck yesterday for the Nordkette trail opening. Fabi convinced me to ride up. Got to within one photo bend of the top before I gave up on the climb.  Just sat in the sun for half an hour and took some pics. Most of the riders were pretty lame on this bend but occasionally there were one or two fucking caning it round, such as this Dude. Vince did a great job at some dust shots, which, I might publish soon.

Was relatively camera light, just took the D700 + 20mm f/2.8 and the 85mm f/1.8 primes.  The 70-200mm and the 14-24mm are not the first choice on 1000m climbs. Tried a couple of shots here with the 20mm first but then wanted more compression with Innsbruck below, so switched to the 85mm. Amazing what a difference in this spot the focal length makes. Got to be careful not to get the gondola cables in the frame here too.

After some shots I smoothly rode the trail down ( ha ha ) and enjoyed some spare ribs and chat at Wolke 7.

Was a fun day.

Was out at the Green Days as well, taking a couple of shots. And let me tell you, the light was awesome, add some dusty turns, and there you go . Pic shows Gerhard shredding it with a huge hangover (guess those double Tequila-Stuntmans the night before didn’t exactly help…). And as this are the GREEN days, here’s an only green version of the same pic: