Things are gooood!

It's been a while since I posted, but I've had stuff on, and very little to post as my camera has been away at Sony.

Anyway, last few weeks have been pretty sick. My birthday was literally, sick, and I had a great time with my mates and stuff! Got a bit of money which will go a long way to paying for this year and some more equipment and hopefully will go towards my plans for 2011.
The weekend before last(13th and 14th) was rad. Me and dad headed up to Taff Buggy for the first of the summer series. I was supposed to be taking my mate Dom, but he stupidly (haha) forgot he had to go to a wedding, so I swapped his entry with my friend George Croton and we headed up. It was awesome weather. The first real dry ride of 2010. The track was amazingly fast and dusty and I had a ball all through practice. There was a great turnout, with Brendan Fairclough and Rich Thomas turning up for the practice day and Josh Bryceland riding all weekend. I strapped my Go-Pro (for which I bodged a chest mount up for a fiver) to Expert Will Soffe and had him do a run with it. The first time I tried the chest mount it came out really bad, looking pretty much at the top tube, but with a few adjustments I had the angle perfect. Anyway, here's the end product of Will Soffe bashing out a run of Taff Buggy...

I had a real bad race run and I got really tired like 5 corners in then blew my feet off in the rock garden and did a 2.18. Bryceland won the Elites and got Fastest Time of the Day with a 1.48 or something quick. Highlight of the weekend has to be Seb Frost embarrassing himself in front of some kids mum! Here's a pic I took after racing of Miami Bryce railing it round the top turns.


Anyway, my camera also came back that weekend, while I was away. Sony have completey replace the lens and the focus and zoom rings, whilst also giving me a new warranty. So pretty happy with that.

I also ordered some stuff to pretty much complete my kit for 2010. I neeeded a bag for all my stuff and everything I could find was pretty small, or there was other stuff wrong with it. Anyway, I eventually found the Ogio TY 2. It's made for 2 prosumer video cameras but you can also use it like I do with the one video camera and a photo camera with lenses. It's pretty expensive with an RRP of £139.99 but I found it on CRC at £109. So I ordered that and it came on Monday. First impressions were that is was absoloutely massive. Big enough to fit a small child in. It's pretty heavy and with everything inside it weighs a bloody tonne.

I also ordered myself some triggers for my flash. I've wanted a remote flash setup since I started shooting but never got round to finding one that might actually work. I haven't shot out in the woods properly with it yet, just fired off a few shots in the kitchen and it works, so that's all good!
I also ordered myself a Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime from Amazon. It came on Tuesday, the day I left to come over to Tenerife, so I've only been able to take tourist-y shots with it so far, but it's rad from what I can see!
So here's my kit (without the 50mm)


So I'm over in Tenerife at the moment sat on the balcony, bored shitless. Going home next thursday and can't wait! Going to go out and shoot a bit of video and take some pics over the Easter holidays. Maybe do a bit of film with a few quick riders.
Oh, I'm also riding at Moelfre for the Clipped-In race when I get back so if you're there say Hi. (thats if anyone actually reads this?)

Website!

I just bought a Domain name!

www.southside-productions.co.uk will soon be it's own webpage, but while I work out how to make myself a website it's going to re-direct you straight to here.

Hopefully my camera will be back from repair soon, but it's my birthday on the weekend so I'm looking forward to having a great weekend! I might buy myself a few new bits for my photo camera so that I can take that along to the shoots I do and get some cool shots!

Anyway, the site should be up in about a Month or so, but in the mean time keep checking back here :)
laters!

British MX Champs Round 1. Taking photos!?

My mate rang me bright and early this morning to tell me that the first round of the British Motocross Champs was at a track really local to me (3 miles away) so he came down to mine and we headed out to watch.

Expecting it to be really muddy I parked a fair walk away, luckily I parked on a road and didn't have to get pushed out like the majority of non-4WD cars did. The rain that we'd been forecast also didn't arrive so got some nice pics with some wicked natural light.

I'm really quite pleased with some of the pics I took. It was annoying though not being able to take pics that I wanted because I didn't have a media pass so had to stay behind the barriers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timlakephotography/sets/72157623527555226/

Broken Camera :(

I haven't updated for a while and there's a very annoying reason why!

Weekend before last I was down at Tavistock Woodlands shooting the Woodland Riders race when my focus motor jammed and stopped working. Basically my camera now is jammed on a set focus and makes a horrible noise. It's going to cost me £520 to get it fixed so while I'm getting the money for that there won't be any video's! I'm gutted but these things happen and I'm glad it wasn't at a National.

anyway, Kustom Bikes race at Combe Sydenham this weekend which should be great fun!

Joe Reed at Haldon.

Yesterday I went up to Haldon with Joe Reed for a quick little shoot on one of the DH tracks up there. Turned out to be a pretty good day, wasn't too cold, was dry and got some okay shots. Still got a lot to learn, at least I've got the exporting sorted now!

Anyway, here it is.

Joe Reed at Haldon from Southside Productions on Vimeo.

I suggest you click on the 'HD' button in the corner if you want to see if in a bigger size and in full quality. this will take you to the Vimeo website to watch it where the quality is better.

I'm off to Tavistock today to film the first Woodland Riders race of the Winter Series so that should be up by tomorrow.

Cheers!

So I went up to Dorchester on Saturday to pick up my camera from Mono. He was nice enough to give me a free copy of FOFO2 as well, wicked film. I suggest you all go out and buy it!

Anyway, Sunday I headed up to East Hill in Ottery St Mary to have a little practice shoot with Dom McCrae, Derek Pinkett and George Croton. After filming up there for about an hour, Adam Price came up for a play so that was sick to get a real fast rider to film too. Then Ryan Bruton from bikenutz came up for a session too.

Good day out and got some okay footage. Nothing is brilliant at the moment as I really am not used to the camera. Using the Ring Zoom it taking a while to get used to as it using all of the W/B etc.

Then got home and on Monday, ordered a firewire cable, Tripod, and Final Cut Express off Amazon. Amazed to find it came yesterday morning, which considering I didn't pay for the fast delivery was pretty rad.

Edited it yesterday in College and then spent all night trying to find out how to export it into a high quality, small size file. Export quality still isn't great but I have an idea of how to do it next time now.

Should be off to Tavi Woodlands on Sunday to shoot the Woodland Riders race down there.

Anyway, I uploaded it to Mpora, Vimeo and Pinkbike and I think that Vimeo wins the quality war.

Enjoy!

Bike Active!

So as a few of you may know, a good friend of mine recently picked up a sponsorship with Bikeactive. They're a great shop from up near London. They stock pretty much everything! They have the new Mondraker stuff, Commencal Bikes, Orange, Morewood, Evil and a heap more. they're great guys too.
So pretty much, go to www.bikeactive.com and spend some money.
Also, watch out for Dom McCrae and Rich Simpson throughout the year on the bikeactive team!