Downhill mountain bikes and steep hills

I was out with fellow photographers Brian Dukes, Glyn Dewis and Mark Hall photographing Brian’s son Paddy Dukes and his riding mates in Surrey. I packed a bunch of Speedlite flashes and the Lastolite quad mounting plate from my quad bracket to allow up to found Speedlites to be position on one light stand.

It was a great day and here’s a bunch of photos…

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

The big jump

This last position of the day had the guys leaping off a path over an 8-foot drop, clear a fire break road and then land on the down slope the other side. Front on, even from a low position resulted in good sharp shots with the added pair of Speedlites to the camera left, but didn’t really show the height of the drop they guys were leaping off.

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

I switched the a side view and the 24-105mm lens to try and get a greater impression of the height.

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

In one of my last shots of the day Paddy pulled off the biggest jump of the day, at least 10 feet off the ground by my reckoning at this point.

Hindhead, Surrey. 17 October 2015. Downhill mountain bikers at the Devil's Punchbowl. photo by Brian Worley

 

I’d started off the day with automatic E-TTL flash, but changed over to manual flash quickly as with the lights in a fixed spot and the riders aiming for the same spot the exposure would be consistent. To get some ambient light I pushed the ISO up which also meant the flashes could be run at 1/16 to 1/32 power much of the time to keep recycling times short.

A huge thanks to Paddy, Isabel and the guys for keeping on pushing up the hills and speeding down them for us.

About the author

Full-time photo tutor and photographer. I love to share my knowledge and skills to make photos, videos and teach others. I write books and articles for photo magazines and I always have at least one Speedlite flash in my camera bag