green avenue photography motocross volume 18

https://issuu.com/kevinlefebvre 1RD 4 FUTURE WEST MOTO RACE ACTION

50 cc 4-6 winnerwD

interAVIES

MX Personality testinside!

Discover your moto potential

Extended coverage!

2 www.canadianmotoshow.com

https://issuu.com/kevinlefebvre 3

4 Family Matters A few shots behind the scenes at Popkum

7 Moral Decisions What kind of racer are you destined to be become? Take our personality test to find out!

8 King of the Jungle Race action photos from FWM Round 4

58 Pro Photo Tips Shooting manual mode in dappled light

88 Desktop Wallpapers Download yours, courtesy of Something Pretty and Buouy Clothing Co.

Wide-spread, unauthorized downloading, dis-tribution and reproduction of this document is absolutely endorsed and encouraged. Hey, great photos and behind the scene stories don’t move themselves onto the desks of sponsors and in-dustry folks, people!! K e v i n L e f e b v r e g a p m xA l l p r a i s e h o n o r a n d g l o r ybelongstothelordjesuschr i s t

vol. 18.1 - May 11, 2016

There’s nothing like a little turn back whip and shout-out action, and Iain Hopkins lays it down for the gap-mx camera. Looks like he’s having fun, doesn’t it?

ON THE COVER: Two goregous smiles, clean, colorful bike graphics, and the number I used to race with waaaay back in the day, it was im-possible to pick a different photo for this eMag’s cover. Winter Davies and Shelby Tse ham it up for the camera prior to Winter’s second moto. Winter would take home the gold in the 50cc 4-6 category.

Penticton, BCCanada

web: https://issuu.com/kevinlefebvreemail: [email protected]

telephone: 1.250.460.0781


Familymatters

Daniel Kingston helps little bro Nathan Kingston prep for his race in the 50cc 4-6 class. Accordingly, it just wouldn’t be a race at Pop-kum without Snoopy inspiring the racers to give it their all.

Airmail and Mrs. Airmail were on hand, and Brent was doing a killer job of announcing the races for families and fans alike. If you haven’t got your Canadian Moto Show t-shirt yet, they are now available now for only $20. The material is super comfy, and you’ll show your support for the sport. Get yours today, before I start nagging you!


matters

When you are a parent, all that matters is that your kids grow up know-ing how treasured they are in your eyes, and that no matter the circum-stances and challenges you faced, you went the distance with them.

Children are a gift from the

they are a REWARD from HimLord;

PSALMS 127:3


KTM’s own Travis Gibbs has mad props for the Canadian Moto Show; tune in Wednesday nights at 6pm.

Future West Moto wanted to ensure that racers had memories for years to come.Family matters:


KTM’s own Travis Gibbs has mad props for the Canadian Moto Show; tune in Wednesday nights at 6pm.

The Popkum track was maintained pretty well through-out the day, and was nowhere near as dusty as this image above projects. Was a Photoshop filter used then to create this look? No! You can’t tell, but another rider out of the frame at camera left has just added a whole bunch more drama to this photo by railing the berm, and covering me head to toe in about 100 pounds of dirt in the process! I was just trying to catch the action while standing on the outside edge of Turn 2 at the start of the Intermedi-ate race. Now, there is a Rule-of-Thumb in photography (and I am not sure whose quote it is here that I am steal-ing): “if your photos aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” True enough. But as a moto-photographer, the second rule to remember is slightly different, but no less important: the racer ALWAYS has the right of way, and if there is an incident, it’s your fault, regardless. You sim-ply should not have been standing there, Dingbat. And I knew better than to stand there. But after it happened, I couldn’t help but laugh, it must have looked pretty funny. Did anyone capture that with their cell phone? I’d love to see that. And my camera? Not to worry, it’s weather-sealed and made to withstand this type of abuse (and worse). Let the good times keep on rollin’! But in my geeky, introspective way, I wondered afterward, “Is there a correlation between line choice and personality?” There is only one way to find out!

