2025 IXS European DH Cup 1 - Portugal

April 18, 2025 • Leave a Comment

4882 images of the event available here

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 320, autofocus, 65mm

Foreword

Well, it's another trip out to Portugal, only this time I flew. I've given up on flying BA and OneWorld after their whole "let's screw over our loyal customers who choose to fly with us despite being the most expensive option". As a gold member, life was pretty easy travelling for work with camera gear. No one ever questioned the weight of my camera bag and that's pretty much the only care I had. Instead, I now fly the cheapest seats going, this time it was Ryanair. Now trying to get a 46KG camera backpack on as hand luggage was going to be some feat, I think even I'd struggle with that. Instead, I booked 2 seats, 1 for me, and 1 for my camera bag. It was flawless and something I'll be doing again, especially when you consider that the cost for both seats return, was 1/6th the price of BA/Iberia.

Digression aside, there are some nuances to be discussed before we go further. In my last post from Portugal, I said about how British riders would go out to Portugal, et al, to gain UCI points to race world cups; well this is that but to the nth degree...

Unlike last year's IXS European Downhill Cup Series, this year, most of the races are categorized as UCI Continental MTB Series events. This is something new The UCI - Cyclings governing body - has conjured up and whilst it makes pretty much zero difference to how the event is run, it does have an effect on who is racing the series.

In my understanding, if you place in the top 5 at any Continental Series race, you get 1 entry into a World Cup. If you finish in the top 5 overall at the end of the season, you get to race all world cups the following year. This could be a big incentive for a random wild card rider to enter in the hope of bagging a golden ticket to a World Cup.

Friday Sign On, Track Walk & Practice

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 320, auto focus, 39mm

The rolling hills of North West Portugal. Like most races, I had zero interest in shooting athletes walking the track on Friday morning in the 2 hour window from 10:00-12:00. I took my camera up with the 24-70mm on just so that I could frame a few angles, see what would look good and know where I'd be shooting and what lenses I would need. This I do at pretty much every race and the reason I do it outside of practice and racing hours is so that I can spend those sessions doing nothing but shooting.

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, autofocus, 70mm

Last time out in Portugal, I bumped into Matt Simmonds on the uplift, this time it was Harry Molloy. Pictured above leading down his team from the Mondraker Development squad. Again, not really into track walk shots, but I've know Harry for a lot of years now so, you know. Plus, whilst this would make a good riding shot, I was standing on the track to get it, so it wouldn't be possible. Something to note in this image, the tips of the windmill poking out through the clouds. This will become pertinent later on.

1/200th of a second, F14, ISO 200, autofocus, 28mm

By known "him a lot of years now", above "Mid Pack" Molloy 16 years earlier racing his first year of World Cups at his home round of Fort William (More photos from that race here). Also, let the record state I'm not an absolute savage, Harry came up with the nickname "Mid Pack" on this trip to Portugal, first time I'd heard it and thought it was amusing. I have a lot of time for Harry and hope he enjoys his new role on the development team.

1/320th of a second, F2.8, ISO 500, autofocus, 70mm

1/800th of a second, F2.8, ISO 500, prefocus, 24mm

2 images that sum things up fairly well. As i said with the track walk image and the windmill breaking through the cloud being pertinent. This was 1 hour later. Image 1, walking along the fire road at the bottom of the hill to get the uplift to the top on a beautiful day. Image 2, arriving at the top of the track after being in the uplift truck for some 20 minutes. Grim!

1/800th of a second, F2.8, ISO 320, prefocus, 45mm

What could make things worse than being in the back of a pickup in the pissing down rain with almost zero visibility I hear you ask... getting to the top of the track ready for practice to begin at 12:00 only then having to wait for almost 1 hour because the UCI commisaire was late to arrive for the start of practice. I'm not sure if it's a Portuguese thing or not, solely based on I've never had it happen anywhere else in the world but the last 2 UCI races in Portugal have been delayed by UCI Comm's.

1/800th of a second, F2.8, ISO 320, manual focus, 35mm

Still the uplift trucks kept delivering riders in the back of pickups to the top with them having nowhere to go and nowhere to seek refuge.

1/1600th of a second, F2.8, ISO 320, autofocus, 300mm

Practice begins with the course sweeper some 48 minutes later than scheduled. The nice views and lines of sight I had planned, out the window. We were in the clouds, rain and hail clouds at that!

1/1600th of a second, F2.8, ISO 160, autofocus, 300mm

Switzerland's Charlie Meier gets his first run out of the way and whilst he probably didn't think so, he timed his first run perfectly. Well as good as it was going to get, the rain had eased off and the cloud cover had thinned out ever so slightly, the wind was still atrocious though. The plan for this shot was to have this as the main shot and have the remote quite a way up the hill shooting the backdrop (The same shot as the first track walk image). Given that you could barely see 10 meters in front of you, the remote was unfortunately ruled out.

1/1600th of a second, F2, ISO 160, prefocus, 135mm

You'll notice it says prefocus? Canon's world-famous autofocus system, when paired with their 135mm f2 couldn't hack it. Spain's Owen Bradley has a heavy compression blowing the berm up mid turn after riding down the rock face. You'll also notice Owen's goggles, or lack thereof. Working on the assumption that they were goosed with all the water and mud, pretty wild to ride in those conditions with nothing over your peepers though. It's one thing to do it in a race or qualifying run where it counts but in practice... Clearly desperate to get down off the hill.

