A couple weeks back we got to venture into the misty woods somewhere in the Santa Cruz area for a rare and special opportunity to shoot stills alongside Rupert Walker as he shot Brandon Semenuk for his Red Bull Raw 100.
Heading into the woods…
Unsuccessfully channeling Jordan Manley vibes. Haven’t heard of him? Click Here and make sure you read the caption.
Damp and eerie…To be honest it was super refreshing to shoot in conditions like this in California.
The weapon of choice for the day. Brandon’s Trek Ticket S – 1 rear brake driven by a Gyro which stopped working and dirt jump tires. Gnarly – he basically couldn’t slow down at all during the whole shoot. Also check out Brandon’s sweet custom “Revel in the Chaos” TLD D3 lid.
Scoping some lines buried in leaves.
Sketchy step up tailwhip landing between trees.
Brandon wasted no time getting right into the heart of things.
Lichen, moss, poison oak, and all sorts of foliage. Most good, some bad.
Rain. Malfunctioning camera equipment style rain. Not sure how you ride like this guy in the rain style rain.
“one more”
This is how you set up for a turn.
And these are various ways that you execute a turn. One man firing squad.
Aside from grooming some lips, Brandon rode this old trail fairly raw…Fitting.
Ridiculous, no words.
We shot all day. This is how our shoes looked by 10:00 AM. Well, Brandon’s shoes anyway.
Coming in hot without any good way to slow down.
Heavy lifting to keep the blood flowing.
Countless takes.
Countless turns slayed.
Creative lines.
More light prepping.
“Like this”
Yes, just like that….maybe even better.
And better still…Drifting off of the lip for this one. Completely batshit crazy.
Thank goodness for modern cameras as flash would not work around a video shoot like this. The woods were dark. ISO 12,800 dark to stop action. Pans help sometimes.
“Dropping”
If this doesn’t make you want to ride…
Exit speed, and then some.
The very last action shot of the day. 1/500th//f1.4 for the photo nerds. Almost got hit as Brandon skimmed his way by. We got lucky all around.
The last photo of the day from the closing scene.
Massive thanks to Brandon and Rupert for letting us tag along.
To watch the full video, click HERE.
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