Brisbane

Brisbane River: Will (bro-in-law, rider leaning against the railing) and I went for a ride around the Brisbane River yesterday and I took a few shots.  This shot is actually 5 photo’s stitched together.

Chase The Sun Round 2

Sunday 18th July saw round 2 of the Chase The Sun series at Lysterfield Lake Park on what was a very sunny but windy morning which later turned into a freezing wet mud-fest!  Choosing not to ride (my bike is in transit to Brisbane) I thought I’d head along to take some shots and test out a new lens I’d picked up last week.  About 2 hours into the 6 hour race I discovered that the faster focus motors on my new lens suck the battery life a bit quicker than usual and I needed to change batteries.  As it turns out I forgot to charge my spare battery – let’s just say it was a nice day for a hike!  I walked back to the transition area where I spent the rest of the day catching up with friends so the day wasn’t a total wash-out.  I managed to get back there before the freezing rain started so I was actually thankful that my “camera luck” had run out and I wasn’t stuck on course getting saturated.

Congrats to the Full Gas team for another well run event and to Trailmix for awesome coffee!

Check out the images I took over at my photo site here

While I was on course I met fellow photographer Tim Arch.  He’s also an avid mountain biker/photographer and his images are amazing.  Check them out here.

After I got home and started going through the images I took during the day I came across this one of James Maebus and immediately though “Cover-shot!” (yes, yes, delusions of grandeur I know) so I thought I’d have a bit of fun with it.  Thankfully James is ok with it!

I’m heading up to Brisbane this afternoon to compete in the Merida 24 at Old Hidden Vale this weekend.  I’ll be racing in a team of 4 so I hope to get some good shots in between laps and should have a full wrap-up and images up by this time next week.  Stay tuned!

New Job

Saturday was the last day of my retail working life!  I’ve accepted a job as a Sales Rep for a bicycle parts wholesaler and start early August.  I’ll be on holiday for 3 weeks and on Tuesday next week I’ll be flying up to Brisbane to race in the Merida 24 at Old Hidden Vale with Team Riddler‘s Northern Chapter.  I’ll be packing my camera and will try and snap as much as possible in between laps so stay tuned for more action.

New Site: sfPhoto – Mountain Bike Photography

I’ve decided to move all my event images across to a dedicated photography hosting site which you can view here.  It’s a more sophisticated site designed with photography in mind and better at viewing and displaying images and you should be able to sort and search for images by name in the future.  I’ll continue to post race reports and photo’s from fun rides and other random stuff here but all the event photo’s will be over at sfPhoto.  The name’s a bit shorter and easier to remember too 😉

It still needs a bit of polish but the site is fully functional  – http://sfphoto.photomerchant.net

If you have any tips or suggestions feel free to email me.

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Interwinter Round 3 – Castlemaine

So I haven’t been on the bike in a while thanks to a: the crazy cold weather we’ve been having lately and b: I’ve been feeling a bit lazy of late.  Anyway, I thought I’d have a crack at Round 3 of the Victorian Inter-winter series (great concept btw – 4 of VIC’s finest mtb clubs each hosting a different xc racing discipline).  Central Victorian Rocky Riders hosted this well run event at the Pineys in Castlemaine and the format for this round was XCO (Cross Country Olympic – a set number of laps over a short course – 7.5km’s to be exact).  120 riders turned out despite the cold and A grade were up for 4 laps, B grade 3 and C grade 2 laps.  Seeing as I didn’t have a lot of km’s in the legs I entered C grade and was subsequently called a “Sandbagger” by those who shall remain nameless.

The course was fantastic!  It was pretty technical with rocks and slippery pine roots covering a good majority of the track with some steep pinch climbs and twisting descents making it tricky to negotiate if you didn’t have your eye in – a real mountain bikers course.  You had to have your wits about you or else you’d end up over the bars.

The Race: After starting strongly and feeling OK on the first climb I hit the first bit of single track in 2nd and managed to put considerable time between myself and the rest of the bunch (after watching the guy in front quickly disappear).  About 3 km’s in however the lactic acid started kicking in and the cold air was ripping at my throat and lungs and fatigue started to hit me.  Not having ridden this style of event in years I didn’t know how to pace myself and got carried away with all the adrenaline of the start.  I’d gone out too hard too early and I’d “blown up”.  Halfway through the first lap my ability to concentrate and control my bike left and I ended up going over the bars into on a slippery descent which put my bike and myself into a fat pine tree.  After picking myself up, brushing off the mud and making sure both bike and body were all intact I continued to amble around for the rest of the race having a somewhat deflated ego and managed to roll across the line in 11th place.

