I just love motorcycles of all types, whether it is dirt bikes, choppers, crotch-rockets, or the much-maligned dual sport motorcycles. My favorite riding is what I call "adventure touring" where I get on a comfortable dual sport bike and just take off across country, with no route planned, just see where the road takes me. Dirt or pavement, doesn't matter, I just ride. You can see some interesting countryside that way. I actually started a web site to like-minded riders can meet and plan all types of dual sport rides.
Most photos on this site are available for commercial stock photography. Many have model releases, while most can be used for editorial purposes.
Fine Art Prints
Most photos on this site are available as fine art prints. These are done in-house on a large format HP printer. Sizes up to 42" wide by 100' length are available, and larger sizes are available on request. All prints are shipped unframed unless requested. Framing services are available.
I had some projects to do in SW Arkansas so rather than drive or fly, I decided to ride my 2002 BMW F650 GS "Dakar" on this trip. I could combine my work, motorcycle and photography passion in one trip - what a deal!
Traveling light is the name of the game on a motorcycle, so for this trip I chose my D200 with a single general-purpose lens, along with one SB-800 flash. A small custom-made tripod provided me a stand for my camera and/or flash and fit within my luggage. My goal was to get some good pictures of my trip that said "adventure touring".
My first attempts were just normal shots of the bike in beautiful sunset light. These were nice, but I have hundreds of great photos of my bike and/or me with beautiful scenery around. I even did some photos with the sun as a sidelight and used my SB-800 flash to overpower the sun and make the SB800 my main light. These again turned out nice but didn't have the WOW factor that I love to capture.
Wednesday morning found me riding from DeQueen to Mena, AR in a dense, wet, cold fog. Not a big deal since I ride equipped for bad weather, but still I was missing some nice scenery. I could see the fog trying to lift and the sun shining through every few miles, so I decided to ride up the Tahlemina Drive that runs 60 miles along a spine of mountains from Mena to Tahlehina, OK. I was hoping to climb above the fog and get some great pictures.
Luckily my plan worked out great and clear skies assailed my eyes and reflected on the white, dense fog in the valleys. The mountain tops pushed through the fog and stood like pillars in a sea of white. What an awesome ride.
After stopping for a few scenic photos, I was riding along and thought "I wonder what it would be like to photograph while I ride?" Dropping a $1,600 camera on the pavement at 50 mph made me a bit nervous, but I triple-wrapped the camera strap around my wrist and let it dangle from my throttle hand. At the top of a long hill I would just let the bike coast and use my right hand to snap pictures. While normally I shoot in either manual or aperture priority mode, this time I set the camera to shutter priority. This way I could try different shutter speeds to blur the background, while still accounting for the changes from direct sun to deep shadows.
Manual focus was chosen so that I could be sure the motorcycle was in focus, then let depth of field handle the background focus. Because of the changing light and varying speeds, some backgrounds are more in focus than others. I really liked the blur of the pavement and the front wheel pointing down the road and saying "adventure".
After stopping and checking my photos on the LCD, I bumped the ISO up so I could get more shutter speed and aperture at the same time. To better depict dual sport riding, I tracked down some dirt roads and got similar pictures. Varying the angle of the camera and the point of view gave me a wide variety of photographs that can be used for cover pages, two page spreads in magazines, etc. The above photograph would work great in a two page spread, with headlines at the top and text along the dirt road on the right.
The D200 gives plenty of pixels so you have room for cropping. After working with art directors, I have learned that it is good to have various shots varying amounts of "room" around the picture. This gives the art director different pictures to meet different needs, with room for text, graphics, and cropping if needed. Art directors don't always choose my favorite pictures, or even their favorite pictures, but often they choose the picture that best fits the "need" they have at the moment. That need might be to illustrate a point or story, provide an opening cover, inside spread, background for a table of contents, or any other publishing need they might have.
Dual sport riding is not all dirt roads, or not even all smooth pavement. Some of my most enjoyable rides are on old, worn out paved roads, so I wanted to capture that as well. Below the slight curve in the road helps lead your eyes down the road and off into the adventure.
Below is another angle of the same thing, with more of the bike and the road leading off into the corner of the picture. The tank back with the map also helps say "adventure". Very similar shot but with less space for text and just a bit different angle. I like the both, but an art director might choose one over the other just to fit a different need. I also varied the shutter speed for less blur in the foreground.
As I mentioned, I stopped for a few scenic photos along the way. Thought you might like to see me and my bike and how much room I had for gear - not much! I do have a helmet, never ride without one.
This picture looks very simple but actually it was the most difficult shot of all. The sun was glaring down from behind the bike, and if I metered for the sky the foreground would go dark, and if I metered for the bike the sky would be blown out. How did I fix this? By evening out the sky and foreground exposure - some how, some way. In this case I used my SB800 flash off-camera on my mini-tripod, triggered wirelessly from the on-camera flash aboard the D200. I set the SB800 to full manual power and my camera to it's highest sync speed, 1/250. The flash still would not overpower the sun, so I moved it closer. This allowed the flash to be my main light on the bike and me, while the sun acted as a rim and side light to separate the bike and me from the background. I set my aperture for the flash, and my shutter speed for my ambient light - the sky. If I would have had more time and another SB800 and tripod, I would have pointed an SB800 right at my face to make it stand out more and allow some of the other components to go darker. Oh well. I thought the picture turned out well. Some pictures are easy and look hard, while others look easy and are hard, while some are just plain hard and look that way <grin>. I guess a good photographer makes a great picture look easy even if it is very difficult.
