How to lose friends…

Every year the NSMBA runs the “Gear Swap” as part of the Vancouver Bike Expo, where members of public and companies alike assemble to trade various bikes and components at varying levels of quality and desirability. The NSMBA run it as fundraiser, and it’s a great opportunity to pick up some ‘pre-loved’ gear at blow-out prices.

Naturally the logistics of organising such an event puts quite a strain on those in charge, and never one to miss a good photo op I arranged a quick photoshoot with good friend and NSMBA president Dan Gronross. My idea was to shoot him under a pile of bike ‘junk’ (thanks to Obsession: Bikes for letting me raid their parts bins), with visible distress on his face to signify the stress and hassle caused by the event.

Except it wasn’t that easy. Dan is one of the most cheerful guys I know, always smiling and laughing, and getting him to pull a sad face wasn’t easy. A few minutes into the shoot I was beginning to wonder if he was even capable of a sad face, and whether to re-think my strategy for getting an image, as I wasn’t getting what I wanted.

Thankfully, the solution presented itself in due course without any input from me – the setup for the shot was an old cardboard box with a slit cut in the front, with mounds of bike components covering every surface, and two softboxed strobes very close to provide a nice soft-light wraparound. A lot like this, really:

Dan had to crawl on all fours into the box, then peer out at two bright lights, all the time trying to not get stabbed in the face by various sharp and greasy bike components. “It’s really hot in here, and my knees are hurting” came the muffled plea from inside the box.  The vicious sadistic mercenary that I am, I pretended not to hear, and continued messing with camera settings while I let him sweat it out a bit. Sure enough, the plan worked, his temperament soured and I got a shot of genuine anguish from one of the nicest people I’ve met.

Dan Barham: making friends not want to come visit since 2008. Probably earlier.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Professional Mountain Bike Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.