Wednesday 26 October 2011

Alex Bond teaser for Locals2


This is the official launch and announcement that Locals2 is born!

Last off season I made Locals , it went down really well and got over 50k views for the whole half hour main feature and another 30k for the trailer...and it only had my mates from Debom in...

Locals2 is a step up in every way, I really wanted I would want to watch even if I lived on the other side of the world, so I have got some of the top riders in the world, along side some More unknown pinners from Danny Hart right through to Josh Bryceland and Al Bond to name but a few...

Check out the teaser for Bonds section below:

Locals2 - Alex Bond Teaser on pinkbike.com 


I have been lucky enough to get a few great sponsors on board right off the bat, Pinkbike.com themselves, Banshee bikes and J-Tech suspension so far...

I have room for more people to support the project so if your interested send me an email for prices and packages etc...

So this morning first thing the video and a photo story went live up on Pinkbike, so far so good, so check out the full article on there:

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Locals2-UK-MTB-film-Alex-Bond-teaser-2011.html

But here are a few of my fav shots from the week up in Wales shooting with Bond and bit about them...


This is Als House! and yes that is a caravan haha For someone so dedicated to racing and training he lives in a pretty wild place. Like putting half your living room and a bed in the middle of a rickety old barn haha

Joe Smith also came along to the shoot for a few days, the film for the most part is riders in pairs. Riding with their friends and just having fun, and these 2 ride a lot together.

This log was a great feature to shoot, but Joe deffo made it look the best, the photo of what happened when I asked Al to try and scrub off it will never leave my computer for the sake of his reputation as a good bike rider haha

Right this is probs one of the most epic places we could have picked to shoot photos, I said to him I wanted to shoot some epic shots with some great landscapes in, they don't really need a track just need you riding a bike somewhere rad, he took me here. It was raining, cold and hard to ride but fuck, it looks good doesn't it?
Another shot from the water fall, this is more of a riders one. Love the tones, the epic landscape and the riding looks good as well...
Al carving up some loamy tracks on Bala at the new revolution bike park. great morning light and a good willing rider make for some great shooting.



Another one of those spots that doesn't really have a track, there are some on this hill thought just dropping off the back of the hill behind where I'm stood with the camera. But being there at sunset we just had to shoot some photos..." ride through that puddle and wheely drop off in to those slick minging rocks over and over again yeah?" "OK "
Sam hill as the shot above, nice portrait of Al looking out over Wales after a flat out 3 days solid shooting, the day after this was the final of the BDS where he would win by 3 seconds on a 1:30 track and take the BDS 2011 over all... 




So yeah, that was the first look at Locals2, should be good, cant wait to get some More stuff filmed, so far we have Bonds section all filmed, and most of Josh and Sam's done, but going up for another day shooting with them next week and also shoot with the wild man himself Adam Brayton...

More news when I have it.

Ta J 

Monday 17 October 2011

Few summery bangers from this season...

I was going though all the 1000s of photos on my many hard drives earlier on looking for a few photos of specific people. Its a boring task but one I have to do pretty regularly. One of the only plus sides is getting to see all the photos that other wise will never get seen ever again. OK so these arnt those photos, most of these have already been online in one way or another, some though haven't.

I just saw these and thought I would do a bit of a post saying why I like these photos, where, when they where taken and anything else of note about each image.

From various races over the last season from BDS races to WCs... Take a look and let me know which is your fav in the comments bellow and I might put it up full res for desktop backgrounds...

Marc B - Molfre. BDS Rd 2 at the start of the season, hot, dusty,fast, and a hard track to shoot.This is one of the only shots from the weekend I was really happy with and the only one that made it in to my favs of 2011. The track tape, the rider, his stance, the light all just came together.










