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Last week the Showtime FMX freestyle moto cross team performed at the Gold Coast Motor Bike Expo. It was incredible what these guys could do on a motor bike. Check out a couple of images below.

This was a little personal project. I was attending the Gold Coast Motor Bike Expo to shoot the Show Time FMX demo (pics to come shortly). During a little free time I took a wonder round the show. I wanted to take some photos of my favourite bikes on display, the trick was figuring out how to do it in the middle of a busy expo floor. So here is what I did…

I used a monopod with a tribase to support the camera instead of a tripod, so as to avoid the possiblity of anyone tripping over my equipment. To this I mounted my trusty little D40 because of its native higher sync speed of 500th of a second. Looking back I could have used my d300 and used nikons high speed sync feature – have to try that next time.

I used a sb-800 with a honl snoot to control the spread of the flash. Then I shot 3-5 images of the bike making sure my camera settings (500th of a sec at f14) killed any ambient light meaning the only thing visible in the picture was the parts of the bike lit by the flash.

Finally when I got home I combined the 3-5 different frames into a single image. The results of which are below. I wish now I had taken an ambient exposure so you could see the environment these were shot in. Another thing to remember for next time.

Pillion Passenger Wheelies

Wheelies on Fire

And this is possibly the craziest thing I have ever done.

The stunt co-oridinator, Ron, walks up to me and says we are going to film a scene where you get shot off a motorcycle. To make it look realistic we need to jerk you off the bike.

“Hmmm ok, how do we do that?”

“Simple, we attach attach one end of a rope to you, and tie the other end round that lampost there. You just have to start riding and let physics do its job!”

“ahhh….. right-o-then… sounds simple enough”

(that is Ron in the background looking real calm and relaxed)

]]> http://xesdrive.com/blog/2009/03/motorcycle-madness/feed/ 0 http://xesdrive.com/blog/2009/02/the-power-of-black-white/ http://xesdrive.com/blog/2009/02/the-power-of-black-white/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:00:53 +0000 regan http://xesdrive.com/blog/?p=879 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

I love black and white photography.  Your eye is free to focus on the focal point of the image when you take away the distraction of colour. Detail, composition and subject matter all appear to have more impact in a black and white image. The photos below were taken on a bright summers day, yet these three monochrome frames were my favourites of the day.

This weekend on the Gold Coast I came across a freestyle jetski competion being held in the surf on main beach. Thankfully I always have a camera (or 2 lol) handy and I had the time to stop and take these stunning images. These guys were awesome, it really was spectacular to watch.

EDITED TO ADD    – CLICK HERE TO SEE PICS FROM THE SAME EVENT IN 2010

Sadly these were two cars i never did manage to get behind the wheel of, oh dear… how sad… never mind…

The first is called a Ferrari FXX it is the rich mans racing version of a Ferrari Enzo.

The second is A Porsche Spyder LMP2

]]> http://xesdrive.com/blog/2008/11/a-mercedes-and-a-model/feed/ 0 http://xesdrive.com/blog/2008/06/porsche-sport-driving-school/ http://xesdrive.com/blog/2008/06/porsche-sport-driving-school/#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:00:55 +0000 regan http://xesdrive.com/blog/?p=24 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

These photos were taken at a very cool event I worked for Mercedes in Miami. The car is a Mclaren Merecedes SLR. It is a great car but not really suited for the race track. As big as the brakes are they were not up to the task of repeated high speed braking on a rack track. But that didn’t stop us from having a ton of fun in them. We had 12 at our disposal.

Unfortunately this program was discontinued after Mercedes filled there sales quota for the SLR in America. However they still run a program at various tracks around the USA each year using every vehicle in their AMG range.

Check out this link for the 2008 AMG Challenge

Click on any of the pitures below for a gallery of more images from the event.