I keep saying to myself that I'm going to update this more, but I never think that I have anything interesting to say. So I'm gonna do some more interesting things with my time!
Anyway, first up I've realized that my National 4X Champs video didn't post. Whoops. So here it is!
Right. A few weeks ago now Adam "Pinner" Price mailed me asking if I wanted to go up to his local out at East Hill and do a little video with him and some mates. So I went out and made one! Wasn't the greatest days filming and didn't get heaps of footage but got a lot of good stuff which made for a pretty cool edit. I'd been wanting to make a chill edit for quite a while now, so that's what I did. A few people have said that the music isn't good. But personally I love it and think it fits cool. Would have liked to have had more shots though, but nevermind!
MPORA Action Sports >>
Now I've recently started using Vimeo a lot more for uploading and watching videos. One popular videographer who's work I've bumped into is Phillip Bloom. Not only does he get some stunning shots but he also does some absolutely amazing timelapses.
Timelapses are a thing I've always liked in videos as they break it up a little, but mine have always been a little bland and not that creative. They've been of the clouds or something. I also used to always shoot them on my video camera. So I set it running, then sped it up in post. But that takes ages, and it takes up tape space. So I wanted to learn how to do it with my photo camera.
The first one I did was at night. I set the camera up just outside my bedroom window on a tripod (I live in a bungalow). I had a stopwatch, and I set it to 2 minutes. Every 2 minutes, I got up from my desk, went to the camera and pressed the shutter. then taking a 30 second exposure. I did this for about an hour thinking that would be enough. I then followed Phillip Blooms instructions on how to make the timelapses, and got them into QT Player 7 and created the timelapses. The first timelapse I did (shown below) was the one I did for an hour. And it's only 3 seconds long.
I wanted to obviously make it longer, but not have to get up all the time. So I went and bought a remote shutter so I could sit at my desk and do it from there.
So I tried one in my front room looking out towards the hills and the sunset. This is the first one I did. It's a little jumpy as I did one every 10 seconds. If I missed that 10 seconds it would appear faster, if I did it too soon it appears slower. It's pretty hard to do. Anyway, here it is.
And now, finally. The one I figured it out. Someone then told me I had an 'intervelometer' on my computer with the software that came with my photo camera. So I loaded it up, and there it was. An Intervelometer is something which tells the camera to shoot a photo every so many seconds. You type in how many photos you want it to take, and how long apart, connect your camera to your laptop, and leave it, and it does the whole process for you. The sunset isn't so great in this one, but at least I know how to do it now and I can go out and get some better ones!
Until next time!
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Last month recap!
Wow, I've been really slacking with keeping this up to date. My bad. Anyway, here's a massive post of pretty much everything from the last month, or at least since National Champs.
First off, I'll start with the "Through the Lens" I've been doing for Pinkbike. Jordan from Pinkbike contacted me saying they wanted some interviews done for the main page with some top Photographers and Videographers and I jumped at the chance. First off, Jordan asked me to do one with Steve Lloyd, a photographer from Utah in American who won the Saint Deep Summer contest and won a chance to compete against the top photogs such as Sterling Lorence and Sven Martin at Crankworx.
Steve Lloyd Interview
After that one, I wanted to get one done with a videographer. I've always been a massive fan of the Yeti Podcasts ever since Clay started doing them a few years ago. So who better to contact then the current Yeti videographer, John Reynolds. John was really excited about doing it, but was real busy (understandably) with shooting World Cups, but he managed to fit in a few minutes to answer a few questions so I could get the blog out!
John Reynolds Interview
Now, some local pinners contacted me a while back asking if I wanted to make some promo vids for them for a competition in MBUK to win a place on the Steve Peat Syndicate. So I headed up to Triscombe and made a little video of each of them to send in. I'm fairly pleased with these, but the boys seem happy with them, so here they are!
Jay Williamson
Adam Lock
Tom Coles
Next up was the National at Moelfre in Wales. We headed up on the Friday night but a little later than we did for Llangollen as Dom had to finish work. It was Dom, Milky, my Dad and I in the car on the way up which obviously meant a few arguments, but we got there at around 10.30 and pitched up our tent in the main driveway between the pits. We were woken up on the Saturday from people asking us to move our tent so that we did.