1/1000th of a second, F5.6, ISO 640, manual focus, 24mm

9 minutes and 56 seconds later. The same section of track where Owen was photographed, but in that time, just shy of 10 minutes, the cloud had rolled through enough where there was at least SOME visibility. Enough to see Italy's Lorenzo Folco and a glimpse into the nearby town. If ever there was false hope, that was it. Friday's practice was scheduled for 6 hours but just after this photo, the weather got considerably worse and practice was cancelled after just over 3 hours.

Saturday Practice & Qualifying

1/1000th of a second, F5.6, ISO 160, manual focus, 16mm

Onto Saturday, and as a photographer who'd pretty much been waterboarded the day before, enthusiasm was low given the weather conditions looked very similar for the day. None the less, I'm there to do a job and it was first practice at 08:00. The course sweeper rolls out the start gate; around a left hander and a right hander then over this roller. My plan of attack for today was to frame as if I was shooting landscapes with a small rider, like I would on a nice day so you could see a nice backdrop, just so people could see the conditions. This served well I think for the above image but it was also a hedge; if there was a break in the cloud, it could create the opportunity for some nice shots from the remote camera.

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 250, autofocus, 300mm

Another insight into how i like to do things as a photographer covering an event. If i am shooting wide on one camera; showing scenery, portraying a mood, etc, I like to shoot tight on another camera. This gives people a strong variety and choice. Pictured above is France's Remi Goyau on the same roller but at 300mm. No background and fairly soft due to being in a cloud, it tells the story from the rider's perspective of being able to see practically nothing, still with a race style to it though.

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 250, autofocus, 200mm

Norway's Nico Haglev on the reverse side of where I'd shot Charlie Meier the day before. I can look through my archive and the chances of finding a shot of Nico not looking stylish are very slim. This show would have been incredible if the cloud had gone. Looking down into the town from height up, still, a decent shot as is IMHO.

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, autofocus, 200mm

45 Minutes into the first practice session the clouds had started to lift and you could now start to see features of the track. France's Leo Godin on the wet rock slab into the left hander. The difference between the top boys and everyone else was jarring. The vast majority would be rolling through the full thing after braking on entry, the top boys wouldn't touch the brakes and just gap most of it landing on the face to the right of Leo's wheel. A huge difference in speed and time for this section, you get it wrong though and there's certainly better places to be ejected.

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Italy's Tommaso Rocca demonstrates the gap with his back wheel landing perfectly positioned to get set up for the left hander.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 100, prefocus, 135mm

If you would allow me to have a bit of a grumble for a moment. Track tape... used to mark out the track for the riders. If you go off track you have to re enter the track where you left otherwise you get disqualified. It looks absolutely awful and ruins photos 99.9% of the time. Here I've framed Nico between a bush on the right hand side and a small tree on the left, It's decent enough but would have looked so much better had there been no tape. I know, it's not about the photos, it's about racing but there are sections of track where you just don't need tape as there is only 1 line.

1/1600th of a second, F5.6, ISO 200, manual focus, 15mm

Just like I like to give variety between a tight and wide shot, I also like to mix it up compositionally. This is the same section of track that Nico was pictured in above; only, instead of having France's Gaetan Vage hemmed in by foliage, it's wide open, showing him hammering the same turn but with plenty of landscape in the background.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 100, autofocus, 135mm

This is more like it!!!!!! The sun finally coming out, riders ditching their wet weather gear and running their race kit. Contrast, actual natural contrast in an image. The autofocus actually working... wooooooooo!

1/1000th of a second, F3.5, ISO 160, autofocus, 200mm

Now this isn't something I was expecting, even more nostalgia in the form of Portugal's own wonder child, Emmanuel Pombo. I didn't even recognise him, the only reason I knew he was there was when I looked at the entry list after the event.

1/1000th of a second, F5.6, ISO 500, manual focus, 42mm

You speak to anyone of a certain age who raced/races at world cup level and they'll know Pombo. One of the nicest guys you could meet and was probably the quickest racer Portugal has produced.

1/320th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, autofocus, 160mm

I first met Pombo at the start of 2009 in Vigo, Spain and I think because he was on the podium a fair bit we spent a bit of time together and as we were a similar age, we got on well. Here he is pictured racing the famous Lisbon Downtown in the pouring down rain in 2010 (Photos from that can be found here). I think when the whole enduro race scene kicked off he switched disciplines and I haven't seen him for years. Disappointed that I wasn't aware he was racing, otherwise I'd have made some time for a catch-up.

1/1000th of a second, F4.5, ISO 250, manual focus, 15mm

A little bit further down the course was an interesting section, not for features but the lack thereof. What broke up quite a long straight was a single kicker. Do you send the shit out of it going flat out, or do you squash it.here German Sebastian Donath-Franke chose to attempt the latter.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 250, autofocus, 300mm

Here Spain's Daniel Castellanos gives it a much better attempt, the keen-eyed amongst you will notice that to the riders left, the pole is in on an angle and taking off there would save even more time as you not only have less of a knucle on the single, but it's also the straighter line. A handful of riders spotted and capitalised on this.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 100, autofocus, 135mm

Slovenia's Max Zvegla during Saturdays ellite practice. I think the first time I saw Max ride was in Croatia last year at Losinj for round 1 of The IXS European DH Cup. He seems to have a certain style on a bike that makes him stand out in a crowded field of 350 riders. Fast forward a year and he's still standing out on the hip just after the road bridge.

