Ducati Test Ride

2007-0924-0066
Originally uploaded by jamest210

Thanks to BMW/Ducati of Oklahoma, I was able to test ride their new Ducati Hypermotard motorcycle recently. What a blast! Without a doubt this is the most fun motorycycle I have ever ridden. I will be doing a full review in an upcoming Ride Oklahoma Magazine issue.

I wanted to capture a picture of the Hypermotard that represented a gritty, urban feel, since this bike can be classified as a "street fighter". I also wanted a pretty girl to photograph with the bike, so I contacted one of my favorite models, Crystal Peake, for this shoot. She is always professional and on time, and is beautiful to boot!

To get the urban look I was after, I scouted downtown OKC and chose an alleyway right off Broadway & 4th street. As always I previsualized the photo in my mind before setting things up. After unloading the bike from the trailer, I set up three lights for this shot - one down the alleyway to give the shot some layered depth, one to camera left behind the bike, hidden by a wall, to backlight and edge light the picture, and then the key light to camera right with a 20" beauty dish. No softboxes or umbrellas in this photo, since I wanted a hard-edged look.

First shot from the camera was nearly spot on. I adjusted the light in the alleyway just a bit then when Crystal arrived we were ready to start shooting as the sun went down to camera right. We got several great pics from this shoot, one in a vertical format that will go on the cover of Ride Oklahoma.

I post processed this photo more than normal in Photoshop, since I wanted a gritty, hard edged look to the photo. It is oversharpened on purpose to get the "look" I was after.

NOTE: Sorry for the gap in postings, had the blog off-line for a while.