This is a shot of Brook McDonald from NZ tearing up Val Di Sole. My fav track of the year hands down for shooting ( as I'm sure you can guess from this post ) and one of my fav shots, like the light, the movement, the rider...pure summer racing....
Danny Hart, the man of the moment smashing through the top rock fest at Val. Some shots work in BW some don't, I think the texture and harsh light in this make it work...I like the other riders watching on as well, all looking right at him.
Greg Minnar ( again Val ) , you can see the photographers that go to all of these things from a mile off. they all flock round the patches of light and not the big jumps. I was right next to the one and only Gary Perkin shooting this, nice patch of sun opened up right on top of this little rock garden. Shot a few riders come through but none got it quite as agro as Greg.
Gwin. Pinned.Trying to get lost in all the trees. What more needs saying?
One from BDS 3 at Llangollen. Tyre kicking up a bit of dust going down the steep hill. Nothing special but sometimes its the simple details that tell the story.
Matti L. Has quite possibly the worst luck of any rider, when is he not in hospital with multiple broken bits? heal up mate your rad to shoot and from all I have been don't deserve to be all broke...
The Rat on the same turn at Ft Bill as Matti above. Don't know why I went for BW with this one as he is in the red kit , I think it could be the texture and tones. the light, and the fact its pin sharp. I feel its still a great shot despite the lack of colour.
Greg again on the top slopes of Ft Bill...Nice shot showing the Loch and hills in the background, bit of a pan to show the speed and even a slight bar turn.
This ( or a slight edit of it ) is my personal current background. I love it, the man himself, in the stars and stripes, dust, pinned,sharp,focused,number 1 plate...love it!
My mate Mr Rich T. Fellow SW rider and pinner. Had a bit of a mare of a season but should be back on top form come 2012 and I for one cant wait. Here he is looking race as fuck at BDS 3 in the sun...
Rach Atherton at FortBill...Don't know why I like this one, think its just all the trees adding depth to the image. Why isn't she doing a huge scrub though?!
The most bow legged mother fucker on the race scene, Jack Reading. Had a great season with some storming results. Don't know whats going on in this photo though, he isn't trying to knee everyone he passes?
Another one of Ratty, this time in Wales at Llangollen. Love the sun glinting off his lid and the fact his body position just screams speed.
Another one of Jack as well, This one from Leogang. God I miss summer and it isn't really even winter yet...
The most elusive man of the last few season. Mr Hill. Always seems to have something better to do than his job. He is a hardly any of the races and yet still is seen as some kind of god. He is pretty rad mind...
The last shot, a nice Pano from the edge of the woods at Llangollen from the Nat Champs. I'm going there and saying its my fav venue in the UK hands down as a shooter. I know the uplifts wank and you would be better of trying to crawl up on your belly but look at it...what a hill! 





Well that just about finishes off this post. This blogs getting a bit like the buses, nothing for yonks then tones at the same time. I might give it a rest for a few days...Probs not though...

Ta J

Sunday 16 October 2011

My gear...

For quite a while now I have been asked to do a post on the gear I use...

I have put it off and off as I believe that gear isn't as much of a factor on your work as you are...Give someone who can use it a camera phone and a total novice a D3s and see who's photos look best...

That aside I thought I would sum it up, and say where I think my next upgrade will be coming from, from here on its going to get a bit nerdy, so if you don't like geek speak click back now haha

Bags:

They go everywhere with me and house all my gear, they get lugged up mountains, dragged through airports and thrown in cars and vans the world over and keep all my shit in a pile so to speak...


First up is the F-stop Satori, the big bag that holds all the shooting gear, the one that comes up most mountains with me and that I use day in day out at all races...work horse, fits everything in,comfy,not broke yet... 

Next up is the Lowe Pro flipside 500 A, I use this bag for all my other gear, GoPros, cables,chargers,laptops,spare flashes and spare back up body ( being in a different bags just common sense ) and also when I need to ride for any distance on a shoot as its much smaller and lighter than the Fstop...

