Whilst documenting the Freeride World Tour in Andorra last week, I couldn’t help but notice the abstract patterns caused by the roller balls of snow. From every angle snowballs had cascaded their way down the face, coming to rest when their momentum fizzled out. I took a bit of time during each helicopter reposition to capture some of these cool looking formations.
Heli Time
The art of capturing content from a helicopter with its door open proves to be a rather exhilarating process. The helicopter serves two purposes during the event: transmitting live video coverage of the athletes from the HD Cineflex, whilst allowing a photographer to take advantage of the empty back seats, shooting directly out of the door. A couple of slings attached to your climbing harness strap you in place, and you’re good to go. Perspectives shift with every press of the cameras shutter, (as you can see in GIF below) with the helicopter tracking each athlete as they make their way down the competition face.
Roller Balls In The Snow
As soon as each skier or snowboarder made it to the finish area, the helicopter would reposition itself at the top of the mountain face, giving me time to capture these roller balls without the human element. I find myself becoming more and more attracted to landscapes without the human form in them, with my body of personal work always looking out for abstract patterns and unique angles. I’ve put together a selection of them for you here.
Adding Some Action
Of course, the whole reason to be up there was to capture the action of the Tour. Generally the athletes were missing out on these areas until snowboarder Shannan Yates found the perfect line through. Fluid action through the abstract roller balls easily made for my image of the day.
Interested in seeing a bit more of Athens on foot?Lets face it, you’re probably not going to be so lucky to witness Athens in the snow. The majority of tourists come closer to the spring and summer, where this route could easily be done in the morning or evening. The downtown section from Areopagus to the foot of Lycabettus can feel like a bit of a slog with all the traffic, but you’re soon up above the chaos. I didn’t expect this blog to morph into a tale of running but it really was the best way to see all of Athens blanketed in the snow.
This shot above is a great example of trip research. Having got myself down to #khumbu, I was now keen on finding potential peaks to climb in the region. During my initial search I came across the account of 
It’s not just mountain scenery that makes it onto my stream. I’ve just had a scroll through the year and here’s a few other shots that made me smile.Want to follow along in 2016? 
I generally put my camera equipment through a fair deal of stress, with large percentage of my work taking place in the alpine environment. This particular copy of the Sigma 24mm started its life hanging from my neck for a one hour hike, whilst getting into my position for the Verbier stage of the Freeride World Tour. I’ve been intrigued with the Sigma Art lenses since playing with the 50mm whilst in Germany for the 
I was shooting a skiing event that required a lens with a longer reach for the action, but I was quick to change to the Sigma 24mm as often as I could. With a morning hike to the top of the mountain I simply threw the camera around my neck, trying out various settings on the fly. The lens will come into its own as we move out of the Winter season and into Spring, with it ideal for a number of up and coming assignments. Until then, it’s nice to have a new piece of kit, especially one that not many people have got their hands on yet.Here’s a couple of shots from the event.
I’m pretty new to cross country skiing so I was happy to experiment with the camera rather than trying to race the marathon distance. I’d heard that despite advancements, the GoPros battery life is still pretty dismal. My GoPro Hero4 comes with a built in display on the rear of the camera, allowing you to frame the scene, scroll though the various menus and settings and playback images. It’s also probably the number one drain on a battery so I disabled it. Whilst disabling that I also turned off the camera beep and led lights on the front of the device, making it a stealth camera.Turning off the rear lcd screen doesn’t actually hamper the GoPro, as a basic screen is still featured on the front showing you what mode the camera is in, remaining battery and space on the memory card. I’d decided on using the timelapse feature, capturing an image every 0.5 seconds. I had previously set the timer at ten seconds, but it proved hit and miss about whether you’d capture a moment. With an image being taken every 0.5 seconds it left a lot of deleting when i sat down to edit, but meant that much more of the event was captured.I’d say the battery lasted for around two and a half hours. I’d love to say that got me to the finish of the race, but I still had 9km to go. I need to train a bit more to try and come in before the battery runs out! Overall, I was really pleased with the results. The camera is so small that it didn’t bother me at all during the race (where it was mounted on my ski pole). I found the controls really intuitive and the results fun to scroll through. A camera like this is never going to replace your main camera bodies, but will definitely be able to go to places where other larger cameras can’t.I look forward to sharing my GoPro images in future, but until then here’s a few more from the race.
Cleaning your camera sensor is not exactly the most exciting of topics, but correcting dust spots in Photoshop had recently driven me to the point where I really had to do something. A large portion of my work is captured in areas that out a lot of stress on the camera. Changing lenses in windy, mountainous terrain opens the possibility of tiny dust particles finding their way to the sensor. A simple dust blower can sometimes free up accumulated dust, however more stubborn particles require for the sensor to be properly cleaned.Camera manufacturers offer this service, with many people opting not to clean it themselves for fear of causing some expensive damage. Despite the great service that you can receive, this always requires some turnaround time where you’ll be without your camera, which was something I was keen to avoid. Having scoured the internet to read a host of reviews online, I opted for the eyelead sensor gel stick, which arrived this week. Following along with this video below, I was able to clean the sensor in very little time, removing a large percentage of dust with the first pass of the stick. A more thorough pass made it possible to remove any remaining particles, reducing the time needed to retouch an image in photoshop immensely.Any saved time is a blessing, and it’s these little things that can streamline our workflow allowing us to concentrate on the important things.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KVMIcytrh5A
I just returned from a great couple of days over in Munich, where I had the opportunity to test out the 
The hour record has had somewhat of a chequered past since its inception. Rules and regulations have meant that the field of professional cyclists have largely stayed away since Ondrej Sonsenka set the mark in 2005. With the UCI no doubt taking advantage of the resurgence in popularity of modern track cycling, they’ve relaxed the rules surrounding the bike specification making the hour record a target for many.Recently retired Jens Voigt set the most recent record in September, reintroducing the cycling media to hour record and all its fanfare. This record would not stand the test of time however, with the locally based IAM Cycling showing their intention shortly afterwards. One of their Austrian riders, Matthias Brändle, was the rider to take it on at the UCI’s own track at their Aigle based headquarters. It was not an easy task for Matthias, but one hour and 51.852km later he emerged victorious, beating Jen’s mark by around 700m.I set out to photograph the event in a pretty distinct style, using the Canon 45mm T-SE lens for a large percentage of the images. I sometimes even doubled it up with the Canon 1.4x extender to create a unique look. One of the great things about track cycling is the regularity of the rider crossing your path, with Matthias going around the track somewhere in the region of 300 times. Such regularity allowed me to focus exactly on what I wanted to capture leaving me with a small portfolio of images that i’d like to share with you.You can head over and see the full hour record gallery here —>>> 
With the tour starting in England, I was quick to drive up and experience the first three days with friends. Catching up over a bike ride, a few beers and those crazy Yorkshire crowds was a great way to start the tour. Once the English section of the race was done, I switched to work mode, photographing Tinkoff Saxo, Trek Factory Racing and IAM Cycling for a client. In total I was on the tour for 9 out of the 21 stages. It’s a logistical Rubik’s cube trying to piece together the various stages as they unfold in front of your eyes.Here’s an image from each stage I attended from this years tour. There’s plenty more to check out over on my 