Dom got out on the hill and so did Milky. I didn't want to go right up to the top straight away and I didn't really see much point in going out at all until a little later as no-one really gets up to speed straight away. I headed up at about 10am to the 4X jumps at the bottom. After about 10 minutes of being there the rain came, and it lashed down. The track turned into a river and I was soaked. Having looked at the weather beforehand I knew it was going to be cloudy but it didn't forecast any rain, so I didn't bother with any wet weather gear for either myself or my camera. Big mistake.
The rain continued until about 1, then eased off. I was getting a little worried now about the amount of shots I had. I headed up to the top, but with most people not bothering with many more runs as their clothes and bikes were caked in mud good shots and elite riders were very few and far between. I did get a few good shots as it became sunny later in the day, but I didn't worry too much as usually you're guaranteed at least 3 shots on the Sunday, from Elite practice, Seeding, and race runs.
Saturday night it kicked off with a high jump contest, big whip contest, and this weird gladiator setup! I took and early night wanted to get up early in the morning to get some shots.
In the morning I got up and went up the hill but not many riders were going up for runs. I wanted to do a stationary shot of the bottom berm through most of practice, but didn't get any good stuff, so I waited for Elite practice.
Unfortunately, some kid nailed himself up top, and a tractor turned over. Resulting in an air ambulance, and a course closure. This meant that all the Elite riders came down at once, meaning I could only get about half of them. Not to worry, still seeding and race runs.
I headed up to the bottom 4X jumps again ready to get some Elite seeding shots. I waited there for about 2 hours, only to find out that another kid nailed himself up top and had to be airlifted away. Thanks to the massive delay they had to cancel all seeing after Juniors. So no seeding shots of the Elites. Now I was getting real worried as I only had a couple shots max of the Elite riders and a few other good shots. Definitely not enough for a good 6 minute edit.
Finals came around and I positioned myself where I could get the longest shot possible. I managed to get the top guys, then I got some interview with Beaumont, Bryceland, and Peaty after their podiums.
We headed off and were home by 10 so the editing commenced. I was pretty annoyed with myself as I had been lazy all weekend, and didn't get as much good stuff as I wanted. I know now for the next race to be prepared, with wet gear even if they predict sun. I also know to get as many shots as you can and don't use the mindset of "that'll do" as it always results in a poor video in the end.
My video turned out pretty poor and I'm really not that happy with it. It didn't get run on Dirt and it's only had a handful of views in comparison to my Nat champs vid which has had over 20k now.
MPORA Action Sports >>
Now another cool bit of news is that Transition and UK imported Surf Sales have agreed to put their logo on my videos. It won't be long until the 5 second logo is replaced with a proper ad of a TR450. But it'll do for now.
Also, I saw that Pinkbike were doing a competition for a new film out called 'Life Cycles'. It's a recut competition where you download the raw footage, shot by the guys at Life Cycles, and edit it into your own form. I don't really need to talk much about this other than to say here's my entry!
Last weekend I went up to South West Extreme in Bideford in North Devon for the UK National 4X Champs. I'd never shot 4X before and it was really weird but nice, to be at an event where you didn't know anyone. It was hard to know who to shoot, but I figured it out through the day. I've now figured out some good settings for my camera to get good slow-mo and film qualities, thanks to Sean Anderson who brought out a sick trailer recently for a film called Sync. I've also figured out some really good exporting figures now so I can get good quality videos with a small file size!
Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with this video considering it's my first time shooting 4X!
I've also got a Facebook group on the go now for people to join. So go to:
http://www.facebook.com/southsideproductions
First off, I'll start with the "Through the Lens" I've been doing for Pinkbike. Jordan from Pinkbike contacted me saying they wanted some interviews done for the main page with some top Photographers and Videographers and I jumped at the chance. First off, Jordan asked me to do one with Steve Lloyd, a photographer from Utah in American who won the Saint Deep Summer contest and won a chance to compete against the top photogs such as Sterling Lorence and Sven Martin at Crankworx.
Steve Lloyd Interview
After that one, I wanted to get one done with a videographer. I've always been a massive fan of the Yeti Podcasts ever since Clay started doing them a few years ago. So who better to contact then the current Yeti videographer, John Reynolds. John was really excited about doing it, but was real busy (understandably) with shooting World Cups, but he managed to fit in a few minutes to answer a few questions so I could get the blog out!
John Reynolds Interview
Now, some local pinners contacted me a while back asking if I wanted to make some promo vids for them for a competition in MBUK to win a place on the Steve Peat Syndicate. So I headed up to Triscombe and made a little video of each of them to send in. I'm fairly pleased with these, but the boys seem happy with them, so here they are!
