Insight from MDPhotography, Mark Dadswell Photography, Melbourne Sports Photographer, Melbourne Commercial Photographer, Melbourne Portrait Photographer, Melbourne Video Production
Third year of MDPhotography covering the Lorne Surf Life Saving Club gmhba Pier to Pub and Mountain to Surf as official photographer. A big day starting with volunteers setting up the course long before any competitors arrive, competitors signing in and finally swimmers hitting the water. Olympic hopeful Sam Sheppard made it five wins in a row and in the womens Harriet Brown won convincingly
Last week MDPhotography ventured down the Great Ocean Road to shoot VIS cyclist Alex Morgan. I wanted the images to show the beautiful natural surroundings but at the same time have a quality of light from a studio shoot, so came up with the concept of fitting two Profoto B1 heads to the bike rack of a Toyota Hilux ute. Both heads fitted with Zoom Reflectors were attached to the bike rack with manfrotto G clamps and magic arms, and tied with safety cables to ensure they didn't vibrate loose and literally hit the road as we covered approximately 15kms during the shoot. My old mate Scotttheplumber, himself a made keen cyclist provided and drove the ute.
Scotttheplumber and his Toyota Hilux lighting rig.
http://profoto.com/int/products/off-camera-flash/b1-off-camera-flash
So with the lighting rig ready to go we set off along the Great Ocean Road from St George's River with Alex riding anywhere from one metre to five metres off the back of the tray, i could tell him to swing left or right, drop back or move up, and shooting with the Canon 1Dx tethered to a MacBook Pro using Lightroom i could see the images and make adjustments as the shoot progressed.
https://www.canon.com.au/en-AU/EOS-Professional/Product-Range/Cameras/EOS-1DX
Several hundred frames later, and with the light almost gone completely i was happy with what we had achieved. Back in the office and using Lightroom to edit the raw files, Photoshop to clean up the images and then NIK software to add some motion blur this was the result:
To those that made the shoot possible, Ashley Carr from the VIS and Mark Cummings for his local knowledge and cycling skills, thank you! Also to Alex, its not every day that you can work with a World Champion. Alex was part of the Aussie quartet, with Glenn O'Shea (SASI), Alex Edmondson (SASI) and Michael Hepburn (QAS) to win the gold medal over Great Britain in the men's team pursuit at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk, Belarus in 2013. Alex also finished fourth in the 4km Individual Pursuit.
Hope you enjoy the behind the scenes video of the shoot with Alex.....
For a free quote or advice on your photography needs please contact Mark on 0468 468 199.