1/1000th of a second, F6.3, ISO 320, manual focus, 15mm

Someone else who stood out but not in the way you'd expect, Brit Jordan Williams. All weekend he wasn't looking that quick, let me qualify that... Specialized, the bike manufacturer, has arguably the largest budget in Downhill Mountain Biking. That means they have free rein when it comes to signing big names for their team, so naturally, you'd expect them to pick the best. Watching Jordan ride wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but the results speak for themselves. 2nd in qualifying, clearly looks are deceiving.

1/1000th of a second, F6.3, ISO 800, manual focus, 15mm

Speaking of qualifying... I decided for qualifying to get set up on the road gap for 2 reasons:

It looks sick
It looks sick

The size of the gap, the crowd being supplied drink from the van at the back, the Red Bull arch. It came at somewhat of a sacrifice as quite a few riders opted not to jump it and i'd not get a qualifying photo of them, but for everyone else it was prime! Home boy Sandro Silva playing it up to the local crowd with a seat grab. This was a prime location for the remote camera with the fisheye as there were a handful of riders 50/50ing the landing.

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 320, autofocus, 65mm

Austrian Red Bull athlete Valentina Holl, 1st in qualifying, first come racing. Again with the course tape but I can't complain too much here as the remote is fairly obvious. A fitting backdrop for the woman though.

Sunday Practice & Racing

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, autofocus, 35mm

Sunday, a new day and a totally different start. Saturday morning pissing down zero motivation, questioning my life choices, Sunday morning the sun was bursting through the trees. What a way to start the day! The mood around the pits and uplift was massively different and for the better. When you go to Portugal to race, you want to have the sun on your back. All the riders were keen to get out on track, queueing early for the uplift. Above, Harry Molloy and Veronika Widmann reviewing course footage as they wait.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, autofocus, 35mm

It's all fun and games on the uplifts until the wheels come off... or more precisely, the axle mount of the trailer snapping on one side leading to the trailer crabbing almost into the bank. Not to worry though, before anyone could grab a snap and choose a song to accompany it on their IG story, the bikes were offloaded unscathed and another truck (coming down) got turned around, loaded up and on its way.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, autofocus, 35mm

Frenchman Remi Goyau lapping it up as the first rider on track.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, autofocus, 35mm

The sun wasn't around for much of practice, just 1 hour in and it was a cloudy sky, still at least we were IN the clouds. Pictured Spaniard Enol Torre Martinez shot through some flowers that had survived the previous days battering.

1/1000th of a second, F3.5, ISO 160, manual focus, 24mm

This was a cool section of track that had the potential. Starting off with Florent Gastaldi on a big old stepdown to get things rolling. The only thing is, most of the jumps after this point were severely undersized for the speed carried.

1/30th of a second, F13, ISO 50, manual focus, 85mm

Suisse Gianna Neff portraying the natural speed for said stepdown.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 125, autofocus, 135mm

Onto elite practice just before finals and I decided to be down the lower end of the track to be close to the finish line where I'd get my finals shots. Irelands Simone O'Kelly getting air whilst going uphill, a rarity for a downhill course.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 125, autofocus, 135mm

Italy's Veronika Widmann on the same section of track, as you can see, I was torn between shooting Landscape or Portrait. I think landscape looks better but then again, I'm viewing it on a laptop, I may say differently if on a phone like most people are these days.

1/1250th of a second, F5.6, ISO 160, manual focus, 15mm

Time for finals and if you were one of the early riders down the hill, all was good, as the numbers decreased though, the rain got heavier. New Zealands Jason Connor over the last trench and into the finish arena.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 250, prefocus, 300mm

20 year old Frenchman Nathan Pontvianne, much like Valentina Holl, 1st in qualifying and 1st in finals. Pictured here with 7 seconds to get to the finish line as he launches off the trench gap.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 250, autofocus, 300mm

Your fastest time of the weekend.

For me this was probably a race to forget, the track was cool, and Racement done a great job of running things, like they always do, its just when the weather is that shit it puts a dampner on things. Roll onto the next IXS European DH Cup in Fort William, local to me (well if you can count a 7 hour drive each way as local)

4882 images of the event available here

2025 MacAvalanche

April 11, 2025 • Leave a Comment

2025 MacAvalanche - Fort William

711 images of the event available here

1/250th of a second, F11, ISO 2000, autofocus, 50mm

The Premise

Nevis Range, Fort William, Scotland - The mountain bike capital of The UK. 360 mtb riders all setting off at the same time from high up in the Nevis Range. Descending through snow onto the trails getting down as quickly as possible whilst overtaking as many riders as you can. To decide which order you would be on the start grid, you would do a run of a shorter track and the be grided by your qualifying time.

1/1000th of a second, F6.3, ISO 640, prefocus, 135mm

The Reality

I arrived on Friday afternoon ready to get signed on and accredited. My plan was to walk both the short course that riders would qualify on, and also the full length race track to find the best angle on each as i would only have 1 chance on each.

It soon became apparent that there would in fact be no qualifying due to the projected weather forecast. instead there was an A and a B plan.

