Motorcycle photography

Motorcycles and photography go hand in hand, not just because now I’m never lacking a subject for a landscape but also because it gets me to the right place at the right time.

The bike is a modified Yamaha XT 600 from `85.



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beautiful shots, as usual.

Woo! That light in the last one is fantastic.

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Awesome pictures and a very nice build. :slight_smile:

How do you transport your camera then on the bike? Always something I struggle with. I feel bad exposing the camera to all the vibrations of the bike by putting it on the back and I don’t like a heavy backpack on longer or more sport trips.

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Nice shots Morgan!

As I wrote in the other thread I was surprised to see two different posts on bikes and motorbikes which happen to be a passion of mine as well!

I love these shots @Morgan_Hardwood, so far I’ve only been able to get some static shots around my house with my motorbike – every time I go out for longer rides I am so constrained with time etc that I take my phone with me and little else. But you gave me inspiration to bring a proper camera next time (the Fuji XT2 with 18 or 35mm is pretty light and that would be the ideal choice; however I do love longer lenses… but you showed me an interesting use of wideangle lenses).

l’ll take the opportunity to post here a few shots of my Guzzi , which is a different and much more sporty bike than the stock V7. I was playing with the idea of having an unassuming bike that goes like hell on the twisties – here in Italy we have a passion for big, sporty, powerful bikes but the average speed on a ‘proper’ mountain road rarely exceeds 50-60 kmh; this V7 doesn’t have the grunt of a Ducati twin for example but it is very fast and light, and carries tremendous speeds round the corners.

One is a straight shot after some little cosmetic mods, the other two are earlier attempts to use flash to create a different look:

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Just a snapshot compared to the wonderful pictures of @aadm and @Morgan_Hardwood but I thought I’d still share it. Need to put in a bit of effort like the above clearly did. :slight_smile:

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Woah, pictures look very finessed in the edit.

@Jonas_Wagner I really like the image. It has a variety of shapes, sizes, illuminations and reflections among the various objects. PS What is the horizontal line to the right of the image? A scratch?

What a beast of a motorbike Jonas! I used to like these bikes – always been a fan of racing (I also did a bit of roadracing back in the early 2000 at club level in the UK, with a stock Honda CBR600), but my last proper ‘racing’ bike with full fairing, clip-ons etc was a Ducati 999S. Then two years ago I went back to a very simple and more casual ride → the Guzzi above. I modified it quite a bit (suspensions, footpegs etc) so now it’s an absolute demon in the twisties but it is way easier than a proper sportsbike plus I can take my daughter to school and use it around town with jeans and tshirt.

About the photo: I like the setting and the sweet light in the background. Just for info (as I’ve been struggling lately with editing my photos when there’s strong backlight), how did you expose the shot – I suppose the bike was totally in the dark then you lifted the shadows? Can I ask what was the processing like? Did you use filmic or the conventional shadows module? Or masked exposure?

@aadm It’s basically my track bike. I put the lights and plates back on because of the extremely annoying customs situation between Switzerland, France and Italy. It doesn’t make too much sense on the street. Even just getting the tires warm with our draconian traffic laws requires a nice twisty road, with little traffic and some decent temperatures. My ‘sensible’ bike is a Super Duke.

I really like your approach of taking what is a more casual bike and making it fast and sexy. Must be a blast to push that beauty a bit. :slight_smile:

Regarding the actual photo, I shot it with an RX100 (1" sensor) so exposing for the highlights wasn’t really an Option in the first place. So I just accepted that the sky would clip. I did use filmic to develop the image in a fairly low contrast way and then added the contrast back in using local contrast. If I had a camera with more dynamic range with me I’m pretty sure I would have created a different picture.

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Seeing all this nice bike shots, I kind of want to put my 2003 Triumph Speed Triple out of the garage (were it rested since I bought heckflosse…) The Speed Triple has less than 7000 km on tacho…

Seeing all these nice bike shots is making me regret not getting a bike when going through my mid-life crisis! (I got a saxophone instead!)

Can’t wait for your road trip showcase. :wink:

Haha I got a boat!

Ingo you should take the Triumph out! Last year I went on a roadtrip with my old friends (we’re still the same 20 years later, only a few kilos heavier and plenty of grey hair), and I swapped my Guzzi with all the other bikes; Ducatis, brand new Yamaha with the 900cc triple, KTM etc, but the one bike that I liked the most was a 10yrs old Speed Triple; what a great bike! No electronics, a good, torquey engine much more lively and captivating than the Yamaha 900, a perfect road bike, the only one that I liked perhaps more than my Guzzi. Oh and my friend had a Zard racing exhaust (small italian factory, same brand as my terminals) and what a great sound; pops and burbles and actual flames when releasing the throttle, it was heaven!

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Hey

@Jonas_Wagner I use a Lowepro ProTactic 350 AW backpack. Tried a tank bag but it ended up scratching the tank…

We have some nice small twisties here in southern Sweden, but we also have wild boar, deer and the occasional moose, and each of those can easily weigh more than the bike…

We have some nice small twisties here in southern Sweden, but we also have wild boar, deer and the occasional moose, and each of those can easily weigh more than the bike…