Posted by Photo-John on April 16, 2014
Processing photos after the 2014 Sea Otter Classic bike festival in Monterey, California.
This past weekend I attended my fifteenth Sea Otter Classic bike festival. It takes place at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, every spring and has all kinds of bike racing, tons of vendors and lots of product demos. My primary goal was photos of new enduro products at Sea Otter for Italian mountain bike Web site, TriRideMTB.com. But Sea Otter is also a great event for catching up with other photographers, friends in the bike industry, and mountain bike buddies from my former home in the Bay Area. And of course, I also wanted to hand out business cards and let people know I’m now working as a freelancer.
You can see some of my Sea Otter enduro photos below, along with links to the corresponding TriRideMTB articles. But be warned – unless you speak Italian, you won’t be able to read the accompanying text. The photos will still be really sexy, though.
You’ll be seeing a lot more photos of the obnoxious turquoise and pink “Miami Vice Edition” 27.5 Santa Cruz Nomad. But I think this black-on-black version is much better looking. See more photos on TriRideMTB.com.
On Thursday, my first day at Sea Otter, I took pictures of the latest enduro-oriented suspension from Marzocchi, as well as what is already one of the most coveted all mountain / enduro bikes of 2014 – the new 27.5 Santa Cruz Nomad. That night I attended Shimano’s new XTR launch, where they told us all about their new top-shelf drivetrain components and brakes. It was super dark at that event so I’m really glad I had the Canon EOS-1D X with me and was able to shoot everything at ISO 6400. I did use a little bit of flash, but it was only so I could open up the shadows and make certain details more clear. For all of my daylight product shoots, I used my Canon EOS 70D. It’s a great camera when the light is decent and it’s a whole lot smaller, lighter and easier to carry around all day.
A couple of bike media nerds who showed up at Shimano’s XTR launch for the free hoodie and beer. See more photos from Shimano’s XTR launch on TriRideMTB.com.
Marzocchi’s new 350 CR air fork is built for 27.5 wheels and will be available in late April, 2014. See more photos on TriRideMTB.com.
On Friday I visited with Italian hydraulic brake manufacturer, Formula. Then I went to SRAM’s “lunch launch,” where they showed us some new 1x drivetrain stuff, their new Guide hydraulic mountain bike brakes, and the super-cool new RS-1 inverted XC fork. After that I checked out Specialized’s first 27.5 bike, the Stumpjumper 650B, which is sure to be a very popular trail bike.
Greg Herbold, modeling the new RockShox RS-1 inverted XC fork at SRAM’s Sea Otter Classic “lunch launch.” See more photos of the RS-1 and other new SRAM mountain bike components on TriRideMTB.com.
Can’t wait to throw a leg over one of these – the new Specialize Stumpjumper 650B trail bike. See more photos of the new Stumpjumper on TriRideMTB.com.
On Saturday I hustled through the rest of my product appointments so I could be ready to shoot the pro dual slalom finals in the evening – one of my very favorite mountain bike events to photograph. First, I checked out GT’s new purpose-built enduro bike, the Sanction – built specifically to help the Atherton team win races. I followed that up with a visit to 661 to check out their new trail helmet, the EVO AM. Then I hustled over to the Fox trailer to see the newly redesigned 36 RC2 fork.
Built for the Atherton team, the new GT Sanction was designed to win enduro races. See more photos of the GT Sanction on TriRideMTB.com.
The Fox 36 is back! See more photos on TriRideMTB.com.
It was really cool to be able to make it out to Sea Otter this year – especially since I no longer work for Mtbr.com and wasn’t planning to go. It’s been a regular and fun part of my life for a long time, I got to see tons of friends, and I did a ton of networking. So I’m really grateful to TriRideMTB for giving me the work and getting me out there. Besides making some money, it allowed me to visit with friends, hand out lots of business cards, and shoot some great racing. I’m also really grateful to photographer Ti Peng, who referred TriRideMTB to me. Thanks a lot, Ti. I owe you one. Ti is also a great cycling action photographer. Check out his photos and help me give him some love by visiting his Web site, www.tipengphotography.com.
Stayed tuned for photos from the Sea Otter Classic dual slalom and downhill races, as well as the Official Post-Sea Otter, Unofficial Aptos Post Office Jump Jam.
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