Plan A - Get up early, load as many riders as they can onto the gondolas (3 bikes at a time). If the weather that is expected comes in, drop it down to 1 bike at a time but inside the gondola, not hanging on the back. Then once all riders are at the top, a quick rider brief then the push up to the mass start, then begin the race.
Plan B - 3 short courses were taped out, and it would be a format of, do as many laps as you want of each course, your quickest time on each will count.

Upon getting this news, I was a little torn. Part of me wanted Plan B, as it meant I'd have ample opportunity to get different photos of the riders. The other wanted plan A as the whole point of shooting the event was to show an incredible landscape which you get when being at The Nevis Range.

Fast forward to first thing Saturday morning and CEO of Nevis Range, Chris, delivers the news that everyone was wanting, they're going with plan A, the mass start race will go ahead from the top.

Over the next few hours, riders made their way to the top. I was on one of the first gondolas to see where I'd be shooting from. For some two hours, I walked up and down the track. I knew the location and angle I'd be shooting from; I was just trying to stay warm. It was absolutely freezing, with huge winds and heavy rain when it wasn't hail stones. To say it was unpleasant conditions to shoot in, would be underselling it.

I had 2 shots set up, both of which were tragic but had potential if I got a break in the weather. The main camera was the above image of Liam Moynihan leading out Donny Kennedy. Shot fairly wide because if the cloud had lifted at any point, seeing the snow-capped Ben Nevis in the background would have been epic!

1/1000th of a second, F5.6, ISO 1000, prefocus, 16mm

Shot 2 was the remote camera. Again, if the cloud had blown through or lifted slightly, the views down the valley showing where the rider would be heading were magnificent.

As it was, truly horrific conditions for a race. Fortunately for me, all the riders had passed me within a 30-minute window. Just a 1-hour hike down the hill, soaked to the core, questioning the choices I'd made in my life which led to the present moment in time.

Thoughts, would love to go back and do it again in decent conditions, unreal trails, spectacular views, great venue. My Christ was it grim though!

That was a short journal entry...

711 images of the event available here

2025 Portugal DH Cup 1 - Seia

March 28, 2025 • Leave a Comment

2025 Portugal DH Cup 1 - Seia

5689 images of the event available here

1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm

Precursor

In 2008/2009 the UK hosted one of the world's best Downhill Mountain Bike race series (The National Point Series). The best athletes in the world would fly in to race the series and whilst that was good for spectators, Brits racing perhaps thought otherwise. You see to race the World Cups - the premier international series -, you needed enough UCI points. These points were handed out to the top 15 riders of a national series event. Because the worlds best were competing in the UK national series, lots of Brits struggled to get enough UCI points from racing their own series and had to venture far afield. Typically this would be pre-season (March/Early April) with popular destinations being Pamporovo in Bulgaria, Vigo in Spain and the Portuguese series. These entry fields didn't quite have the same calibre of rider meaning it would be easier to get points.

With recent changes to qualifying for World Cups, riders are once again back to chasing UCI points. The only thing different this time is that everyone, including the best in the world, are chasing points.

Friday Sign On & Track Walk

1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm

The vast majority of international Downhill events I cover have practice on a Friday. What is strange to me is that this isn't the case with the Portuguese national series. That means Friday is a fairly quiet day in terms of action having only the track walk taking place. A couple of uplift trucks were provided and I managed to get on the first one. Quite important I get there first as I have to be ahead of the athletes to be able to get them head on looking at sections and assessing lines. Now I don't normally shoot track walks, I find them boring to document. I went up anyway as there was potentially an opportunity to cover the event for a team I'd had done work for previously. Unfortunately, the numbers were a little off so I didn't end up providing coverage, but it was worth going just in case.

1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm

Regarding the track, if you put a drone up this year and took a photo and did the same last year, it would be identical. The exact same route, again this is peculiar as most venues change the route of the track from year to year. From speaking with the organiser, they aren't allowed for the route to deviate. This all stems back to them not actually having permission to build the track in the first place, but they were allowed to keep it there on the grounds that the scale of the landscaping they had undertaken turned the area into a nice place.

What they are allowed to do, however, is change the features. Jumps made bigger, berms either increased in size or removed fully leading to either a whole load of grip or none whatsoever. One thing that didn't change was the temperament of the track, old school, wide open, flat out! It's a stunning backdrop for an event.

20250325-20250314_133124

Something new for me this year is having a rollout banner. This one is cycling-specific containing a big QR code at the top along with a selection of different cycling images. I take this to each race now and put it up next to rider sign-on. It's perfect really as typically the riders have to queue for a while to sign on and with the QR code being so big, it's easy to scan even from the back of the line. Not only can the riders look for photos of themselves from previous races whilst they wait, they can also bookmark the page so they know where to get images from the current race. This was set up first thing on Friday (as they were still installing the finish gantry) a few hours before sign-on started.

Saturday Practice

1/1600th of a second, F3.2, ISO 50, manual focus, 85mm

After the heavy rain of early Friday evening followed by a freeze overnight, the sun soon shone through the trees. Thawing the crunch crispy grass under foot of the race pits soft in no time whatsoever. Whilst direct sunlight was very warm, as pictured above melting the ice on the solar panel, in the shade it was freezing!

1/1000th of a second, F2.5, ISO 50, Autofocus, 135mm

The above sums things up well, a brand new track getting ridden in in glorious light by one of the first riders of the day Spain's Adrian Padin, whilst a well wrapped up elite rider walks the track waiting for their session to start at 11:00.