It’s the beginning of the race, and you are battling for posi-tion. An ugly dude with a bright yellow/orange jersey and a big camera is standing right on the outer edge of a soft

berm, naïvely shooting photos, but nonetheless, tempting fate. Do you:A) Ignore him, stick to your game plan and the inside line, and pass one or two riders.B) See him, think “what a stupid place to stand,” then miss the inside rut, and get passed by the racer on the inside.C) See him, aim for the outside rut wide open, confident that you’re not going to lose any posi-tions at all. You hope that your Villopoto-like heroics are going to be captured in an epic money shot (if the photographer is skillful enough to be able to capture you going so fast).D) See him, race to the edge of the track, pull the clutch, while skidding the rear wheel just over the berm. When the rear wheel crests the top, you pin the throttle, then dump the clutch. All the while pulling the front brake, and laughing like a lunatic. You may have started near the front, but now, at least half the pack has passed you, and un-less you were a total sandbagger before the moto started, you have your work cut out for you to get back in the race. But, this is a bench-racing story you will be bragging about for years.If you picked “A,” then congratulations, you have great focus, and you will likely go on to win many races, trophies, cash, and maybe even national championships! The sky truly is the limit for you, my friend. If you selected “B,” well, you’re most likely a compassionate, altruistic person who’s thoughtful about the welfare of others, but in terms of moto success, you might have to do a bit more pre-race visualization, and work on ignoring irrelevant distractions that could stand between you and moto glory. If you picked “C,” then things could go either way for you. Perhaps that long line could actually be the fast line through the turn because of your entrance and mid-corner speed. Perhaps, you are headed for the podium with this line. Or, equally possible, you have some problems with grandiosity; after all, you can’t know that the resulting shot is going to be epic, or even captured at all! If you picked “D,” well, you are not headed for the podium at all. But you may have a bright future nonetheless, probably somewhere in man-agement or in politics. Welcome to the Senate!

Try the gapmx personality quiz

Moral Decisions


king of the jungle


Suzuki’s Tron Cathcart roared to first place finishes in both the 250 and Open Intermediate classes, winning three out of four motos. Tron sits forth and sixth respectively in the series in these two classes, in spite of missing the first two rounds.


Blake Davies has been the dominant force in the 50cc Open class this year, but Cobra rider Vance Koetje rode hard to convincing wins in both motos at Popkum.


NOT PHOTOSHOPPED: Everyone knows how fast Blake Davies is, but in this shot, he seems to have even outrun his own shadow!! I’m not sure how that happened, but I can assure you that I did not remove it from the image. Blake had a strong showing in the 65cc 7-9 class, finishing 2-2 for the day.


KTM mounted Annalyse Lopushinsky had a fantastic ride, and was tearing up through the pack to fourth place by the time the checkered flag fell in the stacked 65cc 7-9 class. She has found a considerable amount of speed and will be one to watch for the remainder of 2016. Way to go, Annalyse!


LITTLE DEUCE DEUCE: Vernon’s own Jake Maddicks had a look and a flare on the track reminiscent of Adam Enticknap, and motored to 8-5 scores for 6th overall in the 85cc 7-11 class. INSET: With 2-2 scores for the day, Devyn Smith won the 85cc 7-11 class, and now leads the FWM series by a 13 point margin.


Ryan Lockhart epitomizes everything that is great about motocross. He rides hard and is blazing fast on the track, and this talent is complimented by an approachable, down-to-earth attitude off the track. His contribution to the sport has been immeasurable, so celebrating Ryan, and the family that stands behind him by putting him on the cover was an easy choice.

Hot pursuit


Monkey business: Summer Knowles led the whole first moto of the Ladies class, but a slight miscue on the final lap handed the moto win to Kristen Tse. Summer quickly remounted and raced across the fin-ish line to second place. Donkey Kong and Bowser must’ve been at the track’s edge with banana peels during the Ladies’ race, as this was the exact same corner that later thwarted Kiana Sache. (RIGHT): Larissa Watts looked fantastic out on the track, and raced her way to 7-5 finishes, for 6th overall.


