Bright colours make for vibrant photos in the trees…
Taking nice mountain bike photos in BC’s gloomy rainforest can be a challenge.
A little red sure helps…
One thing that can really help and doesn’t cost a lot of money is having riders wear bright coloured clothing.
A bright bike doesn’t hurt either…
A brightly coloured bike doesn’t hurt either. Obviously you can’t readily change the colour of your ride just for a photo shoot, but if you live somewhere that’s dark and want to take photos on rides it does make sense to keep this in mind when the time comes for a new bike or a new paint job is in the works.
Our bikes are easy to spot in the forest…
We got lucky as both our bikes are pretty brightly coloured even though back in Calgary this aspect wasn’t nearly as important for taking MTB photos.
White is right!
Compared to Scott’s black Jones my Nomad shows up much better in the forest. I also wear a white helmet and white gloves to improve my visibility.
Spot Sharon….
Sharon’s colourful top and pink grips pop in this photo.
Sharon trying to stick to the high ground…
If you do have a dark bike you can help it pop with contrasting accessories like grips, cable housing, rims, fork, bars, etc…
Sharon happy to pop!
When Sharon saw this jersey at a shop she wasn’t sure she’d like it. I don’t normally get involved in clothing advice issues [I’m too smart for that!], but I did mention that it would show up nicely in photos. Once she saw some photos of herself in the jersey she was stoked to have bought it since it really brightens up each frame.
Even a bit of colour helps…
Aaron isn’t into wearing hot pink, but even the small detail of some red trim on his shirt really does help make him stand out in the photo above.
Kurt knows the score…
Kurt was smart about this subject before I even clued in how important it was. I came to realize his MTB photos always turned out better than mine and finally it occurred to me he wore a lot of bright colour coordinated clothing when he rides.
Maybe I went a bit too far?….;)
Now if you are thinking mountain biking is supposed to be about riding the bike not some sort of fashion show in the forest I don’t blame you. We spend a lot of time snapping photos on our rides. It’s just what we do and it’s not something essential. In fact it gets in the way of the riding to some extent, but we often have experts, intermediates and beginners on the same ride so stopping to session a tech section and photograph it gives the hardcore folks more riding time while the newbies can rejoin the group and catch their breathe. It also allows the less skilled riders to see what the hot shots are doing and try some stuff they’d skip if they were already 5 minutes behind the group.
Bright colours are helpful even when you can see the sun…
The BC rainforest makes bright colours really important, but even in the desert where there is a ton of light wearing bright contrasting colours still helps the subject pop in a photo.
Moab…
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