1/1000th of a second, F4, ISO 200, manual focus, 44mm

Spain's Under 17 3rd place finisher Mario Gonzalez getting up to race pace very quickly hitting the same turn hard early on. Photography wise, sometimes you just have to settle with what you can get. The camera was on remote, but due to how the track was laid out, the b line was a whole separate part of the track. In the foreground on the right you can see the edge of the tape marking where the track rejoins the main line. Ideally, I wanted the remote in line with the lape on the lower right of the image. This was so I could have shot wide, got the rider a decent size in the frame but would have been able to show more of the backdrop. As it was, I had to have the camera a good 15 meters farther back. Yes, you do get more of a foreground transition blur leading to the rider, but because you're more zoomed in, it compresses the rider more with the background.

1/1000th of a second, F4, ISO 200, manual focus, 39mm

A shot I normally wouldn't go with, Portugal's Vitor Martin sending the first of the big step-downs. Due to the uplift situation, there were waves of 50 riders all at once then no one for 10-15 minutes. In one of the gaps I moved down to this location and just as I was moving, there was an influx of riders (TYPICAL!) so I quickly planted the remote camera and ran a good bit to the right of the photo to get a pan shot as my main angle. On the next lul, I ran back over to check what the shot looked like, I wasn't happy with the angle due to a high vis in the background and the way the tape leads your eye to the wrong place so, again, quickly moved it into a better position.

1/1000th of a second, F5, ISO 50, manual focus, 85mm

This was that angle, France's Elite rider Benoit Coulanges, Shot in portrait as the main angle was a landscape pan. I chose to have the rider positioned right at the top leaving 2/3rds of the bottom image with not much going on. This is intentional because regardless of the use, commercial or editorial, you can use the 2/3rd space for text/image content. If the rider wanted an image to go as the background for the Instagram story and have a post embedded in the story towards the bottom, this would be perfect.

1/25th of a second, F11, ISO 50, manual focus, 53mm

This was the main angle I was going for. The same moment in time with France's Benoit Coulanges only this at 1/25th of a second to get a nice bit of motion in the image due to the speed he was going and the smoothness of soaring through the air. The high vis, 2 guys in the middle and the guy on the left annoy me but it's not a photoshoot, it's a race weekend. If you wanted it for commercial you could photoshop them out, but, I shoot editorial, them people were there so they stay. The good thing about finally being able to shoot on the 24-70 again - after MONTHS of waiting for Canon Europe to get the parts in to repair it (eventually got it done in Australia despite them not recognising CPS UK membership) - is the fact that's the only lens i have a polarizing filter for. Very handy for making the sky pop and preventing the leaves from blowing out.

1/1000th of a second, F3.2, ISO 50, manual focus, 85mm

A little further down the track was the biggest feature of the weekend, a flat-out section into a roadgap landing sharply into a 90-degree left-hander. Pictured Britain's Rueben Taylor just outside the top 10 Quickest times of the weekend in 12th place with a 2:20.122. Whilst this was a remote camera shot, I shot this as a main image. I had planned this shot for my own social media usage an Instagram story. Rider almost at the very top so that your username doesn't get in the way. A link smack bang in the middle to the gallery of images on my website. The Instagram post embedded in the story filling the bottom 3rd. Not only that, but because my images are full resolution, they can be cropped in, meaning if you wanted to, you could make the above image landscape instead of portrait and it would still make a good shot.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 200, manual focus, 55mm

Seldom do I shoot my backup shot with my camera in hand, it's usually always a remote. The reason is that you can never rely on a remote camera to fire so you use it as a backup (You can read how I thought that happened to me here). In this instance though, there wasn't a cat in hells chance i was leaving a remote camera in this location. The above shot of Ireland's race winner Oisin O'Callaghan is the reverse of the picture of Rueben. As I said above, this was an absolutely mental fast part of the track with rocks flying everywhere and no catch berms leading the odd rider to drift off track at pace. Rather than write a camera off, I thought I'd lie down there and get the shot. Worst case scenario, James Bond roll... As a backup image, it ended up being a nice landscape. Good leading lines with the track tape and good subject separation from the rather nice backdrop.

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 125, manual focus, 44mm

Italy's Loris Revelli perfectly demonstrates what I meant about rocks flying everywhere! Fortunately, after dodging a few stones, I realised if I stayed committed, I could make a good shot out of it, just a shame the tape is in the foreground. I could have manually moved it, but unlike others, I won't alter the track markings just to get a photo. Not long after the above shot, it was time to head down the hill for the 1 hour dinner break, not that there was much of a break. A handful of locals who had their own transport were sneakily getting their own shuttles in on what was supposed to be a closed track.

1/40th of a second, F11, ISO 50, manual focus, 15mm Fisheye

After a quick ingest of the morning's images, it was time to get back on the uplift, ready for the afternoon's practice session. One thing I wasn't expecting was to be sharing the uplift with Matt Simmonds (Pictured on the right). Yes, I know what your thinking. No, it isn't a pirate hat... My nose is huge and always gets sunburned, as I cant run a cap as it gets in the way of shooting with a camera, I run this bad boy.

