I was fortunate enough to go sailing with the Puma Unleashed team last week. I’ve done a lot of sailing, but none on a race boat sailing to win(my Dad would disagree and say we’re always sailing to win!). Unfortunately the wind was light and variable, but we led for most of the race until the last leg when Windpower started match racing with us and won!
<!–<!–
Puma Unleashed 2011.01.19 – Images by Nick Muzik
Model: Rachael from Boss
Hair & Make up: Nadia
Styling: Niki Jackson/clothes from AppleBottom
Shot at Buchanan Studio’s – Thanks Andrew
I was fortunate enough to spend the morning with Kenny Belaey, World trials Champion from Belgium. He’s shooting a documentary in South Africa, ending in Cape Town. He wanted to get to the top of Table Mountain before the crowds, so we had to hike it before the cable car started sending people up there. Kenny carried his bike all the way, strength training! I’m not sure how many people have ever carried their bike to the top, up Platterkloof Gorge? He then proceeded to ride his bike, like he does every day!
Went out to atlantis dunes with my mates Greg and Sage to set up some test shots with my camera attached to the bike. The weather turned foul and we didn’t get the shots we wanted. It was fun all the same, next time…
Last week I was asked to take some portraits of some of the kids that have benefited from the Songo.info Cycling for Khamandi program. Cycling has changed the lives of many of these kids who now have aspirations of being professionals! The pics were shot against the container where all there bikes are stored. I used 1 Creative Light 40inx40in SoftBox with my speedlight.
I have had some enquiries about what gear I take with me for a trip like this. I’m on a MX bike for 8 days dealing with dust, mud, rain, thorns and gear getting bashed around on the bike. Last year I wore a backpack with all my gear. I finnished the tip with very sore neck and shoulders and spent a fortune on physio and chiropractic bills! This year I decided to cut down on gear and go with a Think Tank Speed Racer belt pack. This shifted the weight off my shoulders to my waist and also gave me much quicker and easier access to my gear. All my camera gear is Canon which was faultless in these more than testing conditions! All my gear is bought from ORMS in Cape Town.
I took the following gear with me in my Speed Racer belt pack:
I decided to take my 5D MKII instead of my 1DMKIII to save on weigh and size, but also to get the full frame with my fisheye. In the rain I wanted to have my sealed 1D, but managed to get by without soaking the 5D too badly. The rain cover on the Speed Racer came in very handy and protected the bag against rain and dust.
I had a bunch of gear in the backup vehicle just in case of emergency, but never needed to use use it thankfully. All my gear worked great even through all the abuse I put it through. I’m heading back to the Transkei now for the next trip and will use the same set-up.
This is definitely living the dream! Riding bikes across country our beautiful country, raising money for charity, getting paid enough to be happy, sharing unforgettable experiences! Day one of EA2010 saw a tough start getting out of all the local hill climbs in PE and then on to Schotia Private Game Reserve for lunch and with some lions. The pride of 7 lions had killed a Gemsbok earlier this morning and absolutely demolished it with in hours! Amazing. So a good first day easing the novices into it. Lots of fun to come as we head off to Katberg tomorrow…
Saturday saw a beautiful day in Cape Town for the TMC, organised by Trevor Ball, who put on a great event. Many of the standing records were broken. I mountain biked and ran my way to leg 2 which seemed to be the nicest of the three, in amongst the canopies above Kirstenbosch. Congrats to all who finished, it’s a tough event!
I was about to go for a run, the weather was good and it looked like it was going to be a cracker of a sunset. I gave my mate Greg a call to join me, but he was heading off to the UCT jump track to ride his BMX, so I canned the run and went along to take some shots. We bumped into a cool kid Nathan who had just started out riding, but was getting the hang of it pretty quickly!
Last weekend we went up to Elands Bay with a whole bunch of Kids. The weather was rainy, so the kids got all dressed up and headed out into the mud!
I’ve been interested in Tilt Shift lenses for a while, but only until seeing the work of Keith Loutit have I decided to rent one and play around with it. The thing with these lenses is that you have to manual focus them, so using them for sport gets tricky. I went out to watch the Oneil Cold Water Classic in Kommetjie and gave it a whirl.
After being in Joburg for most of the WC, we decided to make a mission to Durban for the semi-final of Germany vs Spain. We drove down to Durban with a day to spare, so were able to spend a day on the beach which was awesome! There was great anticipation for the game, it could have gone either way, but on the night in the new Moses Mabida Stadium, Spain were definitely the better team. Germany looked tired and just couldn’t get the ball off Spain. The new stadium is awesome, the weather was warm, and for the first time of the world cup I could wear a T-shirt instead of loads of layers co’s of the cold!
Most of Africa was behind Ghana for this game. Africa’s last hope at the world cup, Ghana came out playing good football and were looking at a win when they were awarded a penalty in the dying moments of the game! The pressure was too much , and three missed penalties from Ghana after the shoot out, and Uruguay were through to the Semi Finals to face Holland.
There are know to be two soccer supporting nations that give their all on the international stage, one is England, and the other Argentina. I found this out from soccer journalist Gabrielle Marcotti who pointed out some Argentine soccer hooligans on the way to the game. With Maradonna as coach, and a team that is playing electric football, there is lots to support, and the fans didn’t dissappoint. Sporting rolls and rolls of toilet paper that were flung onto the pitch, they cheared and sang their team to an exciting and convincing 3-1 win!
Italy were never supposed to loose this game, but then again, that is what is great about the WC, anything goes, and the World champs are out!
We had some time before the game btw Italy and Slovakia, so decided to head out into the streets and have a look around.
Bill at the USA vs ALG game.
Bad Behavior has blocked 6 access attempts in the last 7 days.
