I have never really been much of a car guy, or a bike guy for that matter. As a young adult I had mates whose cars were their world and motorbikes were everything to them. They would buy some old cars and slowly work on them over the weekends and turn them into pretty nice looking machines.  But, whilst I loved hanging around and helping out where I could, it was never really an interest for me. From when I first got my licence and got my first car, it was more as a practical tool. A way to get out and about and visit friends or a girlfriend, etc. And motorbikes hardly ever interested me at all. I had some mates who had trail bikes and they would ride them along the creeks and train tracks near home. I would get a dink (ride double) every now and then and on the rare occasion rode on my own. But they were powerful scary things that I had no real control over. Give me a Vespa any day!

So why the history lesson on how Greg feels about cars and bikes? Well, I guess whilst I was never into them, I do appreciate exceptional design in a car or a bike from time to time. And fortunately I had the opportunity to photograph a pretty-much brand new BMW, R NINET Scrambler. And that is an exceptionally well designed and good look piece of engineering. The design student in me likes it. As you may have read in my blog ‘Investigating creepy, abandoned facilities of questionable safety – With the ORP and the Fujifilm X Series’ – I met up with my mate the Overrated Photographer at an abandoned factory to take some shots of various things. You can check that one out here. I drove to the location in my car however the ORP rode his shiny BMW R NINET Scrambler.

So after our investigation of the abandoned mill we headed out for sunlight and fresh air.  I told the ORP that I wanted to photograph his bike and we both took some shots first with him off the bike and then I took a bunch with him on the bike. It took no effort to persuade him to take part in this little impromptu photoshoot. In taking these shots I used my Fujifilm X70 to get nice dramatic wide angles when shot from down low. The X70 has an 18.5mm focal length and the minimal focal distance is tiny so I could get in very close.  I also used the Fujifilm X-T2 with the XF23mmF2 and the XF50mmF2 lenses for varying affects. I directed him getting him to ride towards me and away from me so I could catch the bike from different angles. Overall it was a lot of fun as it is something that I have never really done before. And it was good for the ORP to get some shots of himself on his bike. It has not made me anymore of a ‘rev-head’ as we call them here in Australia.  But it was still a good experience. Happy shooting.