Jay Williamson
Adam Lock
Tom Coles
Next up was the National at Moelfre in Wales. We headed up on the Friday night but a little later than we did for Llangollen as Dom had to finish work. It was Dom, Milky, my Dad and I in the car on the way up which obviously meant a few arguments, but we got there at around 10.30 and pitched up our tent in the main driveway between the pits. We were woken up on the Saturday from people asking us to move our tent so that we did.
Dom got out on the hill and so did Milky. I didn't want to go right up to the top straight away and I didn't really see much point in going out at all until a little later as no-one really gets up to speed straight away. I headed up at about 10am to the 4X jumps at the bottom. After about 10 minutes of being there the rain came, and it lashed down. The track turned into a river and I was soaked. Having looked at the weather beforehand I knew it was going to be cloudy but it didn't forecast any rain, so I didn't bother with any wet weather gear for either myself or my camera. Big mistake.
The rain continued until about 1, then eased off. I was getting a little worried now about the amount of shots I had. I headed up to the top, but with most people not bothering with many more runs as their clothes and bikes were caked in mud good shots and elite riders were very few and far between. I did get a few good shots as it became sunny later in the day, but I didn't worry too much as usually you're guaranteed at least 3 shots on the Sunday, from Elite practice, Seeding, and race runs.
Saturday night it kicked off with a high jump contest, big whip contest, and this weird gladiator setup! I took and early night wanted to get up early in the morning to get some shots.
In the morning I got up and went up the hill but not many riders were going up for runs. I wanted to do a stationary shot of the bottom berm through most of practice, but didn't get any good stuff, so I waited for Elite practice.
Unfortunately, some kid nailed himself up top, and a tractor turned over. Resulting in an air ambulance, and a course closure. This meant that all the Elite riders came down at once, meaning I could only get about half of them. Not to worry, still seeding and race runs.
I headed up to the bottom 4X jumps again ready to get some Elite seeding shots. I waited there for about 2 hours, only to find out that another kid nailed himself up top and had to be airlifted away. Thanks to the massive delay they had to cancel all seeing after Juniors. So no seeding shots of the Elites. Now I was getting real worried as I only had a couple shots max of the Elite riders and a few other good shots. Definitely not enough for a good 6 minute edit.
Finals came around and I positioned myself where I could get the longest shot possible. I managed to get the top guys, then I got some interview with Beaumont, Bryceland, and Peaty after their podiums.
We headed off and were home by 10 so the editing commenced. I was pretty annoyed with myself as I had been lazy all weekend, and didn't get as much good stuff as I wanted. I know now for the next race to be prepared, with wet gear even if they predict sun. I also know to get as many shots as you can and don't use the mindset of "that'll do" as it always results in a poor video in the end.
My video turned out pretty poor and I'm really not that happy with it. It didn't get run on Dirt and it's only had a handful of views in comparison to my Nat champs vid which has had over 20k now.
MPORA Action Sports >>
Now another cool bit of news is that Transition and UK imported Surf Sales have agreed to put their logo on my videos. It won't be long until the 5 second logo is replaced with a proper ad of a TR450. But it'll do for now.
Also, I saw that Pinkbike were doing a competition for a new film out called 'Life Cycles'. It's a recut competition where you download the raw footage, shot by the guys at Life Cycles, and edit it into your own form. I don't really need to talk much about this other than to say here's my entry!
Last weekend I went up to South West Extreme in Bideford in North Devon for the UK National 4X Champs. I'd never shot 4X before and it was really weird but nice, to be at an event where you didn't know anyone. It was hard to know who to shoot, but I figured it out through the day. I've now figured out some good settings for my camera to get good slow-mo and film qualities, thanks to Sean Anderson who brought out a sick trailer recently for a film called Sync. I've also figured out some really good exporting figures now so I can get good quality videos with a small file size!
Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with this video considering it's my first time shooting 4X!
I've also got a Facebook group on the go now for people to join. So go to:
http://www.facebook.com/southsideproductions
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
National Champs. AE!
So it came to that time in the year again where everyone flocks to (usually Scotland) for the National Champs. This year it was at Ae Forest in Scotland. Not so bad, only 6 or so hours from me, at least it's not Fort William.
I took up Milky and Dom again, so we left at 11 on Friday, and obviously got stuck in endless traffic jams along the M6 for about 3 hours. Anyway, got to Ae at about 7.30 and walked the track. It looked pretty simple, it was a hardpack top section, hardpack middle section, a little bit of a new bottom section and hardpack bottom bottom section.
