Cyclist vs Hypothermia

It was an interesting shoot. 1" of rain that day and I'm convinced most of it fell during the shoot, stopping just as we wrapped.

1.

Great!!

Michael you're teasing us with #6! That's insane for a set-up!

#1 and #5 for me ; but i really disagree about the no helmet
great shots

Nice, but riding on the painted lines in the wet = death wish.

Love your use of light, setup. Punchy images.

Couple thoughts:

In #1 my eyes go to the rider's face then down the road and get trapped there. Maybe it's the centered rider plus the angle?

The rider is riding out of the frame in all these shots. Did you compose any so he's riding into the frame?

I have no experience with flash ...with rider blur in front I am thinking these are first-curtain sync'ed?

Your crewmate needs a better rain jacket.

Interesting work and neat setup! Here's my .02, all pretty nit picky but:

No helmet? It is the year 2009 and helmets are pretty much accepted in the cycling world. THere are cool looking helmets these days.

Getting really nit picky now, but fixed gear (or single speed) and no socks? No socks says 'triathlon' to me but I doubt you'd see them on a fixie. Conversely, would a fixie rider be out on the open road? and without socks? That could be a regional thing I suppose, but it just seems like a fashion faux pas that a buyer of the photo may or may not pick up on.

Riding on the center line makes for a neat photo, but I'd be real careful about keeping him on the proper side of the road (depends upon where in the world the photos are used I guess). Safety is a big issue in the cycling world these days and any one working in the industry rides too, so I'd be careful with that.

Other than that I think they are pretty neat and neat setup as well.

Oh, one last thing. In two of the shots you've got the feeling of speed. Lots of it. BUT, the rider is on his brakes ... HARD! Hmmmmm ....

RonnieA wrote in post #8988474
Love your use of light, setup. Punchy images.

Couple thoughts:

In #1 my eyes go to the rider's face then down the road and get trapped there. Maybe it's the centered rider plus the angle?

That's fine with me as these images were created for my own marketing materials. Instead of being trapped down the road I'm hoping the viewer will get trapped reading my sales pitch and phone number

Probably, I haven't looked for any. These images were created to highlight the rider so he needs to be up close.

I have no experience with flash ...with rider blur in front I am thinking these are first-curtain sync'ed?

Your crewmate needs a better rain jacket.

The images were made with a strobe pack which does prevent the ability to use second curtain sync. One solution I'm looking into is to purchase a Pocketwizard Multimax transceiver to go with my other Pocketwizards. The multimax allows for a programmable delay which is essentially a manual second curtain synch.

I think the benefit of the second curtain sync in this situation would probably be minimal since the rider is traveling at roughly the same speed as the truck. The motion blur you see is either lateral motion on the rider or me rolling around in the truck. I had a second assistant fail to show up which meant I was holding the boom at the same time I was shooting and bouncing around, that part sucked.

Biffbradford wrote in post #8988590
Interesting work and neat setup! Here's my .02, all pretty nit picky but:

No helmet? It is the year 2009 and helmets are pretty much accepted in the cycling world. THere are cool looking helmets these days.

Before the shoot I mentioned nothing about wanting him to wear a helmet or not. It was his choice but I like the pics without to be honest. This is for marketing material that sells the model, nothing else. His face is well defined so I consider it a good call on his part.

I don't have much to say about this because I'm pretty ignorant on the subject. I had to defer to the cyclist on wardrobe selection. The guy is a very experienced rider. When he's training for racing he puts in about 250 miles a week. I figure he'd be smart enough to realize when he needs socks or not.

The photos are only being used in our portfolios and some marketing material I'm placing at a sports modeling agency. For paying clients I ALWAYS make sure it's up to them to maintain the level of authenticity they desire. I can't be a cycling, kayaking, surfing, swimming stylist, at the a same time I'm shooting pics, at least not yet. I'm too busy being a fashion, editorial stylist, photographer who spends much of his time as a stay at home dad.

Other than that I think they are pretty neat and neat setup as well.

Oh, one last thing. In two of the shots you've got the feeling of speed. Lots of it. BUT, the rider is on his brakes ... HARD! Hmmmmm ....

Interesting. I don't recall either the truck or him decelerating in any significant manner. I would have noticed as my position was a bit precarious sitting on the tailgate. At one point early on I had to prod the driver to be easy on the gas as I did just about tumble out the back.

RonnieA wrote in post #8988474
Your crewmate needs a better rain jacket.

What?? That was a little faux paux on my end. At the studio he asked if he needed a rain jacket. I said no, thinking he was talking about loading the truck, not the actual shoot.

We get out there and it was DUMPING. Seriously, over an inch that day and most of it was during the shoot. Btw, don't believe all the slander you hear about the 5DmkII weather sealing. If protected properly you can shoot in a deluge.

Anyway, I decided to head back to a farm store we'd passed and bought rain jackets and bibs just for the shoot. They really saved the day.