Clict Magazine Photo Annual 2009

DAMIAN BREACH MARK WATSON FRASER BRITTONGEOFF WAUGH SHAWN SPOMER CHRIS BENNY

STEVE BEHR VICTOR LUCAS SVEN MARTIN STEPHEN HILLENBRAND

ISSN 08177686

AUS $15.95 US $12-

Photo Annual #1 2009

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The Limited Edition hard cased version of the Clict Photo AnnualSam Hill portrait shot by Victor Lucas

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CASt & CREW

PUBliSHER FreeWheel Media

info@freewheel.com.au

EDitOR Damian Breach

ASSiStANt EDitOR James Wiiliamson

james@freewheel.com.au

EDitORiAl SUPPORt Robin Weaver

rob@freewheel.com.au

ARt DiRECtOR/DESiGNER Niki Fisher

niki@designbypeppi.com.au

www.designbypeppi.com.au

CONtRiBUtiNG SHOOtERS Damian Breach, Mark Watson, Fraser Britton, Geoff Waugh, Shawn

Spomer, Chris Benny, Steve Behr, Victor Lucas, Sven Martin, Stephen

Hillenbrand, John Gibson, Sterling Lorence,

Adam MacLeod, Markus Greber, Adrian Marcoux, Lars Scharl, David

Ulrich, Joakim Andreassen, Yorrick Carroux

ADVERtiSiNG & EDitORiAl Adam MacLeod

(03) 9853 0841

Mobile: Adam 0438 292 006

FAX: (03) 9853 3930

EMAIL: info@freewheel.com.au

POSt CORRESPONDENCE tO : 29 Loch Street,

Kew

VIC 3101 Articles printed in this publication are the opinion of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editors or Publishers of Clict.

Andrew neethling and I shoot quite a lot together. A symbiotic relationship if you will, he knows my style I know his. As a result we constantly give each other shit, but always end up with some gems for our combined efforts. Early 2007 near his home town of Somerset West, Cape town South Africa. Viewpoint trail.

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When I was approached by Clict to write the introduction for their first photo annual

I was shocked, amazed, and humbled. Did this mean that I had finally made it as a

photographer and can call myself a professional?

I never planned for this to happen; to become a professional photographer that is.

It seems like only a few years ago I was looking through my favourite magazines

photo annual, lost in the imagery and fascinated about how they took the photos.

now all of a sudden Im writing a forward for one. For me it all started when I final-

ly bit the bullet and decided to scale back racing and concentrate on photography.

I have always been amazed at photography and how you can create images that

can inspire, stir emotion and capture history. taking photos for a job was never

my intention and my original push to have my images published was, and still is, an

avenue to display my images my artistic expression of the mountain bike world.

looking through the list of contributors for this photo annual I can bet that it was

the same for them. they like riding mountain bikes and they like taking photos and

one day they woke up and realised that theyre travelling around the world taking

photos for all of us to enjoy. In reality however its not that easy. Every image

you see in this magazine, or on the walls of your local bike shop, or as part of an

advertising campaign are a result of years of blood, sweat, and tears. It takes time,

money, patience and a lot of luck to get the right photo. You have to put yourself

in the right place at the right time. You have to take risks and be willing to make

mistakes. You have to live poor and make sacrifices. You have to beg. You have to

accept criticism and rejection. Youll get hot, cold, wet, dirty, dusty, thirsty, tired,

bored, and lonely. the list is endless and its very, very hard work.

So why do we do it? First off, its fun. We get to travel the world, visit exotic loca-

tions, hang out with cool people and be part of the best sport in the world. But

theres more to it than that. We shoot for many reasons and whist I cannot speak

for all the contributors I would like to guess that were all pretty similar. Simply

put, we love photography as an art and we love mountain biking and we want to

combine our two great loves and hopefully when we share what weve created we

can inspire you to ride and see the sport as we see it.

that sharing of our images has to be one of the most frustrating parts of the

work. Photographers are very tough on themselves we want to take photos to push

our boundaries and please our own inner critic. Its painstaking to select an image

that we thinks good enough and so many times once weve made that selection our

customers (a lot of times Editors) pick our least favourite photos. Argghhh, its so

frustrating and well never understand. this is where a photo annual becomes a

special part of our photography. A photo annual lets us be the ones who select our

favourite images; the ones we think are the best. one of the most common things

asked by people when they see me next to a race track holding a bucket load of

photo gear is who do you shoot for?. theres a simple answer to that I shoot

for myself, to please myself. Im pretty sure that everyone youll see on these next

pages thinks the same, we have to make ourselves happy before we can share with

the public.

So here you have the first Clict photo annual. A selection of images that weve

taken that satisfies ourselves enough to share with you and we all hope that we can

create that same feelings in you that we get from looking at these photos.

Enjoy.

Ed note

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DAMIAN BREACH16

MARK WAtSoN30FRASER BRIttoN142

GEoFF WAUGH66

SHAWN SPoMER98CHRIS BENNY124StEVE BEHR136

VICtoR LUCAS150

SVEN MARtIN1170

StEPHEN HILLENBRAND182 13CliC

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AG

Youve seen us on the sides of mountains or hanging around at a race. Were the ones who

stand out from the crowd. You know, the ones lugging around a huge backpack, staggering

uncomfortably and being drawn towards tumbling down the hill because of the shear weight of

our packs. have you ever wondered whats inside those packs. I pulled everything out of mine

one afternoon having just finished a shoot and heres what I found.

1. nikon D2X with 70-200mm f2.8 VR attached. I use this lens more than anything else as its

so fast and versatile.

2. nikon D2X with 10.5mm f2.8 fisheye attached. My favorite lens. Fisheyes are so much fun.

3. nikon SB-800 flashes. I sometimes do use three flashes at a race but I stick to two most of

the time. these babies have been through the wars and have been covered in mud, dust,

rain, and have also been ridden over a few times.

4. Pocket Wizards three flashes so I need 4 Pocket Wizards you do the math

5. tripods with coldshoes attached. Something to hold the flashes and if I use a 3rd flash I

have a little stand for that which wasnt in the bag.

6. nikon 50mm f1.8 lens. Great for portrait stuff and I have used it to shoot racing.

7. nikon 12-24mm f4 lens. I like wide and this lets me have a little more control