While I was at Hallmark, one of the guest speakers was Gregor Halenda, who shoots a tone of different things but is really know for his motor cycle work(you should defiantly check out his site, his work is amazing). Since that day I really wanted to attempt shooting some bikes for my self. After about a year I had to the chance too shoot an awesome Harley Division Fatboy that came out great. I was really happy with it but it was a still-life shot, it was very exciting.
Then after a about a year I came across a BTS video of a shoot that Gregor Halenda post. I watched this video and I said to my self "hey I have a C-stand, a ton of sand bags, my friend has a pick up, and another friend with a motorcycle I could shoot, I should try this, see what I come out with". So I just had to wait for the weather to get nice here in New England. The video is below.
One day we got a warm sunny day and that was my chance. So I to call up my friend Christian who owns a pickup, Chris to assist, and Edwin who had just bought a sweet Ninja bike. I guess you could say this shoot and set up was very guerrilla style. My set up was a White Lighting X1600 mono light, connected to a Vagabond 2 for power, with a 11-inch Long-Throw Silver Reflector, on a C-stand and boom, weighted down by about 12 sand bags (that thing wasn't moving any where), and I was hanging out the back out of the pick up shooting with a Canon 5d Mark II with the Canon EF 24-105L IS Lens while Chris held my feet so I wouldn't fall out. Hanging out the back of a truck, holding a camera about a foot off the pavement on a highway, going about 45 miles an hour, is defiantly not the safest way to shoot but well worth it after getting the final images. Plus what's all the money I'm paying on equipment insurance going if I'm not doing something risky.
Image taken by Christian. Left to right; me, Chris, and Edwin.
Chris & my view as we drove around.
We shot and drove around for a few hours and ended up with great images, here are a couple the final ones. Obviously my images aren't as great as Gregor's but they came out great for my first time trying this type off shoot. I would like to take this time to thank Gregor for all inspiration.