ChrisH

At Photobay we have spent 2 years trying to make a model for event photography that balances quality images and making a decent living out of it. We have a website with on-line payment gateway and the ability to download immediately after payment. We coupled that with a paranoia about giving great customer service and I honestly believe the operation is slick and works well. A lot of people told me when we started the business that I was wasting my time, but I was convinced otherwise. It turns out that they were right. It's a mugs game for sure. The reality is that most riders aren't really interested in anything other than Facebook profile pictures and those they are happy to steal even though they have our watermark on them. The only way that you can possibly make a decent living out of it, is to shoot niche events with hordes of competitors, use local students to take the images and produce thousands of photos. Low overheads, massive stock and a captive audience is the key. The business model that does work for us, is to shoot the event for the organisers and event sponsors, have them pay you for the shoot and as a by-product sell individual images to the athletes. AMA Rider took a massive leap of faith and paid us for the RE-CM 100 miler, and all images were provided free to the riders. Meurant was convinced that this was the way to go and he was 100% correct. Over 800 images were downloaded in a week. Compare that to a normal MTB race where we may sell 20 photos, or for triathlon possibly 50 (triathletes are the best customers by far). So everyone scored, but make no mistake we aren't getting rich out of it. The next big AMA Rider race is the Burger MTB race, and because of the scale of the event they are using Action Photo. Photobay just doesn't have the resources to run that kind of production line and personally I would find it soul destroying. A bit like working as a bank teller at ABSA.

Hi Guys Our images from the RE-CM 100 miler are now available for FREE download, compliments of AMA Rider. http://www.gallery.photobay.co.za/index.gallery.php?gid=142

I'm taking photos from the Anzio Road bridge which crosses the bottom of Hospital Bend, when a rider lost his water bottle, which skidded into the gutter on the outside of the road. The rider then stopped on the inside of the road and decided that he couldn't live without his bottle. No problems for this twat, he simply ran across the road in front of the entire group that is screaming down the hill towards him. No amount of screaming and shouting from me would deter him, and believe me my father was a career sailor so I know how to swear. The marshals just watched him go, doing nothing to stop this Darwinian fool from diving into the group. The photos don't do it any justice as I was using a 70 - 200mm lens and couldn't zoom out to show the size of the group. How the hell he managed to get across without killing someone is beyond me. Remember that the riders in the photos are doing about 60kph at this point. There were some serious skid marks laid down, both on the road and in some shorts, but damn it was a close thing. To top it all, when he reclaimed his bottle, he then tried to come back across the road to his bike, and only when I threatened to beat the living crap out of him did he walk across the bridge to get to his bike. OE 72159, you Sir, are a chop.

Cross Country here......... http://www.gallery.photobay.co.za/index.gallery.php?gid=86 Downhill here..... http://www.gallery.photobay.co.za/index.gallery.php?gid=95

A 350D then 550D then bought the 5D and have a 60D as a second/backup camera.

Shoot with the 5D and you will realise just how much of a quantum leap it is. I resisted until a year ago and have never once regretted spending the cash for the full frame camera.

zaShadow, you can send them to me. chris@photobay.co.za I'll make sure they are updated/corrected.

Quite simply, we haven't ridden them. Please feel free to send us a report along the same format as you see on the site and we will include it with pleasure. An online submission system is in the pipeline.

The functionality to upload your own track is coming very shortly, in fact it is a priority for us.

Hey Caerus, I can't go into to much detail, but that is the ultimate plan.

Thanks guys, all this is good info, and we will have those links fixed ASAP. Obviously some stuff has gone a little bit tits up in the transition, but we expected that and that's why I asked the Hubbers to have a quick test drive. Cheryl, we are updated all the photos as we go through each and every trail. Believe it or not, we have a photo of just about every one. Our ultimate aim is for this to be a community driven site, with updates coming from the riders. Obviously it's impossible for us to make regular trips to all the trails to keep them updated as there are just on 400 at the last count, so we rely on people (and trail owners) letting us know of changes and inaccuracies.

Hi Guys We have almost completed the revamp of the www.mtbroutes.co.za website. There are still a couple of routes that need formating and some trails still need to be added to the map, but I'd appreciate your feedback on where we can improve and what features you would like to see added (or dropped). Have at it:) Click here for mtbroutes.co.za website

There's a storm brewing in Cape Town.

Anyone mind if I post some MTB related images/

Correct gummibear, I was panning. Shot using flash for fill in light. I was hell of a lucky with the sun coming through her hair like that.

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Thousands of 'em.

One more for today. You may have noticed that I like bright saturated colours.

100% original image.

Can I also come play:)

Thanks Hagar. For an extra R50 I can Photoshop the Raleigh off that bike of yours..

There are some images here....... click for images. The rest will be up on photobay.co.za by Wednesday.

I accept the award with gratitude. I'd like to thank all those who made this possible, particularly South African Breweries.

Marius, that's no guarantee of class. I'm one of your Facebook buddies for goodness sake.