One of the items on my Bucket List is to learn to ride a motorcycle.
I have booked a Basic Handling Course (which we are doing on Saturday) and I have been reading Paul Owen’s book “Ride to Live, Live to Ride. The Guide to Safe Motorcycling”. I have also been searching Trademe for bikes that I might own.
And then my friend went and bought a very very hot Ducati Hypermotard 796.
On the weekend, he parked it up and let me take photographs of it.
While he was on his way over, I thought about how I wanted these photographs to come out.
I can remember one of the quotes I read about taking really great photographs “Know your subject better than you know yourself” – Scott Bourne however sometimes (a lot of the time) this just isn’t the case.
Photographing something new can provide a spark in inspiration. Photographing something new can get us out of a routine.
How do you take photographs of something you don’t know anything about?
In my experience, we should think about what we like about that particular subject. We don’t have to know a lot about something to appreciate its beauty or its differences.
Pay attention to what parts grab our attention – where do our eyes go naturally?
If we can walk around it – where do we pause for a moment or stop?
In the case of Scott’s motorcycle, I didn’t want to have a card full of photographs of the rear or the front of the bike.
I browsed Google Images and Flickr and there was a lot of advertising out there. Sure, they look hot on a white background with studio lighting but I didn’t have any of that and I wanted to do something different.
The first part that really grabbed my attention was the twin exhaust. It reminded me of a jet plane.
I tried the old “rule of thirds” for the composition and was not happy with the results. But the image above is probably my most favourite of the day.
I also changed my perspective. I knelt on the ground. I sat on the ground.
For this image, I even gave my abs a wee workout and leaned back so I was closer – or as close to – parallel with the logo as possible.
I shot this particular image about 50 times. With different apertures and shutter speeds. I wanted the ‘right’ amount of light and the ‘right’ depth of field.
The look that I was aiming for wasn’t based on highlighting any particular part of the bike.
What I wanted was the Ducati to pop and for there to be a little yellow and a little red in the photograph.
At the end of the day, if we are completely honest, it’s the digital age.
And with the capacity of memory cards, we have the luxury of being able to try different things as many times as we like!
What really matters is if you are pleased with what you have done. And for a lesser part, if you have learned something as well.
And finally – if you are taking photographs of something that belongs to someone else, and they are happy, even better!
Scott has posted these images on the New Zealand Ducati Owners Facebook group and sent them to Motomart whom he bought the bike from. There have also been numerous tweets.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that there are a few photographs here that I am happy with – and a couple that I will be looking for an opportunity to reshoot.
