I’ll see if I can help you any here Ross…hope this doesn’t come across as patronising!
First of all, the initial idea isn’t bad. Bikes can make interesting opportunities for photography, it’s just that as has been said before, ‘bike in a tree’ has been done. Furthermore in this instance there are a couple of things that you could have done to improve the photo:
Prepare the subject matter: I would have removed the saddle pack as it’s distracting, secondly I would have turned the bike so that the chainset is facing outwards, as things are the chainset is visible but ‘facing away’, a but like taking a photo of someone with their face turned away.
Secondly, focus. Us a narrower depth of field and focus it so that the bike, or part of the bike is in focus and the background is out of focus.
Thirdly, lighting. The area at the top centre of the picture indicates that there was perhaps some interesting lighting somewhere around. With some exploration perhaps you could have found an area where the lighting would have made the photo more interesting? The front of the bike being well lit and the back of the bike being in shadow perhaps?
Finally, very many photos of bikes involves it being photographed ‘sideways on’. Break the mould. Find a different way of photographing your bike. Experimenet with different distances and angles and focal points.
Enjoy your mountain biking and your photography and don’t take offence at anything anyone’s said above, at the end of the day, for me anyway, photography is about bringing back memories of a ride, a climb, a trip etc. and as such they are personal for me and if no-one else likes my photos, so what?
Posted 13 years ago