Shooting gear:

( excuse the shite photos, taken on my phone as to have all nice cameras in the shot )

This is what I use at the moment, if you read at the end of the post I will outline what my plans are with regards to upgrades etc


The shooting kit:

From left to right we have:

  • Nikon D90 with 18-70 ( back up stills body )
  • Nikon D300s with 80-200 
  • Canon 550d with 15mm fish ( filming camera )
  • 2 Nikon SB800 flashes with some PW2s for triggering 
  • 50mm prime, spare battery's
few small tripods for flashes, Rode Mic and LCD viewfinder, lens cloth and blower... that's what goes in the main bag most of the time along with a few other small bits and bobs...

Cables/Misc



We have in the hard case in the photo, film gear, spare flashes and triggers, few flash softeners and diffusers and some cables, then there is all the chargers for everything, various travel adapters, all the gopro stuff with enough mounts etc, hard drives and cables for back up on the move , good set of headphones for editing with, and the bag of misc junk...

The other stuff:



Now there is a bit missing from this photo, few more stills tripods but they are in the car and I couldn't be bother to go get them for this photo, just cheap 20 quid tripods , also the rails for the dolly, and the Astars tog jacket, coat and boots ( vital bits of gear ) 

But in the photo is a good sturdy golf umbrella, Manfrotto tripod for filming, the dolly cage and the laptop ( Quad core, 6gb ram, 1gb graphics , 750 HDD etc for editing everything on the go ) 

So that is in a nutshell the gear I use to shoot everything...there are other bits and bobs that I use but 90% of its here.

New camera?

Now you may wonder why I use both Nikon and Canon cameras, and its simply thanks to the fact Nikons camera suck for video. So I run a Canon with an adapter and run all my Nikon glass. This is a bit annoying so if the rumors of a new Nikon camera out this winter come to fruition then I will sell the Canon and go back to a full Nikon system if the video specs are up to scratch. Now depending on if this new camera they may or may not bring out is full or cropped sensor will also decide what new wide angle set up I get...but that's all pie in the sky till we know what the new cameras like...

Any more questions about anything leave them bellow, real blog post with some stuff from the first few shoots for Locals2 coming up in the next week or so as well...

Ta J

Monday 3 October 2011

Few from the archives...

I was sorting through the back catalogue of images on my hard drives earlier on this evening and came across a few photos that missed the cut the first time round... so thought I would put them up on here along with a few shots of my mates riding one of the local skate parks the other evening on what is bound to be one of the last days of the summer of 2011...bring on the rain!

Now a bit of info on each image...

All taken with natural light only ( apart from the one of Mears ) 


My mate Chris airing out of the quarter down at Saltmill in Saltash. A great skatepark with great views, perfect park to shoot photos of, and with the low evening light even better... Mr Brunels work in the background...
Random guy in the woods and dust at the WC finals in Val Di Sole. No idea who he is but love the light and dark and the texture, and the fact he looks like he is shifting...
Miami after winning the Llangollen round of the BDS, a good race for him on a good track, Josh took 1 and his best mate Sambo took 2nd...few snaps of him in the pits after...
Local pinner down at Saltmill Jacob Sykes boosting out of the quarter and jumping over the Tamar bridge, good effort!
Scotty Mears back at Rd 3 of the WCs in Leogang tearing up a berm... Flash on the inside of the turn just to camera left and another high left...
My mate Joe jumping out of another quarter down at Saltmill, just love the colours, green, blue and grey ha

Well that's about all for this post, will have something a bit more interesting to post soon which regards to my new winter film Locals2...Got a few shoots for that over the next few weeks so will update this thing as and when I can ( both time and photos wise )

Till then you can see a few more photos from this skatepark sesh on my flickr here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacobgibbins/

and a few more random photos on my FB group here:

https://www.facebook.com/JacobGibbinsPhotography

Saturday 1 October 2011

Jacob Gibbins 2011 Portfolio slideshow

As I said at the end of the last post, here is a condensed version of my 2011 photo book / slide show in video form.

Different way of looking at it and slightly more website friendly so take a look...


Thanks

Jacob