In preparation for shooting a project based around biking I wanted to have a look at some professional mountain bile photographers to get a better understanding of what images, compositions and ideas work within the industry already to produce images that appealed specifically to the mountain biking community. I am looking at Anthony Pease's work as I liked the way he uses wide angle lenses in his work as well as how he uses panning to show speed and steepness of the terrain.
The first image I looked at of his was a close up, wide angle shot of a mountain biker riding along a thin path. I believe this was taken with a fisheye/ extremely wide angle lens in order for Pease to get super close to the rider and the path without getting in the way as these tracks are only usually big enough for a single person at a time. The image is taken in natural light and is nice and contrasted, the red of the bikers clothes and bike contrast the green of the background as well as the dark parts of the bike, this is due to how Pease exposed the image. He exposed for the highlight making sure that the shadows and darker parts of the image were nice and deep as well as keeping the highlights from blowing out. Pease has framed the image in the direction of travel, the mountain biker is travelling from left to right and he is positioned on left side of the frame, the front wheel is just touching the centre and has been cut off slightly by the bottom of the frame. due to shooting with such a wide lens the front of the bike appears a lot larger than the back because of the distortion. On the right side of the frame you see more of the track he's travelling along however to the untrained eye you would have no clue that the path continued, I like how this gives the image a more dangerous feel. Pease was down low when he shot this looking up as the biker went by making the rider appear larger and fill the frame more. I like that you can see how high up he is due to the background detail included, it is all reasonably sharp and you can make out details in the landscape adding good context to where this is taking place.
The next image I'm looking at is a more standard wide shot, taken with a smaller aperture around f/8 and in natural light. I liked this image as it shows where the sport is taking place, how high up and detail in the landscape. The image could be useful in magazine situation as there is lots of 'empty' space in the frae. The image shows a view of a town at the top of the frame, with mountainous terrain in the middle, and the track and mountain biker in the bottom of the frame. The image uses the rule of thirds in the opposite way to how we usually see it. Pease is positioned further up the hill looking down on the rider, and landscape below. There is not a lot of contrast in this image due to there being no strong shadows or dark elements within the image however, what the image lacks in contrast makes up for in the tones. I like how the greens, yellows and browns of the natural landscape contrast the cooler, more industrial tones of the town. I like the way that pease has framed this in a way that he rider looks so small as it gives the viewer some perspective on the how big the features are that these riders are going down compared to the size of a person. Again the background plays a big part in showing the viewer where this is taking place as well as how high up they are.
The third and last image I looked at of Pease's I chose because I liked the way he used a panning technique to show speed and how steep the terrain is. The image shows a steep single track going diagonally across the centre of the frame from left to right, in the bottom left and top right corners you see bushes, trees blurred due to the panning and in the top left corner you see the rider in focus bombing it down the track. The image was taken with a standard lens and I image he would have stopped the lens down to a small aperture in order to shoot with the longer shutter speed. You can tell due to the reflection on the riders helmet that the image was taken in bright natural light produced by the sun which is why I think he has shot with a small aperture. Image has a nice colour contrast between the natural, soft, green tones in the bushes compared with the highly saturated bright red, blue and white jersey, this makes the image pop due to having a splash of bright colour. This image has no background detail and you only see slightly either side of the rider, this adds to the effective of making it feel fast, steep, by coming inclose and getting rid of any contextual detail that could make the rider appear slower. This is also emphasised by panning with the gradient of the track and introducing the slightly more vertical motion blur around the subject.
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