We then pitched up the tent and ventured into Dumfries for food, got to KFC and it was closed, then some drunk Scottish guy (what a lad) told us to go to "Jumping Jacks", when we asked him how to get to Burger King. Jumping Jacks turned out to be Dumfreis' biggest night club. So we drove around for another 20 minutes then eventually found a Dominos Pizza.
Got back to Ae at about 11 and pretty much went straight to sleep.
Woke up Saturday morning to pissing rain and no-one felt very pumped to get up the Hill. We waited for a while and it stopped, so me and Milky headed up on the third coach with Rich Thomas, Danny Hart and Scotty Mears.
Got to the top and ran down the hill to get them coming down.
The top section was pretty cool, open and through the heather so some slow-mo "Clay Porter-esque" shots were in order. I met Sam Oakes up there who has walked up (what a weapon!) and we made out way down. I wanted to get most of my shots done on Saturday as I knew that the rain was supposed to come in heavy on Sunday. The weather was alright on Saturday, some heavy rain showers in the morning (which made for some of the raddest shots I've taken!) resulted in out ghetto waterproofing coming out. I went for the plastic bag approach, where Sam went for a plastic shed type idea. Both did the job, not well though.
Saturday night was a ball of laughs. Went up to the freeride section and some of the lad did some big whips and hucks, Joel Anderson was killing it with bigger whips than anyone else. Then we came back and watched a few DVD's in the tent while Jamie from Wideopen got drunk and tripped over his laptop.
We stood around the Andersons 'pits' for a good hour or so and chatted and watched Chaz from Juice Lubes demonstrate how good Brake Juice is at aiding a fire (don't try this at home).
Woke up sunday morning to more pissing rain, and this time it didn't stop. Me and Dom both managed to miss all of the Sunday practice, which meant his first practice run on Sunday was his seeding, and the only shots I got on sunday was seeding and finals. Peaty managed to crash just up from me, meaning he went past me real slow, great, one less shot of the winner. Al Bond stopped in front of me after crashing at the rock garden then getting red flagged when Brayton binned it.
Went up to a similar place for finals as I was for seeding, and again, some spectators thought it'd be a good idea to stand right in front of me, great, another shot ruined of eventually the winner. Current shots of Peaty: 3. The crowd were going mental though, loads of crashes and they were loving it.
Gee went down and everyone had forgotten about Peaty as he qualified pretty much last. We then heard through the radio that Peaty had won by 3 seconds. 3 seconds on a 2.15 is a lot of time to pull out of the ex-World Champion. Needless to say Gee was upset, but Peaty was over the moon. Stoked he put it together in the end, and great to see him on form.
Champery is this weekend and it's going to be absolutely mental.
I'm up at Triscombe shooting with Jay Williamson, Tom Coles and Adam Lock this weekend so look out for a video for that next week!
Oh, and here's the video!
More Mountain Biking Videos >>
I took up Milky and Dom again, so we left at 11 on Friday, and obviously got stuck in endless traffic jams along the M6 for about 3 hours. Anyway, got to Ae at about 7.30 and walked the track. It looked pretty simple, it was a hardpack top section, hardpack middle section, a little bit of a new bottom section and hardpack bottom bottom section.
We then pitched up the tent and ventured into Dumfries for food, got to KFC and it was closed, then some drunk Scottish guy (what a lad) told us to go to "Jumping Jacks", when we asked him how to get to Burger King. Jumping Jacks turned out to be Dumfreis' biggest night club. So we drove around for another 20 minutes then eventually found a Dominos Pizza.
Got back to Ae at about 11 and pretty much went straight to sleep.
Woke up Saturday morning to pissing rain and no-one felt very pumped to get up the Hill. We waited for a while and it stopped, so me and Milky headed up on the third coach with Rich Thomas, Danny Hart and Scotty Mears.
Got to the top and ran down the hill to get them coming down.
The top section was pretty cool, open and through the heather so some slow-mo "Clay Porter-esque" shots were in order. I met Sam Oakes up there who has walked up (what a weapon!) and we made out way down. I wanted to get most of my shots done on Saturday as I knew that the rain was supposed to come in heavy on Sunday. The weather was alright on Saturday, some heavy rain showers in the morning (which made for some of the raddest shots I've taken!) resulted in out ghetto waterproofing coming out. I went for the plastic bag approach, where Sam went for a plastic shed type idea. Both did the job, not well though.