I drove up with Ben who absolutely smashed C grade, winning by a good couple of minutes.  It was his first race of this kind ever!  Even though we drove for longer than we rode it was an awesome day riding fun new and unfamiliar trails.

Mel’s awesome socks!

Ben – C Grade winner!

Ben And Paul

Ben Randall

Chase The Sun 2010 Round 1

Today saw Round 1 of the Chase The Sun MTB Enduro series presented by Full Gas Promotions held at Lysterfield Lake Park, Victoria.  It was a bit of a grey day but the rain managed to hold off and the sun even made a brief appearance as  the final riders made their way through the timing tent for the last time (how appropriate).  OK, OK –  so I was a bit late getting there and missed the start but I managed to get around the course and snapped as many riders as I could.  I left the bike at home (sadly I am long overdue for an osteo appointment to fix my worn out legs) and every rider that passed me made wish I was enjoying what looked like a fun, fast and flowy course – NEXT ROUND!!!

Check out the photo’s HERE

Don’t forget – If you see any images in this section that you wish to purchase, please copy the URL(s) of the image(s) and paste it into the body of an email with the heading “Nice Photo – can I have a copy?” and I will send you the high quality JPEG for just $5 each (I was only shooting in JPEG today – sorry, no RAW files).

Autumn afternoon at the You Yangs

Yesterday was the a perfect day for a leisurely roll around the flats at the You Yangs.  The weather was amazing and the light was perfect.

Check out the photo’s here

Beaconsfield Rock Hop 6 Hour – FAIL

“I’ll be right, I haven’t ridden for about 3 weeks but I can smash out 6 hours of riding no probs!” – WRONG!

After getting up way too early for a Sunday morning I packed the remainder of what I thought I might need for the race then hit the road.  I was surprised at how little time it took on the Eastlink freeway and got to the race in less time than expected.  I bumped into Rik and Anna from ORCA while I was at registration and decided to set up camp with them at about the halfway point.

This was the first time I had ridden at Upper Beaconsfield and I was fairly impressed by the course and how technical it was in sections.  The track terrain was varied due to the fact that it dipped in and out of gully’s then up to the tops of the surrounding hills.  One moment you were in a rain forest style gully with moss on every rock, ferns, soft soil under your wheels and small creeks trickling quietly underneath the log bridges, then once you climbed out you were faced with sand, granite boulders of various shapes and sizes which were pretty tricky to negotiate if you didn’t have your eye in (I left my eye at home).  Some sections of the course looked as though it had only recently been cut in but whoever is building the trails out there is doing an awesome job!

I wouldn’t say the course was too hard but the lack of training leading up to this race made it hard enough for me.  I started to feel the all too familiar aches in the lower back and knee and I just didn’t feel like pushing through the pain barrier today.  When I got back to camp after a lap and a half I stopped, thought about continuing for a split second then thought better of it.  I had a rest and some food then grabbed my camera bag and went for a leisurely ride.

The weather was overcast today making capturing the action a bit harder.  I also used my wireless flash trigger for the first time with limited success.  You can see a few of the images I managed to snap HERE

I didn’t end up staying for the whole day but congrats to all those who slogged it out and managed to finish and thanks to Anna and Rik for support!  Big-ups to the Dirt Riders club for putting on a well run event in a great location – Awesome course!

New Gear

The wireless flash trigger I ordered showed up today.  Can’t wait to get out and test them – anyone wanna go for a ride?

VIC DH Series Round 7 – You Yangs

ANZAC Day 2010 saw the final round of the Victorian Downhill Series held at the You Yangs Mountain Bike Park.  The recently upgraded track 10 was looking good with plenty of fast flowy sections, drops, rock gardens and man made “megastructures” (creek gap looked awesome) to keep the short track action packed for the riders and spectators alike.

It started raining heavily just before the Elite guys started their race runs so I didn’t get as many images as I would have liked.  Camera’s and rain don’t belong in the same sentence let alone the same place – next time I won’t leave the umbrella in the car!

Check out a small selection of what I shot HERE.