F-Stop Junkie

The tattoo is on Aaron Lutze, who now does Match Videozine. He showed me it at the Bike Battle, and it's huge, right across his shoulders. JJ Gregorowicz has a simple chain pattern around his arm. It's crazy, but he doesn't regret it, which is cool.

But if you have a big ride at Addingham, then the street riders won't show because they don't do natural. You just can't win in this game...

Surely the point of these bands is that it brings riders together, and crosses boundaries of types of riding. Trials sometimes seems like there are UCI riders, BIU riders, street riders, 20" riders, 26" riders, 24" riders... We're all just riders at the end of the day so why not come together and realise that. You give two reasons for a DJ one. I can understand for rememberance, but what's the other? If they're free though, you can't really loose with these.

A couple of things... First, see if you can force flash on all pics. If it's not bright, then you'll need it to take out some of those shadows. Also don't forget F-Stop's first law - the eyes get the prize. Shots from the back don't really work, but if you can see the rider's face - or better still their eyes - then you'll improve the shot no end. Imagine shot 2 where you could see the rider's face, it would really lift it. Finally, if your camera has a sports mode, then use it. The higher shutter speeds will help freeze the action - as will flash. Otherwise pretty handy! Better than most.

To help bring riders together in the name of trials, these bands have been created so everyone can show their support. It doesn't matter if you're comp, street, UCI, BIU, mod or stock. These bands will show you're into trials. Note these bands also show NO company branding. They're only marked as BikeTrials because they're purely for support of the sport. Updated 18th October:

Just out of interest, would people prefer me to post more photos here, or just put a link up?

Chris is riding for Mongoose, but he doesn't have a good comp bike from them to ride. So he's riding an Echo/Zoo! I think with Mongoose stickers.

Having just gotten back from my hols, here's the shots I took at the final round of the British Champs at Hookwoods in Surrey. See the shots in my gallery here! Just for a little added interest, here's a couple of additional shots. Not top pics, but an indication of the huge riding... Chris Akrigg picking the easy line up a huge couple of rocks and logs... Danny Butler tweaking out a huge up with bugger all runup. Don't forget to see the good stuff in my gallery!

Just out of interest, what effect do you never get with digital? Just curious... Yeah, good pics. Could do with a little fill flash on some, but way better than most!

Alex rims go under many different names. The 26" DX-32 becomes the Planet-X BMF or the Onza... Hog? One of them anyway. The 20" rim certainly used to be listed in the Raleigh P&A catalogue.

Very cool. I do love a good contrasty B+W image. The gap pic wasn't too great, it was just in B&W. I prefer to shoot in colour, then convert to B&W if I fancy. Plus with proper processing, you can really bring out a great B&W image. One small other point, most of these arn't trials, couldn't they have been linked to instead?

Plus the top picture - remember that ups are hard to photography - the face is clear and not covered with an arm or handlebar. Makes a big difference!

If you strip and laquer a steel frame, you won't get shiney, you'll get dull, kinda orange and with marks from the welds. If you want an alloy look, you'll need to chrome, paint, or powder coat.

Pretty good, but a few would have worked better in portrait. Also some odd exposures, but some have really bad high ISO noise. Shame it was getting dark...

Yup, the half press trick works. Ultimatley it comes down to anticipation. The more photos you take, the more used you get to it. Newer cameras are getting better and better in this respect though.

It's a background, it's almost designed to be ignored so you can concentrate on the stuff ontop of it. I like it. Wouldn't have it on my PC, but it's cool none the less.

