Simon Keitch Photography Blog

Last week I shot a commercial fashion assignment for the Silverfish (UK bike/P&A importer) 2009 brochure featuring the 2009 Spring/Summer clothing range from RaceFace. It was a full day on location at Dartmoor capturing everything from the posed model image above to more candid lifestyle and riding images; a lot to squeeze into a single day but we came out a huge variety of images for the client to choose from for next year’s brochure, as well as the 2009 advertising campaign.

While at Newnham Park in Plymouth photographing round one of the Soggy Bottom Winter Mountain Bike Series last week I was also there to shoot portraits of the Shred cycling race team for their 2009 launch in the New Year. Trying to get these guys together in one place for a formal portrait shoot was always going to be akin to herding cats so it was decided to set something up on the race site and grab each rider before the event start. The weather was kind of miserable but the Newnham estate has these big open sided shelters for the clay pigeon shooting that the grounds are mainly used for, so we set up a field studio under one to keep both the gear and subjects out of the rain. I also shot some photo-documentary style images of the team which I’ll be doing some more of over the course of the coming season; below is team captain Steve Toze post race, removing a very sticky energy gel wrapper from his jersey pocket…                                                                                                                                                            

The Soggy Bottom Winter Race Series 2008/2009 began yesterday at Newnham Park, Plymouth, under wet and overcast conditions; I was there photographing the race for an editorial client as well as shooting some team portraits and action images for a 2009 team launch (more on that to come). Featured above is Certini team rider Jay Horton leading the Masters category, below is Kona/Torq team rider Matt Loake.

I was out shooting the fifth round of the South West Cyclocross Series in Central Park, Plymouth, yesterday for Shred West; the weather was in stark contrast to the last CX race I covered a few weeks back and was exactly what I was hoping for: mud. Featured above is the men’s race winner Roy Wyle Smith (cyclo-cross.com) leading the field on the first lap, which is exactly where he stayed for the remainder of the race taking the win by over one and a half minutes over the second place rider Simon Young (Certini).