Saturday night was a ball of laughs. Went up to the freeride section and some of the lad did some big whips and hucks, Joel Anderson was killing it with bigger whips than anyone else. Then we came back and watched a few DVD's in the tent while Jamie from Wideopen got drunk and tripped over his laptop.
We stood around the Andersons 'pits' for a good hour or so and chatted and watched Chaz from Juice Lubes demonstrate how good Brake Juice is at aiding a fire (don't try this at home).
Woke up sunday morning to more pissing rain, and this time it didn't stop. Me and Dom both managed to miss all of the Sunday practice, which meant his first practice run on Sunday was his seeding, and the only shots I got on sunday was seeding and finals. Peaty managed to crash just up from me, meaning he went past me real slow, great, one less shot of the winner. Al Bond stopped in front of me after crashing at the rock garden then getting red flagged when Brayton binned it.
Went up to a similar place for finals as I was for seeding, and again, some spectators thought it'd be a good idea to stand right in front of me, great, another shot ruined of eventually the winner. Current shots of Peaty: 3. The crowd were going mental though, loads of crashes and they were loving it.
Gee went down and everyone had forgotten about Peaty as he qualified pretty much last. We then heard through the radio that Peaty had won by 3 seconds. 3 seconds on a 2.15 is a lot of time to pull out of the ex-World Champion. Needless to say Gee was upset, but Peaty was over the moon. Stoked he put it together in the end, and great to see him on form.
Champery is this weekend and it's going to be absolutely mental.
I'm up at Triscombe shooting with Jay Williamson, Tom Coles and Adam Lock this weekend so look out for a video for that next week!
Oh, and here's the video!
More Mountain Biking Videos >>
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Llangollen BDS!
Well, last weekend was round 3 of the Halo BDS in Llangollen, in Wales. The weekend started off at around 4 on Friday, when I picked up Chaz (from Juice Lubes, check out their site at www.juicelubes.co.uk) and Jacob Gibbins (www.jacobgibbins.co.uk). It was awesome weather, and we packed up the car and headed over to pick up Dom. Thinking we'd have plenty of room in the boot for everything, it ended up spilling out into the back seats. No biggie, just a little bottom out of the rear suspension over every bump.
The journey up was awesome. Plenty of banter and some interesting (or boring, depending on how interested you are in every single detail about the wheel) stories, and some funny jokes about an Indian Restaurant that was coming soon (does that mean they're on their way over from India?). We got to the track at about 7.30 ish, and because I thought we were special enough (well, we did have a Team manager, World Cup photographer, a sponsored rider and err... me) we parked up in the pit field, under a nice big tree. Awesome, lots of shade in the day so I thought! We pitched up the tent, and headed out on a track walk. The first part of the awesome weekend! That track was nuts even before it started getting mashed out!
Headed back down and met Adam Price and his mate Joe Taylor. Sat down and watched Follow me, where Adam and Joe consistently went on about how 'they'd been there' every time some North American bike park came on ;)
Then, the decision of pitching up under a tree came back and bit me when we realized that the bumpy ground with all the tree roots wasn't especially comfy to sleep on.
Saturday morning rolls around and I was up early to get on an uplift and head up to the top. The uplift was the right idea. Just a bit poorly executed on the saturday. It was awesome weather all day, and I got some pretty cool shots. Seeing Brendan and Gee and the top dogs on that sort of track really blows you away.
Saturday evening me and Dom headed in to Llangollen and got some food, then went down to the river for a little wash. Really nice place when you're in the town center! Got back and watched some Travis Pastrana DVD's, and went to bed about 11.30 ready for racing the next day.
Sunday I headed up on the hill as early as possible to try and get the pro's on the spot I hadn't shot all weekend and got an awesome shot of Brendan that I was stoked on!
Then back down to the Juice Lubes tent for the start of qualifying, then up to the last few corners for the Senior/Expert/Elite qualifying.
Back down to the Juice Lubes for a massive media quids and riders chillout. That place was where all the action was going down with Rich Thomas coming over for a long chat along with a load of other guys. A bad crash on the last step down meant everything was delayed for an hour so we just chilled in the sun!
Up to the final step-downs for race runs, and Brendan took the win by a second after being 4 seconds down in quali. Results of the weekend go to Al Bond in 5th and Rich Thomas in 6th. Wicked rides from both of them! Also massive props to Brayton coming into 8th after smashing up two fingers in half on the saturday and riding Michael Jackson style on the Sunday!
Best weekend of the year so far, and another funny drive home hearing all Chaz's funny stories from the Royal Mail.
