For me one of the most fun things to do in mountain biking is photo shoots. I think that most riders would agree that every shoot, has its own adventure. The purpose of this little photo session was to grab some photographs for the upcoming Norco catalogue. The idea was to get some street shots. Well, we definitely got a few pretty banging shots, but as always we have to keep the best ones under wraps for the actual catalogue. None the less here is a little re-cap of how the adventure went down.

Meet photographer Margus Riga at around 8:30pm so we can get some evening shots. I met Margus up at my university campus and was stuffing some Chinese food down my face because I had yet to eat that day. I knew of a few cool lines that might bear some fruits: banks, rails, stair sets and that kind of thing.

We decided to warm it up on one of the bank lines; it offered some cool framing options and a cool view of the sun setting. We shot as much as we could on the bank line and then moved on to a cool arch to get some manual shots and a few life styles, but at this point we were confronted by security. The security guard did his best job to shut us down… kind of. He said, when we were done, if we could stop riding on campus, it would be appreciated. Well I figured that meant when we were done shooting which could definitely be a little while.

We proceeded to go get a sick shot with this hand rail and staircase -that was awesome! I was super stoked because we were having a little trouble getting what I saw in my mind initially. It was a night shot though so it had to be flashed of course. But every time I did it, when the flash would go off I was basically blinded. So I was bunny hopping a full sized hand rail, of a full flight of stairs at night and blind. It was definitely sketchy for me and I kept hoping and praying (even though I wouldn’t consider myself a religious man) that I did not hang up my back tire on the railing. After around 20 tries we got the shot! I felt so good; nothing feels better than when I tee up a line and have the photo to prove it.

We decided to try and shoot one more shot, an underground wall ride, but it was getting late. Margus has a great eye, and found a super cool artistic shot, using the underground lighting. We were giving it on this one with a bit of an audience of the cleaning staff at the university and they were super cool with us throwing down. The funniest thing of the evening though, is we were busted by the same security guard. It was about 2.5 hours since we were initially busted so I kind of expected him to get a little ticked off with us, but all he said was “Not done quite yet?”, and cruised on. Shoot successful!

The first goal was to collect some video content to be used in promotion of the new Sea to Sky trail. The second was to shoot some photographs in Pemberton with Margus Riga for Norco and Mace.

So, part one. Picked up Margus in North Vancouver and blasted to Squamish in time to help with an interview of David Suzuki. The world renown scientist was kind enough to offer some thoughts on the environmental benefit of a good multipurpose trail through nature (in this case, from Horseshoe Bay to Lillooet). He was a real pro in front of the camera, not surprising considering his television resume; he arrived, made his on camera spiel perfectly on the first take, and was off to his next appointment in a flash. The key to his message was that humans protect and preserve what they love; so if they have increased opportunity to ‘get out in nature’ with a trail such as the Sea-to-Sky, they may be more likely to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

It was a pleasure, as always, to work with Jack Christie who was the director/personality for the shoot. He promotes the outdoor lifestyle in myriad charismatic ways, whether on TV, in print, in books, or most importantly one on one with full authenticity. Margus asked me if there was anything he didn’t know about the outdoors becauseas he was constantly sharing stories and spewing out unique facts about the area. Be sure to check out his website and perhaps purchase one of his quality books. He’s good people.

A couple youngsters, Evan and Shawn, came down from Pemberton to be in the video shoot. Photo Credit: Margus Riga

Robin Harvey, the marketing/promotional gal behind the Sea to Sky Trail has been busy coordinating this day of filming, and she was able to squeeze it all in for us by the early afternoon so Margus and I had time to blast off to Pemby to get our ride/shoot on. We rode up and then down a trail called (can’t remember right now) and took photos along the way. It was glorious, except for the onslaught of giant Pemberton Mosquitos!

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

Photo Credit: Margus Riga

We got back to the truck by 9pm. Grabbed some snacks for the drive home quite content with the days efforts.

I picked my trailer up on the way home, switched my gear and bikes for the trials variety, ready to head out the next morning for some shows! Good times all around!!

Cheers,

-Ryan

This post came from Ryan’s Blog at:  http://www.ryanleech.com/blog/2009/05/27/one-day-two-goals-all-good/