Door to the year

Apparently, at least according to Wikipedia, January is named for Janus, the mythological god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings … and as such is the door to the year. Which makes this image of an exquisite Alfa Romeo 8C all the more pertinent in what was to have been a more regular posting schedule for the beginning of the year.

While January, may be a nice slow, warm up to the year for some, down in the Southern Hemisphere, I’ve already shot a national race and have been busy, busy with editorial shoots. The nationals took place in Jonkershoek just outside Stellenbosch, which has always been a favourite place of mine, but I’m loving it more and more with each return trip – either to ride or to shoot. The singletrack is sublime and the scenery is breathtaking. But rather than me drone on … lets up the word count with these:

Today’s shoot was for long-time client Specialized and it was also at Jonkershoek … and for me that means an early start to get there early enough … 0519 am alarm. Nice. But what that does allow you to do is stop at the side of the road and admire the sunrise as you drive into Stellenbosch. I was busy getting the sun coming up over the peaks when i saw movement in viewfinder as i clicked.

The shoot went fine, save for some first-time issues with some new/modified cables and light modifiers … more on those later. But you can’t fault the scenery there:

Be sure to checkout my portfolio section on the Dirt website at http://dirtmag.co.uk/portfolios/category/231/15 and also an article that ran a while back on the Bike Mag website: http://bikemag.com/gallery/men_in_black_gary_perkin_flipper_mountain_bike_photo_gallery/

bye for now

g