Anyway, here's the vidder!
Halo BDS Rd 3 - Llangollen >>
The journey up was awesome. Plenty of banter and some interesting (or boring, depending on how interested you are in every single detail about the wheel) stories, and some funny jokes about an Indian Restaurant that was coming soon (does that mean they're on their way over from India?). We got to the track at about 7.30 ish, and because I thought we were special enough (well, we did have a Team manager, World Cup photographer, a sponsored rider and err... me) we parked up in the pit field, under a nice big tree. Awesome, lots of shade in the day so I thought! We pitched up the tent, and headed out on a track walk. The first part of the awesome weekend! That track was nuts even before it started getting mashed out!
Headed back down and met Adam Price and his mate Joe Taylor. Sat down and watched Follow me, where Adam and Joe consistently went on about how 'they'd been there' every time some North American bike park came on ;)
Then, the decision of pitching up under a tree came back and bit me when we realized that the bumpy ground with all the tree roots wasn't especially comfy to sleep on.
Saturday morning rolls around and I was up early to get on an uplift and head up to the top. The uplift was the right idea. Just a bit poorly executed on the saturday. It was awesome weather all day, and I got some pretty cool shots. Seeing Brendan and Gee and the top dogs on that sort of track really blows you away.
Saturday evening me and Dom headed in to Llangollen and got some food, then went down to the river for a little wash. Really nice place when you're in the town center! Got back and watched some Travis Pastrana DVD's, and went to bed about 11.30 ready for racing the next day.
Sunday I headed up on the hill as early as possible to try and get the pro's on the spot I hadn't shot all weekend and got an awesome shot of Brendan that I was stoked on!
Then back down to the Juice Lubes tent for the start of qualifying, then up to the last few corners for the Senior/Expert/Elite qualifying.
Back down to the Juice Lubes for a massive media quids and riders chillout. That place was where all the action was going down with Rich Thomas coming over for a long chat along with a load of other guys. A bad crash on the last step down meant everything was delayed for an hour so we just chilled in the sun!
Up to the final step-downs for race runs, and Brendan took the win by a second after being 4 seconds down in quali. Results of the weekend go to Al Bond in 5th and Rich Thomas in 6th. Wicked rides from both of them! Also massive props to Brayton coming into 8th after smashing up two fingers in half on the saturday and riding Michael Jackson style on the Sunday!
Best weekend of the year so far, and another funny drive home hearing all Chaz's funny stories from the Royal Mail.
Anyway, here's the vidder!
Halo BDS Rd 3 - Llangollen >>
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Lots of new happenings.
It's been a while since I posted on here, which is pretty bad (or is it? Not sure if anyone even reads this!) but I've been doing loads of cool stuff recently.
The most significant of which was a shoot with Will Soffe and Greg Hampton for a piece of college work for which I had to produce a short documentary. Obviously I chose downhill, as I've got pretty easy access to some really quick guys, so I thought I'd really be able to show what it's all about to some people who don't know really know what downhill is. The plan was (or so I thought) to shoot Will, and Ash Mullane (who is now back on a bike! Great news for the south west.) at Tavi woodlands. But after a little misunderstanding, I ended up going to Swansea to shoot just Will and his friend Greg instead.
The forecast wasn't looking great at all with torrential rain forecast all day. Anyway, got there at about 10 in the morning, met Will and Greg and headed up to Kilvey. Then, after about an hour, the sun came out and we had an awesome day of weather and shooting.
In my opinion this is easily my best video to date, and I'm super happy with it.
(Photo's courtesy of Sam Davies)
And then of course, here's the video!
Will Soffe Bio - Kilvey >>
Also, the weekend before this, was the Southern champs. I haven't ridden for ages, and I haven't raced for even longer so it was really cool to see everyone again and just have a nice day out. Track was awesome and I had two shocking runs and smashed up my shifter leaving a lovely single-speed race runs. Anyway, Will Soffe won, over World Cup racer Harry Molloy making him Southern Champion!
Llangollen is next weekend and I'm so excited to see that place, and see the World Champion and a load of other top guys kill it on it.
I've also had a look at next years WC schedule and decided I'm gonna try and get out to all the Euro rounds including the World Champs!
Next update will include the video from Llangollen to keep posted for that!
