Lifestyle Portrait: Kyle and his TM Racing Motorcycle

© Cecile Gambin Photography

Meet Kyle. He rides for TM Racing Barker Bros. and has a host of sponsors lined up for the 2015 BC motocross series. The purpose of the photo shoot was to get Kyle photos for his sponsors.

I met Kyle at the Vancouver Motorcycle Show early Saturday morning and had to set up shop in the aisle. We were able to get in early before the doors opened and had just enough time to move a few things around, get the bike, and set up my lights.

Having been at the show last year and having just seen a photo of the TM Racing booth I knew space was at a premium and I had a lot of background clutter to deal with – some which was moveable and some which wasn’t. I decided to bring one light and a reflector to keep things to a minimum as time was also scarce. But that’s all I needed as I wanted to keep a simple lighting on Kyle to highlight both him, the bike and the sponsors. I already knew that I most likely wasn’t able to fit in the entire bike into the picture.

To our left and very close to us was another booth and to our right were the bathrooms which were brightly lit with early morning employees walking by occasionally. Behind me there was a big Polaris display with a very large ATV right where I needed to stand. This tight space pretty much sabotaged any full bike features I wanted without having to do some heavy photoshopping. As it was, in the set up shot you see below, I was sitting on top of the Polaris – not something I’m sure the distributor wanted me to do and really wasn’t in a comfortable position to shoot.

© Cecile Gambin PhotographyWe got Kyle’s bike in place and moved things around so that they weren’t in the frame. Once I metered and set up my key light I adjusted the fill light to give just a hint of fill. I had wanted to keep Kyle semi lit and have the colours popped in addition to blanking out the background. My choice of lighting apparatus was bang on and I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out.

We had a bit of clothing change once we found the team jerseys that were hiding in a box that we didn’t know about and sourced out a helmet for Kyle which we ‘borrowed’ from the Arai distributor. It was promptly returned 45 minutes later when the doors opened to the public.

Stoked! The look I was after was achieved – colours are popping, there’s a bit of mood in the portrait, the bike and clothing were clean, focus is spot on and sponsors are visible. Mission accomplished!

Good luck Kyle with your 2015 season and I look forward to catching you in action!!

© Cecile Gambin Photography