Lots of race fans were excited to see multi-time national champion “Too Trick” Al Dyck line up again on a motorcycle, this time in the Plus 50 class. Too Trick took home the win after a come-from-behind start. I’d love to see a rematch between Too Trick and Rollerball; hey Ross, I’ll arrange a ride for you at the next round at Popkum; how ‘bout coming out to the track to relive some glory days?


Tale of the TapeSome of the closest racing of the day came from the Ladies class, as Kiana Sache tried

desparetly to get past Casey Rainmondo in the last lap of the second moto. Unfortunately Casey missed the inside rut, just as “Giggles” was starting to turn down in the berm. With the throttle pinned, Ki-

ana had nowhere to go, and her front tire got swallowed up by the loose dirt on the top of the berm. Casey would maintain her position in fourth, while Kiana would re-mount to finish the moto in seventh. The photos do not depict just how steep the berm of this bowl turn is (because I was shooting it from the bottom, looking upwards), and I definitely felt for Kiana, as she was trying to pick up her bike in a pretty difficult spot, gravity working against her.


With 1-1 finishes in Popkum, Kristen Tse has closed within 5 points of series leader Kiana Sache in the Ladies class.


With hard charging like this, Kiana “Giggles” Sache has taken the series points lead the Ladies class.let’s go crazy!


Anyone clearing the main tabletop (130’) on a bike is talented; anyone doing it on a quad is both talented and insane.


RIGHT: Edico Usak leads Hunter Friesen and the rest of the pack through the first turn. The pair would take home 1st and 2nd respectively. ABOVE: MIKE HERFST shreds a turn en route to 4th overall.


Kelowna’s Tanya Harder rode her quad to 5-6 moto scores for 6th over-all, before hoping on her bike to compete in the Ladies class. Tanya sits 2nd overall in the points in the Quad series, and 9th in the Ladies series.


In these photos, I am shooting at a 135 degree angle to the sun, which can quickly cause problems if the camera is left to figure out the proper exposure in any of it’s automatic modes (e.g., Aperture Priority). You can use Manual mode in these circumstances for excellent results!

SETTINGS (all 3 photos): 1/800 at f2.8, ISO 200 at focal length 100mm, Color temperature manually set at 5700K, Canon 5DMKIII, 70-200mm f2.8 IS MKII

The summer months in British Columbia, Can-ada typically bring hot, sunny weather, and this poses some unique opportunities for moto-pho-tographers. Particularly at a track like Popkum, which weaves in and out of the forest, the bright summer sun creates as many brightly lit areas on the track, as it does areas that contain long, deep, dark shadows. Photographically speaking, this lighting variability can be fantastic, as this shoot-ing environment opens up all sorts of exposure possibilities. Other tracks in B.C., such as Bear Creek (West Kelowna) or Whispering Pines (Kamloops) have few to no trees at all around the track, resulting in fewer variances in lighting. Personally, I like the Popkum layout in the forest a lot; not only does it challenge my photography skills a little bit more than the other tracks, it also provides me with some much needed shade in between motos, something that I cannot appre-

ciate enough as the temperatures in the summer approach 28 ºC (82 ºF)! On the Popkum track, there are sections of the track that are completely lit by the sun, and there are sections of the track that are completely in the shadows, particularly in the early morning. These sections of the track are arguably easier to set your camera exposure in, and I have used the Aperture Priority setting successfully many times with-out issue. However, there are also sections of the track lit by the sunlight poking through the leaves from the surrounding trees, creating what we call dappled light. This creates some challenges that can trick the camera’s auto exposure system, and result in photos that are inconsistently lit, requir-ing additional editing time after the fact. One of the ways around this problem is to simply set your camera exposure to Manual, and decide before the action starts what exposure you want. This allows

shooting in dappled light


for a series of images to be consistently exposed, especially as a rider transitions from a shadowed area to a non-shadowed area. I prepare the cam-era by spot-metering off of the sun-lit dirt since the lighting there is consistent and not covered in any shadows. I snap a few shots and push the exposure as high as I can, until the highlight clipping warning starts to show up. Shooting in RAW is the better way to go, as it gives you more latitude in post-processing. In the series of pho-tos above, Brie moves through the shadows in the first image, into dappled light in the second, and is essentially out of the shadows in the third. Notice the color of the background grass area, it is the exact same throughout the three images. While the color temperature of direct sunlight is cooler than shade, we can manually set the color temperature setting to 5700K and not touch it for the remainder of race day. In motocross, a