As the pics keep flowing thick and fast, I thought I would stick up a post to try and help the quality of photos posted improve. I'll keep this updated as future points come up. Can this be made sticky? Camera Setup If you have a dedicated sports mode on your camera, use it. A good action photo requires a high shutter speed to freeze the action, sports modes provide this. Forcing the flash to fire can help too as the burst of light is shorter than the shutter speed, helping to stop the rider mid-move. Remember! When it comes to light, the human eye is a lot more sensitive than a camera, so what appears bright to you or I might mean slow shutter speeds and blurred photos. More expensive cameras offer more control over settings manually. By all means try them, but it's easier to make things worse than better! Angles - use of flash When out taking photos, think of how the image looks in the frame. This is so easy now with digital. If there's a lot of spare space around the rider, get in closer - but remember this can be taken out later too! Try experimenting with different angles. Even just kneeling instead of standing can help give an image impact. Try getting up close, laying on the ground looking up, getting up high. Anything different will always make your pictures stand out. Plus the huge advantage of digital photography is that if it doesn't work, then you delete the image and move on. Nothing lost. I always try to get eye contact with the rider, as it adds an extra element to the picture. Unless you're trying to capture a specific obstacle, try and avoid pictures of riders from the back. It's very hard to take one that works, and I've spent years trying... Speaking of big ups, they are the single hardest move to photography, unless it's to a rail. No angle can really do them justice. Cropping and resizing When you want to post pictures, or even just tidy them up for your own use, cropping is the most important step. A simple crop, keeping only what you want to show makes the picture more immediate, with a greater impact. If you're not sure what to crop, then simply cover part of the image with your hand, and see if the picture looses anything. As a rule, large areas of sky or ground can usually be cropped... Don't forget too, if you're posting on the web, make them small enough for screen use. try and keep to a maximum of 800 pixels wide. You don't need high end graphics packages to do this, a great on is Irfanview. Simple to use, and free. Use of galleries While some people post 30 images in a single post, try and limit yourself to 5 or so of the best, then put the rest in a gallery on TF or Trials-Nation. This means that people on slower connections arn't affected by a long load time, and also that your good photos won't get lost amongst the not so good ones. And finally... If you want critiques of your photos, ask for them. If you're just showing off your bike, or a certain move, then fine. If you want advice on how to improve your photos, then just add that at the bottom of your post, and then other users can add their constructive criticism of the photos - as well as the subjects.

You've completely missed my point. A good photo isn't about a perfect sky and a huge move, it's about a composition of elements within the scene. The 'huge tap' photo was taken far enough back so that the actual interesting bit isn't really affected by the fisheye. If you crop to only what's important in the image, then you lose the effect completely. Similarly, the one showing the backwheel doesn't get in the whole rider, and is just too close instead of too far away. I'm all for interesting photos, and for something a bit different, but these just don't give me that. Hey, different folks, different strokes...

Ok, allow me to elaborate. I have no problems with fisheye lenses, christ, I have one myself - though I challenge you to spot when I'm using it 99% of the time. I'm not a fan of circular fisheyes like this, but that's not what I'm objecting to. What I don't like about these photos is that while it is an interesting effect, they're not adding anything to an otherwise fairly boring photo. Used correctly, they can be interesting. The whole BMX world can't be wrong... I'm also trying to add some balance. What would be the point of me going 'Yeah, cool!" and adding nothing else. I don't say these things to be mean or the anti-bummer, but a little criticism, constructively taken, is good. Hence my post -even though it wasn't asked for. It's true, photos don't have to be perfect. People have said that they weren't keen on my blurry pics from the Bike Show, but that's a look I was going for. It wasn't wrong for me to post them or for them to give their opinions, it's just the way. What I object to are bad photos being taken for art, or for being cool when they're just not good pics. You may think it looks cool, and that's your opinion, I'm just giving mine. And yes, when it comes to photography, both myself and TRA know a thing or two. Simon has also proven himself to have a good eye for these things.

Couldn't agree more. What are the photos of exactly? It was sunny, and they're all curvy. Big woop. That recent one is what, a guy sidehopping over a shadow? Who cares? You can get better results doing the same thing in photoshop, or splash a little cash and get a proper diagonal fisheye from someone like Sigma. If it's that sunny, then the pics are going to be sharp because the lens is stopped down so far, but you've stuck a £10 bit of plastic in front of your 'bloody good' camera, thus limiting it's performance. Not impressed. :)

Even 6, 7 and 8? Good if you're a reader of Bin Lovers weekly, but not good for trials.

Nice colours there. Could have done with a higher shutter speed on a few to really freeze, plus some cropping would have smartened up a couple. Being picky, I'd have liked more fill-flash. A couple - the second especially - isn't sharp either. Otherwise, nice work!

Not great pics, to be honest... Why do people post so many pics? Post the best ones here, then the rest in a trials-nation gallery.

The technical dab I think really comes down to two things: 1) The attitude of the rider 2) The size of the object Some riders will not technical dab unless they absolutley have to. They'll throw themselves at any old thing. It's not a question of them riding to win, it's about them proving their skills to themselves. The risk of a five means little compared to the rewards of pushing their skills and cleaning bigger sections than before. Other riders want the best possible score. It's a game of calculated risk. The rewards against the possible gains. Every miscalculation will be rued later. The time that you're too careful and lost a mark, the next section where you were too brave and ended up with a five... Ultimatley some obstacles are just too big and there is simply no choice. You either dab, or leave the section.

Why not use Snowcat rims?