1/320th of a second, F2.8, ISO 640, autofocus, 115mm

To digress a little, just before the event started on the Thursday, I'd just completed uploading the gallery of images from Vigo Bike Contest some 15 years ago (Gallery here). Pictured above is the same Matt Simmonds racing back in 2010. I'd thought he had retired from racing, which was correct but he was saying how he now works for Cube, a manufacturer and they fly him around the world to races to help the athletes. The uplift is only 10-15 minutes but it was nice to have a catch-up, he's now running Caersws Bike Park which is good to hear, they always used to have good tracks.

1/1000th of a second, F5, ISO 400, manual focus, 135mm

2 Elite riders stood out for me on Saturday's practice due to sheer speed and the quietness with which they rode. Team mates Thibaut Daprella and pictured above Simon Chapelet. As you can see, fully banked over, on rails around the 90-degree left-hander that immediately followed the stepdown pictured earlier. Ideally, I'd have loved to have shot this handheld at F2.0 as there's only one of me though I have to look for multiple angles so F5 it was on remote.

1/25th of a second, F9, ISO 50, manual focus, 16mm

This is why the other shot had to be on remote, I wanted this image as well and there isn't a system I know of that can automatically pan to track a rider. Finlands Kasper Hickman, one of the Cube team riders Matt Simmonds was looking after.

1/1600th of a second, F5.6, ISO 400, manual focus, 15mm fisheye

Perigo, Perigo, high voltage, when we touch... I love this angle. As you come out the turn pictured before the above image, it's a flat out gradual turn left onto this, a stepdown into a sweeping right berm. With a 15mm fisheye you get the jump, the landing, the full corner, a good bit of landscape on the opposite hill with the rider dominating the frame. What you don't get however is the riders number, somewhat of an issue when it comes to knowing which rider is which in a field of over 350 athletes.

1/1250th of a second, F2.5, ISO 100, autofocus, 135mm

The same place, but from head-on. Spain's Hector Quinteiro looking like he's been shot out of a canon. Technically, it is a difficult shot for the camera as the blue sky is extremely bright in comparison to the front of the rider which is heavily shaded. What makes it more of a challenge for the camera is that because you have to shoot at a fast shutter speed to freeze the very quick action, you have to increase the ISO which means you have the reduce the dynamic range (the ability to keep the detail in both the bright areas and the dark areas). When it comes to editing you have less information to work with.

1/1250th of a second, F2.8, ISO 1250, autofocus, 300mm

1/1250th of a second, F2.2, ISO 400, manual focus, 135mm

Another 2 shots of Brit Rueben Taylor in the same instance of time. You can see in the first image in the lower left, how steep the gradient of the hill is, which gives perspective on the second shot on how much of a catch berm it is. For image one I wanted a nice tight crop and a decent bit of foreground for the perception of depth. The second is wanted wide in case there was any action (think rocks and dirt flying everywhere), I know 135 isn't exactly wide but in comparison to 300mm on image one...

1/200th of a second, F2.8, ISO 2500, manual focus, 15mm fisheye

As the practice session was coming to an end on Saturday afternoon, the heavens opened so I decided to call the day of shooting there with only 15 minutes left. I cheekily decided to get an uplift down to save becoming a drowned rat, didn't really work though as you can tell by the raindrops on the lens hood bottom right. What you may notice in the lower centre of the image is 4 empty green glass bottles... That's right 5 and drive. Immediately upon entering the uplift driver offered me a Heineken out of the coolbox behind his seat. Turns out he'd been on the drink all day doing uplifts, I actually found this a lot funnier than it probably was.

Sunday Racing

1/800th of a second, F2.8, ISO 50, autofocus, 24mm

What a start to the day looking down onto the low-lying cloud. Again I was the first off the uplift at 07:55. 08:00 when practice was supposed to start Matt Simmonds pointed out there were no officials to be seen so everyone got to take in the views for 20 minutes before the first bike on course at 08:21.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 160, autofocus, 135mm

This section of track, pretty much where the course begins if your a photographer, if you're a rider however, you could have lost the race by here. The very top section was poor to photograph so didn't bother, lots of peddling, simple berms, barely any gradient. From speaking with a few riders though, a lot of time could be lost there.

1/1000th of a second, F3.5, ISO 50, autofocus, 15mm fisheye

Sunday was supposed to have 2 hours of practice from 08:00 to 10:00 followed by an exclusive practice session for the top 20 riders for 30 minutes. Due to the late start the top 20 sessions was scrapped, except this wasn't really communicated.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 50, manual focus, 135mm

I'd set up on the first tabletop on the middle of the track as it's a great spot to get 2 angles on. The first, a head on shot with a fisheye, showing the full speed tun into it and the race plate (for knowing which rider is which). The second pictured above, a long leading straight with a not bad backdrop. Most importantly, if there was a jump on the track where the riders would lay down some style, it would be here. A mistake was made here by me, instead of keeping my eye on the time, i just kept on shooting, thinking when i start to see the top 20, it would be soon time to move. There were no top 20 riders which meant that what i thought was a slow start to the session was infact the break and qualifying was just about to start.

1/60th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, pre-focus, 15mm fisheye

As I made a mistake I ended up having to run down to this section as soon as i realised qualifying had started missing a handful of the first riders. I had a specific shot I wanted from qualifying and this was it. Pictured Mikayla Parton laying down the quickest female qualifying time meaning she would be the last woman down the hill come race time. She later went on to win the event by over 5 seconds!

