Sometimes I wonder why I’m tired, then I look back at the calendar. Saturday morning I’d been on the sports field at Exeter School, Sunday I was to shoot the Turner Locker Barnfield Revival and in between on Saturday afternoon, Ollie (my son) and I nipped down to Plymouth to photograph the Tyco BMW S1000RR at Ocean BMW.
In search of the bike it took us marginally less time to get from Exeter into the outskirts of Plymouth than it did to leave Exeter itself so we had to work quickly on this Saturday afternoon; how Devon enterprise survives its mindless traffic baffles me.
Setting Up A Location Studio For Motorbike Photography
The plan was a simple side shot and we lobbied for the valeting shed to set up studio in. Manfrotto Autopoles fitted nicely allowing a framework to hang the black background. Lighting was with a four Bowens lights supplemented with a couple of SB910 speedlights, although the shed had skylights we had enough oomph to overpower the ambient light.
A simple 6′ strip light above on the heavy boomstand and a further strip resting on the ground to the front served up most of the lighting. A further couple of Bowens strobes with grids and barn-doors behind the Tyco helped to add some depth and a bit of speedlight on the tyres is enough to pull them out from the dark.
Somehow the positioning wasn’t perfect and to be honest time was against us. Ocean was reassuringly busy but the only ‘sensible’ place for the camera was in the road outside the shed. To reduce the effects of stray light the shutter door was pulled down half way looking like I had travelled a long distance to shoot a shutter door. I do like to shoot long, whether it’s people or bikes but it does need more space than is available most of the time. Although the camera and flash fired by radio triggers I chose to stay my side of the door though to avoid a BMW-Manfrotto-Nikon incident.
I like the side view of this bike, the graphics and the fairing venting seem almost to blow in the wind. It’s my understanding that the bike comes with its own carpet so, if you have a mind to you can sit it next to the telly, better than goldfish.
So the Superbikes account calendar is open, we are still looking for other contenders, new or recently new bikes, immaculate of course; Last year we squeezed in the Devitt Kawasaki, call us or use the contact form if you have something interesting.
Also, this year we are doing classic British bikes (pre 2000 I am told), as before get in touch if you fancy your pride and joy being in print.