The most significant of which was a shoot with Will Soffe and Greg Hampton for a piece of college work for which I had to produce a short documentary. Obviously I chose downhill, as I've got pretty easy access to some really quick guys, so I thought I'd really be able to show what it's all about to some people who don't know really know what downhill is. The plan was (or so I thought) to shoot Will, and Ash Mullane (who is now back on a bike! Great news for the south west.) at Tavi woodlands. But after a little misunderstanding, I ended up going to Swansea to shoot just Will and his friend Greg instead.
The forecast wasn't looking great at all with torrential rain forecast all day. Anyway, got there at about 10 in the morning, met Will and Greg and headed up to Kilvey. Then, after about an hour, the sun came out and we had an awesome day of weather and shooting.
In my opinion this is easily my best video to date, and I'm super happy with it.
(Photo's courtesy of Sam Davies)
And then of course, here's the video!
Will Soffe Bio - Kilvey >>
Also, the weekend before this, was the Southern champs. I haven't ridden for ages, and I haven't raced for even longer so it was really cool to see everyone again and just have a nice day out. Track was awesome and I had two shocking runs and smashed up my shifter leaving a lovely single-speed race runs. Anyway, Will Soffe won, over World Cup racer Harry Molloy making him Southern Champion!
Llangollen is next weekend and I'm so excited to see that place, and see the World Champion and a load of other top guys kill it on it.
I've also had a look at next years WC schedule and decided I'm gonna try and get out to all the Euro rounds including the World Champs!
Next update will include the video from Llangollen to keep posted for that!
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Summer's here?
So first off, I'd like to say thanks to the people that gave me their thoughts on the Fort William video, I'm really happy with the amount of views it's had and I'm starting to feel like my work is getting out there a bit more. I'm really looking forward to the next round of the BDS at Llangollen.
Right, so last weekend I headed down to Gawton in Devon with my mate Dom (who rides for www.bikeactive.com) for a day of filming. It was hot (really hot) and really dry. We got down there and found Jacob Gibbins shooting a piece for Dirt on the new 1.04 which should be in the shops pretty soon but no doubt he'll put a bit up on his site (www.jacobgibbins.co.uk) when it's on sale. He was there with all the really quick locals including Ash Mullane who's now back on the bike after a long time off through knee injuries and he's looking real quick, so look out for him at races soon.
Me and Dom were making our way down the hill when Aaron Bartlett made a rare appearance on his bike, cool to see some more locals back riding again!
I'm not that happy with this edit really. The colours are pretty poor after trying to lighten/darken them in post production as the light was really hard to deal with in the dark woods with the light seeping through. I was being really lazy all day wasn't too happy with the sort of shots I got, but hey ho.
No doubt we'll do another shoot down there soon so keep looking back for that.
MPORA Action Sports >>
Next filming stop is Llangollen BDS, unless I decide to head up to Fort William again for the World Cup next week (which is looking unlikely) so if you're around, say Hi!
It's the Southern Champs this weekend and I'm going up on Saturday night for the 'Unofficial Southern Pumptrack Champs' at Torico which Ben is holding as a sendoff Party for some friends who are off on their travels so I might end up making an edit from that which will be funny! Hopefully the weather stays dry for racing on Sunday and Adam Price and Will Soffe are both back on the bike and looking for that Southern Champs title!
Right, so last weekend I headed down to Gawton in Devon with my mate Dom (who rides for www.bikeactive.com) for a day of filming. It was hot (really hot) and really dry. We got down there and found Jacob Gibbins shooting a piece for Dirt on the new 1.04 which should be in the shops pretty soon but no doubt he'll put a bit up on his site (www.jacobgibbins.co.uk) when it's on sale. He was there with all the really quick locals including Ash Mullane who's now back on the bike after a long time off through knee injuries and he's looking real quick, so look out for him at races soon.
Me and Dom were making our way down the hill when Aaron Bartlett made a rare appearance on his bike, cool to see some more locals back riding again!
I'm not that happy with this edit really. The colours are pretty poor after trying to lighten/darken them in post production as the light was really hard to deal with in the dark woods with the light seeping through. I was being really lazy all day wasn't too happy with the sort of shots I got, but hey ho.
No doubt we'll do another shoot down there soon so keep looking back for that.
MPORA Action Sports >>
Next filming stop is Llangollen BDS, unless I decide to head up to Fort William again for the World Cup next week (which is looking unlikely) so if you're around, say Hi!
It's the Southern Champs this weekend and I'm going up on Saturday night for the 'Unofficial Southern Pumptrack Champs' at Torico which Ben is holding as a sendoff Party for some friends who are off on their travels so I might end up making an edit from that which will be funny! Hopefully the weather stays dry for racing on Sunday and Adam Price and Will Soffe are both back on the bike and looking for that Southern Champs title!
