Kevin Lepp Photo Shoot

This week I thought I’d share a little bit about a photo shoot I did last week with Kevin Lepp. I’ve been slowly accumulating photos of Kevin for a future feature on him – he’s got a unique story and he’s a nice kid but I needed a few lead in photos for the story so I wanted to make sure to meet up with him before he headed back down to California to get in his final training before the summer nationals start.

Since Kevin lives only 10 minutes away from me, he picked me up and we drove out to a spot in Richmond that a lot of guys practice at. It’s not really much of a track but it’s sandy and it gets rough so it’s pretty good practice for pounding out hard, 30 minute motos. Knowing that, from a scenic standpoint, it wasn’t the most picturesque, I knew that flash would be a good choice to make the photos pop. Especially with sand, you can use the flash to freeze the sand as it blows everywhere and it doesn’t take much more than a nice bermed up corner to make a dynamic image.

I also needed a lead portrait and I wanted to incorporate Kevin’s truck into the photo somehow. He’s been using that old green Dodge pickup as long as he’s been travelling the nationals, towing his old travel trailer and it’s really become a symbol for him. So I lined up the shot with his truck and practice bike in the background, to try and show as much about him as possible. With the overcast skies I decided to bust out a technique that I’d be thinking about trying for a while. I’ll explain more below but basically I wanted to shoot several different exposures, using a tripod to keep everything lined up, so I could layer in different brightness’s later in Photoshop.

With the portrait finished, we moved on to the action shots. We had scouted a suitable corner and I’d lugged my generator and flash over there so Kevin hit it a few times. It looked good right away and after about 10 tries, the corner was blown out, my camera was full of sand, and I had my shot. Knowing that I had something that would work and not wanting to drive the sand any deeper into the various crevices of my camera, I decided to call it a day while Kevin did a few practice laps. All in all, for a quick shoot I was quite happy with what we walked away with. Now that the summer weather is finally starting to show itself here, I’m excited to get the photo shoot season underway before the Nationals start!

 The first thing I do when I'm setting up a portrait is take a straight ambient photo to see how the light looks without any flash.

  I then used myself as an incredibly handsome model to tweak the flash and ambient light levels while Kevin got dressed.

 Once Kevin was ready I had him try a few poses, with and without his helmet. That new Fox gear really pops in the photos. Biggest advice I can give anyone: wear bright colors for a photo shoot - it will make or break a photo.

 The final select from the portrait shoot, after retouching. I used an "HDR" like technique to layer various different exposures into the background, to brighten and darken the areas I wanted, adding contrast and depth to the image. Since everything was shot on a tripod, it's a matter of layering it all in Photoshop and masking in the parts you want. I lit Kevin independently with a Nikon SB900 flash with a Lumiquest Softbox LTP, on a stand on camera right.

 Since I helped Kevin get hooked up with X-Brand goggles(thanks Steve and Rich) I wanted to shoot a couple shots with them. Moved the same SB900 with small softbox over to camera left and got in close with a wide angle to exagerate the perspective.

 First action shot with the flash and it looked good right away, bringing the stress level down. Sand + Flash is a good combo.

 I settled on this as my favorite select of the day. I love the angle and the way the sand is flying. Added some contrast but otherwise didn't need to tweak the image much. Flash really helps the colors pop on a drab, overcast day.

Australasian Dirt Bike Magazine

I just got a bunch of Chad Reed images I've shot over the years published in an Australian magazine, Australasian Dirt Big mag, this month. It's pretty awesome to see my photos getting used around the world, even though apparently my name is "Steve" Lissimore in Australia. The man himself, Simon Cudby, also contributed a few photos for the story. Nice that they would use mine images alongside the master.

Suquash

Remnants of the coal shovels at the former Suquash mine near Port McNeill, BC on the northern end of Vancouver Island.



I was fortunate enough to spend last week up in Port McNeill, on the north end of Vancouver Island and with how busy my year had been so far, spending a relaxing week up there was just what the doctor ordered. My girlfriend's dad lives there, in an amazing house right on the water so with the weather looking nice for the Easter weekend, I couldn't wait to get there.

Other than one trip up to Port Hardy when I was a kid to take the ferry to Prince Rupert, I've never had a chance to spend much time up on the north island. You realize how large Vancouver Island is when you drive to Port McNeill. Getting off the ferry in Nanaimo, you've still got a 350km drive to get to the Port McNeill area. With such little population in the north, there's no shortage of wild areas to explore and we took full advantage every day, getting out and taking as many photos as possible.

One trip that I wanted to highlight here on the blog was to an old mine north of town, called Suquash. This former coal mine actually predates the creation of Canada, as it was first established in 1849 by the Hudson's Bay Company. It didn't last long but started back up in 1908 and ran until the start of World War Two. The mine has long since shuttered but the remnants litter the forest at the site so it made for a good chance to get out and explore.