slightly warm color setting on the camera only fur-ther brings out the bright colors of the riders’ bikes and gear, and thus, color “boldness,” especially in an online eMag like gapmx, takes precedent over color “accuracy.” In contrast, I would be very careful with color temperature if I was shooting say, a female headshot that was going to hang on someone’s wall. In this situation, skin tones are absolutely essential, and I would not even begin the shoot without us-ing a color checker to ensure accurate color, and an expedient workflow. But trackside on race day, where there is a reliance on natural light rather than studio flashes to light the scene, where full face hel-mets cover up rider’s faces, color temperature is one aspect that one can worry less about. Not having to worry about color temperature or exposure leaves us free to look at composition, focus points and camera angle. Until next time, keep shooting!

shooting in dappled light


What does wedding photography have to do with motocross? Shooting a portrait of a bride in her veil will look particularly gorgeous if you back-light her. This does two things: first, the over-exposure reduces the appearance of shadows and soft-ens her facial features for a more youthful look. Secondly, the details her silhouette burn out a little bit, creating an ethereal glow. Accordingly, you can treat the rooster-tail off of an MXer’s bike like the veil and backlight it so that it too becomes translucent. The additional exposure also makes the color in the riding gear really pop off of the page. Notice the shadows in this image; they are much darker in real life, but our brain is tricked into paying attention to other elements in the photo.

SETTINGS: 1/1000 at f2.8, ISO 200 at focal length 150mm, Color temperature manually set at 5700K, Canon 5DMKIII, 70-200mm f2.8 IS MKII


mx titans: pro am


Kyle Cochlin finds his pace in the early laps of Sunday morning practice, laying down a sick whip over the massive front straight tabletop, the track’s main feature obsticle.


Shooting with a wide-angle lens distorts distances to the subject, and on the track Ryan was much closer to me as he flew past than he appears in this photo. In actuality, we could have fist-bumped in this instance, although doing so probably would have been bad for both of us. Very bad.


ABOVE: Max Day was gracious enough to wear my GoPro in the Junior Open class, but in a strange turn of events, it got busted off of his helmet by lap 2 (below). Nonetheless, Max would go on to win the Open Jr. class.


Watch for gapmx at the following Future west moto races:April 2-3 : Kamloops.......yes!April 9-10 : Popkum.......yes!April 30-May 1 : Popkum......yes!May 28-29 : Nanaimo......maybeJune 18-19 : Cloverdale.....yes!June 25-26 : Cloverdale.....yes!Sept. 3-4 – Kelowna......yes!Other races ...TBDWant to see your photo show up in gapmx?Here are some suggestions:--Keep your bike looking fresh; e.g., race numbers,----Ride with your best looking riding gear----Most importantly, eyes forward and ride hard!--

Who knows, YOU could be on the next cover of the magazine! Any rider from any class could be next. And that is a great way to be seen by sponsors, friends, family, virtually anyone in the industry. Check out the Canadian Moto Show website to see the magazine, as well as plenty of outtake images. And, don’t forget to bookmark it and “like” it on social media!


desktop wallpapers


desktop wallpapers

Each month, gapmx is proud to post some action shots in high resolution, courtesy of one of our eMag sponsors. When you visit Penticton this summer, be sure to cruise through the trendiest shopping district on Front Street and stop in at Something Pretty Boutique, which carries some of the hottest trends in ladies fashions. Steps away and right around the corner is Buoy Clothing Co., at 37 Backstreet Boulevard, which specializes in men’s wear. Thanks again to these two stores for all your support for the eMag! Access to this issue’s posters are here, free for your use and enjoyment:https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=469A6B34F01617D4!11300&authkey=!AOWk1Rt1S39f1u4&ithint=folder%2cjpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=469A6B34F01617D4!11300&authkey=!AOWk1Rt1S39f1u4&ithint=folder%2cjpg

green avenue photography motocross volume 18

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