For the past five years I’ve been lucky enough to travel the country and photograph different types of off-road motorsports.  Being able to combine my love for photography and off-road has been good to me and I am grateful at each event I cover that I get to do what I do.  As a photographer I try and improve each time I’m out somewhere shooting, and one way I think is a good way to do that is try and photograph something different.  It gives you a new way of looking at things and gives yourself a challenge.  Doing something you’ve never done before always teaches you something new about yourself.

Back on March 7th, 2009 two friends of mine, Jordan May and Chris Hanson had entered a Mountain Bike race the Warriors Society put on called the Counting Coup / Vision Quest.  The race is based out of the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County, CA.  Its 44 miles of tough trails, and I have a lot of respect for anyone who attempts such a feat.

2009 Counting Coup / Vision Quest

My day started early as I planned on catching the leaders as they went through the halfway point through Maple Springs.  The day prior Jordan and Chris brought me to the location so I’d know how to get there on race day.  I always like to be prepared ahead of time so I appreciated them taking the time to show me.  I’m sure the last thing on their mind the day before having to trek 44 miles is take me on a joy ride to check out spots .

The race started at 6am, so I woke up at about 5 to make sure I would get there in time.  I knew I was in for a long day so I brought along plenty of water and snacks to get me through the day.  I got to Maple Springs with time to spare so I spent some time hiking backwards on the course.  I had about an hour to kill before the lead riders came through this spot so I used it to scout out where I’d want to shoot this part of the race.  I ended up hiking about two miles back from the aid station and found a good spot to shoot.  The nice part about that area is that it gave you a lot of different angles to work with.  It was in a canyon, so by simply turning around and shooting behind me it would give you a completely different look.

Here you can see a photograph of the riders coming down the single track along the mountain.

2009 Counting Coup / Vision Quest

And then by simply turning to my left you could shoot them riding down the other side of the canyon.

2009 Counting Coup / Vision Quest

I also wanted to play around with off camera flash photos, so I hooked up my Canon 550ex Flash to an off camera cord.   I tried it early in the day at the first spot so that I could get some photographs looking into the sun. I always like photos when you have the sun flaring in the shot, it gives it a real cool look. For these shots I used the 17-40 F4L lens and got as close as I could to the course without getting in the way. I then stopped down to underexpose the photo and used the flash to light up the rider.  Took me a little while to get the right settings down, but after I did I walked away with some photos that I liked.

2009 Counting Coup / Vision Quest

2009 Counting Coup / Vision Quest

I was able to catch both Jordan and Chris at that location so after they went by I worked my way back to the aid station where my truck was, and headed to the finish area to catch them one more time.

Chris is cool

Jordan the muscle man

The finish line was located near O’Neil Park where the Holy Jim Trail hits the street.  The race course is on public land so they aren’t able to close the course, so before the leaders came into the finish I rode back about 5 miles to catch them again.   Riding with full gear + no riding shorts = unhappy taint.  The ride to the spot I was going to shoot wasn’t that bad, but after Jordan and Chris went by and I headed back I had to ride the whole way standing up lol.

For these photos I wanted to use the off camera flash again.  My goal was to find a nice shaded area so that I could get some good panning photos with the foliage in the background blurred while the riders were nice and crisp.  There are a lot of great mountain bike photographers out there who have this down to a science. One photographer who does a great job at cycling and mountain bike photos is Michael Kirk.  He posts a lot on Fred Miranda and was nice enough to give me a few quick tips.

My biggest obstacle I’d have to over come was having enough flash to freeze all the rider, while at the same time stopping down the photo to be able to get a nice background blur. Another problems was that if I shot with the flash at full power the recycle time was a bit long, and I would miss a few riders.   If I shot at 1/2 power the recycle time would improve, but I sacrificed power.  With only one flash I didn’t get the exact results I was hoping for, but was able to grab a couple keepers.

He seemed pretty happy after riding 44 miles.

2009 Counting Coup / Vision Quest

2009 Counting Coup / Vision Quest

All in all I had a really good time shooting the race, and really want to try and make it out to more as my schedule permits.  Here are a few more photographs from the day, and you can find the full gallery here. Enjoy!