1/1000th of a second, F2.8, ISO 800, manual focus, 135mm

7th in qualifying for Max Hartenstern going on to 5th place in the final a smidge over 3 seconds back from the winner. This is the same location as the Mikayla Parton shot above it, only shooting long on remote. The position of the rider on the bike leaning into the left-hand corner whilst going off a drop, very much race style.

1/1000th of a second, F4.5, ISO 320, autofocus, 15mm

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 100, autofocus, 135mm 575574330

I'm sort of torn about the above 2 images, but I'll use them as they tell a story of the MTB race scene in Portugal. First, Portugal's Manuel Santos has an enormous crash going into the second to last turn with the crowd watching on. Second, Spaniard Roi Diaz hits the deck hard, exiting the steep chute through the trees and entering the final section of the track. The issue is, in Portugal, there aren't many regional races where you can develop your skills. For a lot of kids, their first race is a national series-level race. You could clearly see lots of under 13's and under 15's were out of their depth on this section of track with some electing to walk down it. Shining a spotlight on the issue were the kids in the same categories from overseas who made it look like water off a duck's back.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 200, autofocus, 135mm

When is technology not the future? when it doesn't work. I've seen quite a few videos now of carbon handlebars snapping now and as that is 50% of the contact area you make with a bike it is fairly concerning. Portugal's Rui Fernandes can attest to that after hitting a tree, from watching it the contact didn't even seem that harsh.

1/1000th of a second, F2, ISO 200, autofocus, 135mm

Spain's Mario Valsero has certainly had better race runs. Pictured above caked in mud if that wasn't evident that he'd had a crash during his race run, being 30 seconds off the pace on the clock would be.

1/20th of a second, F4.5, ISO 50, manual focus, 28mm

Consistency, 1st in qualifying and 1st in finals, the Elite winner Ireland's Oisin O'Callaghan. Whilst not a surprise on paper, watching Oisin on track, visually he didn't seem that quick, optics are a funny one though and the clock never lies!

My takeaways from the event: A good venue run by a very nice guy and his Mrs. The uplifts are comically wild and though the track won't change much, I actually like the flat-out pace of it. Sticking to the schedule wasn't great and there was some cheeky extra practice by people with means which i wasn't a fan of. All in all a good event and perfect as a pre-season test. I would love to go back next year so hopefully the organiser and his other half do it all again (Although from a conversation I had with him, it may be unlikely which is a shame)

5689 images of the event available here

2025 Malcolm Wilson Rally - The Lost Files

March 21, 2025 • Leave a Comment

The 2025 Malcolm Wilson Rally Lost Files

2034 images of the event available here

Last week, I wrote my first journal entry. It was about the 2025 Malcolm Wilson Rally (you can read it here). In the entry, I mentioned how the remote camera didn't fire, probably down to the distance I was away from it and also the fact that the remote camera was fairly burrowed...

It turns out I was wrong.

Now, what I typically do immediately after I finish shooting is pick up the remote camera and view the last image taken with it to make sure it has fired. This isn't the best practice as it only shows the last image which I could have taken when I was a lot closer to the camera. Because of this, I also skip back 10 images at a time, meaning I can check if it's been firing fairly consistently.

None of these steps were carried out, in fact I didn't even bother to pack my camera gear away, I just carried it all down the hill and put it straight in the car, tripod and lenses still attached.

When I got back home and ingested the cards, I just assumed that all the cards had been ingested.

The reason the steps had been missed was because was in a rush. The same evening I had a 1500 mile drive ahead of me. I was driving out to shoot round 1 of the Portugal DH Cup, an international cycling event (You can read about how that went here). It was only on the Thursday when I got my cameras out to get ready for shooting Friday's track walk that I found the images on a card.

Anyway, a quick ingest later and an extra 354 photos were ready to be edited. As it was a remote, the ISO was set to AUTO and compensated appropriately. Editing was quick as no cropping was required, just mask for the sky to bring the highlights down and add a bit of contrast. It wasn't quite as aggressive of a corner as i thought it would be, as such, not much rocks been flung around.

Note to self, spend the extra minutes to stick to best practices, regardless of how much of a hurry you're in.

2034 images of the event available here

2025 Malcolm Wilson Rally

March 10, 2025 • Leave a Comment

The 2025 Malcolm Wilson Rally

2034 images of the event available here

For the uninitiated in the rally world, M-SPORT run the Ford World Rally Team and has its headquarters at Dovenby Hall, in Cumbria. The owner of M-SPORT is ex rally driver Malcolm Wilson. What I assume is a passion project for Malcolm, he puts on a rally towards the start of the year, annually. Saturday, 8th March 2025, was the 48th installment, and due to it being pretty much on my doorstep in The Lake District I headed along to photograph it. I wasn't commissioned by anyone to photograph it, it was just on spec.

There were 8 stages in total, with 7 being accessible to public spectators and 1 with restricted access. The first car left stage 1 at 07:29 and finished stage 8 just after 14:00. My plan before the event was to cover 2 stages, Stage 4 - Whythop and Stage 8 - Greystoke. The issue with covering rallying is if you plan to shoot every car, - which was the goal - you have an overlap of different cars being on different stages at the same time, that's why I originally planned to only shoot the 2 stages. I knew the last car would be through Stage 4 long before Stage 8 was supposed to start, which would give me plenty of time to drive from one to the other and get set up.

Due to personal circumstances, I only ended up shooting Stage 4 at Whythop. Here's how that went.

