Shooting for Deep Summer wildcard entry

Late in May a competition was held through Kokanee Crankworx and Pinkbike.com for the wildcard spot alongside 5 other highly regarded industry photographers in the Shimano Saint Deep Summer Photo Challenge, which is held in Whistler during the Kokanee Crankworx Mountain Bike festival every summer.

The participating photographers have a limited period of time to shoot in and around the Whistler Bike Park and surrounding area with some of the best riders in the world, producing a 5 minute slideshow of images. They are all shown to a large and enthusiastic crowd at the Fairmont Hotel one evening during the festival and a winner is crowned.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and win a spot alongside some of my adventure photographer idols so in the space of a week I went out riding and shooting with a few different friends. I didn't win, but seeing the caliber of images from those who where selected as finalists, I was pretty happy with what I was able to produce with limited time, equipment and experience in strobe photography.

I was only able to submit 3 images, so picking the best ones and finding a common theme while showing diversity was pretty tough! We were not supposed to submit images of known riders without model releases ( I have lots of images from competitions, but no releases) so I withstood the temptation to include one of my best images from previous Crankworx competitions, only to discover later that many others had done this, one even making it into the final 5 contestants. Oh well!!

The light was always a challenge, especially on one of the days where we went out after work and only had a couple of hours before the sun got too low and the canopy just made it too dark. Setting up my strobes, deciding whether or not I needed to use a tripod, finding angles and suitable locations and taking lighting into account all presented significant challenges and an overall great learning experience. I was lucky enough to have patient and talented friends that were prepared to do things over and over again!


Below are a few shots from a couple of the different shooting locations... 

Jakub rolls in from an elevated bridge section on Seymour

Assessing the lines

Garrett on the wall ride, you can go vertical when its dry.

Cool rock roller 

Two days later after riding on Seymour with Garrett and Jakub, I hit Cypress with James. The terrain was steeper and there where some seriously large stunts and sections that James had preconceived as good shooting locations.

SUPER steep rock at the top of "Wild Cherry"

From underneath this time

Dropping over the lip of "Disciple"

Disciple from front on

 Now pretty keen to shoot more biking and continue to develop my skills with wireless flash setups. With some more time, better planning and the right light and locations, I can see some wicked images coming to the surface!