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
FORT WILLIAM!!!
Another national over and finished with. What a cracker it was. Someone told me that Fort William is the wettest place in the UK. Hah! It was probably the only place that saw some sun over the last weekend.
We (Me, my dad and Dom) set off at around 6 on Friday, aiming to be at Glasgow by about 11.
11 arrives and we're about an hour off, not too bad, apart from getting lost in the center of Glasgow and having a sight-seeing trip for an hour. We ended up sleeping in a lay-by next to Loch Lomond for a few hours at 2.30.
We woke up and drove (through the AWESOME) scenery at about 6 and got to the Fort just before 8. Built the bike up and got signed on and headed up for a track walk just after 9. Dom cracked on down and I started filming in the lovely sunny weather.
Day one was sick. Plenty of pro's pinning it everywhere, and the weather was mint.
Went back to the B&B for the night and had a sweet pizza!
Day two we woke up just after 8 and headed over to the track. Got on the gondola nice and early and got up top for some sick shots.
Elite only practice is wicked for people like me, and to have so many Elites coming down in quick succession means you don't have to wait around in a certain area for ages just for two pro's to come through. So after Elite practice I waited around at the new section at the top for the Elites and Experts to come through on their seeding runs. Gee and the top guys absolutely killed it through there and it was set to be an awesome race.
I walked on down to the bottom of the track where the atmosphere was wild! Dave had sorted out a load of horns and Toby was topping everything off with some wicked commentating.
I headed up to the Tissot jump for the end of seniors but it seemed everywhere I stood I was either in someone's way (Sorry Paul Roberts!) or there were spectators standing in my way. Eventually for the top Elites I got a good place and Dan Atherton came down and did the biggest huck I've ever seen off the compression. Some awesome whips were being thrown over the Tissot and eventually Chris Kovarik came down and took the win by a few seconds.
All in all an awesome race despite spending almost 24 hours driving.
Halo British Downhill Series Round 2 - Fort William >>
Next up is the BDS at Llangollen. But I should have a few video's up before them.
Best wishes to Olly Hooper, Will Soffe, Adam Price from the SW Massive who are all out injured at the moment.
Also, Massive props to Luke Ball scoring 3rd in Senior and throwing a massive whip over the Tissot in front of my lens!
We (Me, my dad and Dom) set off at around 6 on Friday, aiming to be at Glasgow by about 11.
11 arrives and we're about an hour off, not too bad, apart from getting lost in the center of Glasgow and having a sight-seeing trip for an hour. We ended up sleeping in a lay-by next to Loch Lomond for a few hours at 2.30.
We woke up and drove (through the AWESOME) scenery at about 6 and got to the Fort just before 8. Built the bike up and got signed on and headed up for a track walk just after 9. Dom cracked on down and I started filming in the lovely sunny weather.
Day one was sick. Plenty of pro's pinning it everywhere, and the weather was mint.
Went back to the B&B for the night and had a sweet pizza!
Day two we woke up just after 8 and headed over to the track. Got on the gondola nice and early and got up top for some sick shots.
Elite only practice is wicked for people like me, and to have so many Elites coming down in quick succession means you don't have to wait around in a certain area for ages just for two pro's to come through. So after Elite practice I waited around at the new section at the top for the Elites and Experts to come through on their seeding runs. Gee and the top guys absolutely killed it through there and it was set to be an awesome race.
I walked on down to the bottom of the track where the atmosphere was wild! Dave had sorted out a load of horns and Toby was topping everything off with some wicked commentating.
I headed up to the Tissot jump for the end of seniors but it seemed everywhere I stood I was either in someone's way (Sorry Paul Roberts!) or there were spectators standing in my way. Eventually for the top Elites I got a good place and Dan Atherton came down and did the biggest huck I've ever seen off the compression. Some awesome whips were being thrown over the Tissot and eventually Chris Kovarik came down and took the win by a few seconds.
All in all an awesome race despite spending almost 24 hours driving.
Halo British Downhill Series Round 2 - Fort William >>
Next up is the BDS at Llangollen. But I should have a few video's up before them.
Best wishes to Olly Hooper, Will Soffe, Adam Price from the SW Massive who are all out injured at the moment.
Also, Massive props to Luke Ball scoring 3rd in Senior and throwing a massive whip over the Tissot in front of my lens!
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