Knowing the stage very well, as I've shot it before, I arrived at 07:45 30 minutes before the stage went live. I parked with all the other spectators and made my hike up the trail onto the fire road.

Remote Camera

First things first was to get the remote camera set up. I use a remote camera as there is only one of me and it's better to be able to offer a selection of images rather than just one.

I decided to shoot wide, 15mm fisheye to be precise. I've seen quite a few rally images and they all seem to be tight crops of just the car, often sideways flicking up the odd stone. For me, often, it is the case where the subject should be fairly small in the frame, and you should show the environment the subject is working in. It tells more of a story. The above is the test photo from said remote camera, nice and wide, on the outside of the corner from nestled slightly above. The car expected to be mid-turn on the lower right third, hopefully throwing plenty of rocks out from behind it, with trees and sky making up the rest of the image.

Public Service Announcement

To save you from scrolling on a few times looking for the remote camera images, the remote camera failed to fire 😂. This is sometimes the case. I'd hedge my bets and say the fact it was nestled and hidden behind a tree; and i was a good few hundred meters away, also behind a tree being the reason it didn't work. It's a remote/second angle, unfortunately, you have to shoot knowing that it may not work

PSA UPDATE!!!

The remote camera did fire, Blog post here explaining it all

Main Camera

Next it was a hike, not up the easy-to-walk fire road, but straight up the side of the hill. Climbing over hefty fallen down trees, getting shanked by a plethora of bramble bushes, and sliding on the odd moss-covered branch, all whilst having a fair amount of mass on my back in the form of my camera bag.

I eventually got to where I wanted to be. Very well elevated, I could see the car on approach to the corner, going round the corner then climbing the fire road towards me. From here, I'd planned 4 photos:

Panning with the car at a low shutter speed - 1/30th or lower - as the car climbed up the fire road towards the corner through the trees.
A side shot of the car through the turn and exiting.
A head on shot of the car climbing up towards me as it exits the turn.
A pan shot from above as the car goes below me

The Images

Picture 1, Stage winner #2 Garry Pearson with co-driver Hannah McKillop. It's a good job I got my 24-70 fixed - Previously, it would only shoot at 2.8 -. Even with a polarized filter and the lowest ISO my camera shoots at, 1/20th i was still overexposed at 2.8 thus, the bump to 4.5.

1/20th of a second
F4.5
ISO 50
manual focus
28mm

A fairly simple shot really and just how I envisioned it. Manual focus was chosen as there isn't a cat in hells chance that my camera could track the car through the trees and that would mean it would be out of focus. Again I shot wide, just to give some scale and show the environment. 1/20th of a second gives enough of a blur on the stationary trees whilst keeping the car fairly sharp. Whacked the white balance way up in Lightroom to give it somewhat of a Spring morning glow.

Picture 2, #171 Jordan Oldbury with co-driver Steve Gardiner.

1/1000th of a second
F2.8
ISO 1000
auto focus
24mm

Another simple shot. Autofocus point was set to the upper right third; handily that's the highest the focus point goes on my camera. That means I can get some light above the trees in the shot, it also shows the path in and out that the car took/would take. Now ideally, I'd like to have shot this at F13. As you can see, I was at ISO1000 and that was at 2.8! F13 would have been ridiculous ISO wise, but it would have meant that the little drop of moisture on the lens would have had more of a star effect to it. Also on this one I put the white balance up in Lightroom to give it a Spring morning glow.

Picture 3, #43 Mark McMinn with co-driver Dick Wardle.

1/1000th of a second
F2.8
ISO 1000
auto focus
70mm

A considerably tighter crop at 70mm compared to the previous 24mm. With this one, its the exact same settings as the last shot but with me crouching down. The reason I crouched was to get the golden leaves of the tree in the foreground, thus giving the image more depth. Even with a polarising filter, there's still a decent bit of glare coming off the paint work. You can imagine then, how much there was without.

Picture 4, #112 Nigel Jenkins with co-driver Kaz Jenkins.

1/15th of a second
F4.5
ISO 50
auto focus
24mm

The final shot was considerably harder to get and I'll explain why. You see on my camera, i have 2 shooting modes (both manual settings). The first i had set to 1/20th to get them climbing the hill in the shade going into the corner. Then I press a button on my camera and it switches to the second set of settings where I was shooting exposed for the head on at 1/1000th. For the last shot, I wanted to pan but I couldn't use the first set of settings as they were for the shade and not direct sunlight so they would have been overexposed. Instead ,what I had to do was use my safety button...

What I normally use my safety button for is to freeze the action when I'm in my panning settings mode. Say I'm shooting speedway and panning at 1/5th of a second and the rider crashes, i swap my thumb from the autofocus button to the safety button which is set to TV (Shutter priority) at 1/1000th of a second and it will expose properly and freeze the action whilst still focusing. I rarely EVER change it but this was a situation where the quick drivers were getting to me far too quick to quickly change settings. As such I had the TV mode on the safety button set to 1/15th and I used that to pan this time instead of freeze the action.

The resulting images is face paced carnage, just like what rallying is!

All in all, it was a good event and as you can see by the above image, plenty of power was put down. This was a normal good condition level fireroad turn... My remote camera was set to the left of the tree near where you can see the people and the main shot was taken much higher up than what is shown on the top right of the image.

2034 images of the event available here