chapter9photography > blog

For the race itself, Dan and I hooked a lift with Shizuka and figured that we could hit a couple of checkpoints by car… yeah, bad move… we obviously got stuck in traffic and watched Shino and Lucas Brunelle fly by us.  At that point we knew we would get zero footage. We both effectively gave up and went back to the start/finish point and waited for the winners to show up. I can only imagine how fast the two of them were riding, because it was a quick finish.

Dan and I rolled with the punches, but I gotta say that I really like how I captured the beginning and the end the way I did.  To those that were there, it captures two really key moments in a  great evening.  I can totally imagine splicing together a kick ass overview of the race with Lucas’ insane helmet cam footage and Dan’s content to flesh out the story.

After the alleycat race, a few ramps were set up for the fixie freestyle competition. I’m gonna state publicly that I really don’t understand or care about the whole fixie/bmx thing, but I respect whatever weird bike fetish people have… I was a mountain biker before being a bike messenger / urban guy and totally believe that there are way more appropriate and wicked tools to do what the fixie/bmx kids want to experience out of their ride… but that’s just my perspective as a guy who loves all things with two wheels in different ways… 700, 26″, 24″, 20″… all bikes, all make me happy for different reasons.

Anyway, Daniel and I were setting up to shoot and were both freaking out how dark it was. Zero ambient light and too many factors that made this a hopeless cause in our minds. We both shot with zero expectations. I gotta say that I got exactly what I expected – blurry dark shitty photos – and I didn’t really care.

But upon review, one of my shots caught my attention. In no way would I have ever considered this to be a good photo, especially since the bar is set so high by action photographers that I respect and admire. But what blew my mind was the eerie similarity between this shot and one of the main graphics used for the CMWC. This is way too freaky, take a good look and let me know what you think.

Fast forward to September 22nd 2009 in Tokyo.  It was the first day of the CMWC main event at Odaiba, a seaside city about two hours away from where I was staying in Ikebukuro.  I hooked up with a large group ride a quarter of the way there.  We pumped out some serious kilometers on the highways, crossing all these amazing suspended bridges.  I rode with lots of old friends and met new friends.

Towards the end of the ride, I saw a dude out of the corner of my eye pull up to me.  He was riding with a camera around his neck and I had mine in my hand… I suddenly flashed back to that sunny afternoon in NYC all those years ago.  So we rode together while shooting. It was a beautiful summer morning, slightly past 9am and somewhere around 30°C.

The shot to the left was taken during the CMWC qualifications on Tuesday. I nailed the focus and got him right before that second 180 degree turn. The shot to the right was taken the next day, with him showing off his GPS to Lucas Brunelle.

Toydog was the most energetic hyper fly Japanese messenger I met in Tokyo. I had a killer time hanging out with him throughout the event. He’s lots of fun. He’s also very trigger happy and does great work documenting the scene. Check out his site here.

The first shot I took of him on his bike is from the main entrance on the closed course before the qualifcations started. Later that night, when it was getting dark, he introduced my to his very hot girlfriend Chiemi. They’re both camera whores and I loved shooting them. Their playful energy is unparalleed and I’m bummed out that I didn’t get to explore more of them à la chapter9.

Eisuke giving the finalists a last run through of what’s going down before the race starts.

To the right is fixie king Jumbo from Copenhagen. Jumbo is a powerhouse rider and I shot him throughout the event, but this is definitely my favorite shot of him.  The second 180 turn was a sweet spot to shoot and the light was gorgeous when the clouds came in.