Here's a few photos from our day at the mine.

 Jenn's dad owns a helicopter company in Port McNeill(www.westcoasthelicopters.com) so we started off the morning with a nice flight out around the area.

 The tallest mountain on the horizon is Mt Waddington, the tallest mountain fully inside British Columbia.

 The first thing you notice when you arrive at the Suquash grounds is this old pulley.

 Near the pulley, several old coal shovels litter the forest ground.

 Years of sea air have heavily corroded the old mining artifacts.

 Only the foundation and a couple chimneys are left of this house.

 Large pumps.

 Pieces of an old steam engine.

 This is the entrance to the mine shaft. Once running all the way out under the ocean, it is now flooded.

 The coal was loaded onto ships down here on the beach. At low tide there is some more mining pieces down here.

We also stopped at nearby Beaver Lake for a nice relaxing stop on the dock.

A Busy 2012

Wow, it has been a busy year so far. I've been slacking heavily on the blog this year but, in a good way, I've had opportunity after opportunity to get out and shoot. I hit the ground running in Anaheim the first weekend of January and it's been practically non-stop since.
I've been very fortunate to have the chance to cover most of the AMA Supercross series this year so it's been a non-stop blitz of airports and rental cars as I bounced around America, from California to Georgia and everywhere in between. I also had a really unique opportunity to spend a week in Montana photographing snowmobiles and I managed to squeeze a wedding in there as well.

Now, after traveling to Toronto last week for the lone Canadian stop on the Supercross tour, I'm finally home for a few days and catching up on the ton of photos I've already shot in 2012. Then I'm off again on Thursday for a trip to the GF's parents up on the far north end of Vancouver Island so I'm looking forward to working on some landscapes while I'm up there. With the blog so far behind, I'm going to slowly start sharing some of the stuff I've done so far this year. First off though, is a little project I've been working on this week while I'm home...

My friend Amy is quite passionate about Yoga and is working towards eventually opening her own studio. We've collaborated on photos in the past and with a few spare hours this week we decided to start building a series of Yoga images. To me, when I think of Yoga I think of peace and tranquility so I thought it would be cool to place her among various landscape scenes. Nature and Yoga just go hand in hand so we've been hiking around the forests near here, looking for interesting scenics that would work well. The bridge shot doesn't really fit the rest of the series but I've been looking at the lines of that bridge for a while and thought it would make for an interesting photo spot. I think I'll start another Yoga series down the road that shows off a grittier side that would go with that image.

So, here's a few shots in the series that I'm continually working on. As I get free time I'll start updating the blog with some of my other adventures so far this year!

Whistler Opening Day Video

I picked up a D7000 last week. My trusty D2x that had been relegated to a backup camera the past couple years was really starting to show it's age and after 200,000 shutter actuations I figured it was time to retire the old girl. I wanted to start working with video more as well so the D7000 was a natural choice to get me started on that front. With 16 megapixels, 6fps and 1080p video, there's a lot of bang for the buck in this little package.

With the shred season upon us, I decided to bring it with me to Whistler for opening day and try and put a little video together documenting my day. Here's my first stab at trying to put together a video like this. Luckily I've got all winter to hone my skills before moto season kicks off, I'm excited to take on the new challenge.

Red Bull Blackfoot Yamaha Slideshow

During the offseason here at home, I've been going through the thousands of photos I shot this year on the road and putting together various slideshows of the Canadian motocross teams for my weekly column on www.directmotocross.com

I had saved this one for last, as the Red Bull Blackfoot Yamaha team has always had a special place for me in my photography. The most dominant team in Canadian MX history, the Blackfoot crew out of Calgary won an unbelievable 10 MX1 Championships, 8 MX2 Championships and an unheard of 154 moto wins in the MX1 class. They sat at the top of the sport for a decade, their roster a who's who of Hall of Fame Canadian talent. But sadly, with the way the economy is going right now, they made the hard decision to cease their operations only a month after claiming another two Canadian titles with Colton Facciotti and Tyler Medaglia.

For myself, getting a chance to work with the top team in the sport would signify that, maybe I was actually starting to make it, and in 2007 I got that chance when they hired me to be their Team Photographer. For the next 5 years I had the opportunity to follow them around North America, making lasting friendships and getting more great photo opportunities than I ever could have imagined. It's going to be sad next year not traveling on the road with them but no doubt new opportunities will arise.

Here's some of my favorite shots of the team from 2011, their final season....

For best viewing, click the "fullscreen" tab on the bottom right corner.




2011 Blackfoot Slideshow - Images by James Lissimore

Fall

With frost in the morning and a nip in the air, Fall is certainly here. Haven't shot much since I got back from the Monster Energy Cup in Las Vegas a few weeks back but I managed to grab the camera last week for an afternoon to grab a few photos. You can certainly feel Winter coming....

James