Red Bull Rampage

10 Tips to photographing an event: Red Bull Rampage

Launched in 2001 and held annually through 2004, Red Bull Rampage brought the creative, unrestricted ethos of freeride mountain biking to the contest arena while staying true to the sport's core ideals. Poised on a sandstone ridge in the brutal landscape near Virgin, Utah riders were free to chose whatever line they dared between an established start gate and the finish line 1,500 vertical feet below. Exactly what happened between those two points has become legendary.

1.Dirt: If your worried about your camera and everything you own being covered in dirt,don’t show up.

2. Credentials: Unlimited access is key to composing images. Contact your local magazine or know someone who knows someone. Free lunch is provided with the press pass.

3. See Tip 1.

4. Business Cards: Everyone from publishers to team managers are on hand and the event. Exposure is everything.

5. Clothing: With highs of 103 degrees is obvious to wear shorts and a t shirt. Yet wearing the same outfit for the entire 4 days of photographing makes you more recognizable to riders and other photographers that you meet during the event.

6.Pre-Visualize: There are thousands of ways to photograph the numerous lines and features. Pick your areas and produce quality not quantity.

7. Equipment: Two cameras are key. The remote camera is locked onto the tripod with the wide angle lens and can be triggered by pocket wizards. The main body varied from the 100-400 and the 24-105.

8. Luck: Somehow randomly meet a writer for the biggest European bike magazine and have him be stoked to run your images.

9. Sell aka Luck #2: Submit images to the magazines and get paid for the time. It’s important to review the submission guidelines prior to submission.

10. Individuality: Don’t be concerned about what the other photographers are doing. It’s impossible for someone to duplicate your style.

www.redbullrampage.com

-ryan