Image Focus

I often ride these trails near my home here in Rovaniemi, Finland, with my own mountain bike. I had envisioned this photo in my mind so many times; the silhouette of a mountain bike rider, mid-air, against the blank sky while the trees frame the trail and help the viewer focus in on the action. When I had my friend Niko free to ride for me in front of my camera, I knew that it was one of the photos I had to take.

I wanted a grey, overcast day to shoot on. With a flat background, I knew that the shape of the rider would pop against it. I shot using my Sony Alpha 7R III and the Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master OSS lens.

I shot this at 70mm focal length to get some separation between the rider and the trees, and trail on the front. I was also using an external flash in High-Speed Sync (HSS) mode, which cuts quite a lot of power from the flash. So, I pumped up the sensitivity to ISO 800 to get more out the flash and allow for a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second and aperture of f/5. These exposure settings would freeze the action, whilst still getting some detail in the shadowed areas. The flash was used to highlight the area from which Niko was jumping, and also separate him from the grey sky in the background.

When you shoot action images such as this, you don’t want to repeat the motion too many times. Naturally, having a rider jump like this means there is always a risk involved. So, I would always prefer that the reason to go back and try the shot again is because the rider feels they could do it with better style, or with different trick that would better suit the angle of photo. I don’t want them to have to go back and shoot it again because of a fault on my behalf – I want everything to be ready from the very first attempt. In my experience, the electronic viewfinder (EVF) of the Sony Alpha cameras really helps with that. Plus, the high resolution 42.4-million-pixel sensor of the Sony Alpha 7R III means I have a high-resolution image, which in this case meant that I could make Niko a really large print within this perfect moment.

What I love about the image is that it came out almost exactly as I imagined in my mind. Most of my photography is documentary style so I don’t usually have the opportunity to plan my photos this perfectly beforehand. It was also taken less than a kilometre from my home, so it shows you don’t have to travel far to take great images – they are on your doorstep if you look for them!