Photographer: Brian Yeagle
Matty Aqui, at Posh. Photo, Yeagle.
Anyone who was lucky enough to go to Empire Of Dirt this summer would have watched Brian scream around the curved wallride at about three thousand miles an hour about four inches from the top. It was about the best thing at the comp. You probably know him as a trails boss, riding for Verde in an around the NE USA, diggin’ and ridin’, but he’s also shot a few mean photos as well – he’s shot a bunch of Mark Mulville recently, so I asked him a few questions for the blog. Why not eh?
BIO Name: Brian C Yeagle Hometown: West Suffield, Connecticut Years shooting BMX photos: About six years of fickle activity. Where you can see my photos: On my computer, in one of my box of negatives/slides, or in one of my box of prints. Nikon or Canon or? Hasselblad 501C as of recently. Before it was Mamiya RB67, which, though a nice camera, proved not at all conducive to shooting ‘action’ images.
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What are you doing today? What’s the plan? Today, literally, I worked at a natural foods cooperative until 2pm, then met up with Tom, Chris, Brandon, Boner, and Tony at the trails, then to a nearby cement park, late dinner, hot tea and now this and some other things on the computer. Most other days are similar, with some photography added in – shooting, scanning, developing, printing – digging at a new trail location, a little reading before bed and that’s about it. Plan? What the hell is a plan? No, my plan is to just try to fit into my life more of what I want to do now without sacrificing too much my ‘future’. I am finding it difficult to achieve a balance between work, riding, photography, and a few other activities I want to be active in. I am finally becoming more devoted and sensible concerning my photography – purchasing necessary equipment, taking time to actually shoot! There is always a battle between whether I want ride or shoot, riding usually wins – and maybe attempt to let my images reach further into the world than my apartment drawers and walls. A few of us are starting a new trails spot in Pittsburgh. We are only about a month deep since first groundbreaking, but have accomplished a good amount. I’m psyched on what we could do with this so I’ve been giving it a decent amount of my time. We are just waiting on rain to get some things running before winter sets in. Does anyone know a good rain-dance?
Okay, what are some of the trails spots you’ve shot photos at? Minersville, Monroeville, POSH, Mark P’s house near Pittsburgh, new PUSH, and Suffield years ago.
What are your stand-out favourite trails spots? Bethlehem trails, POSH and Catty.
And are there any others you really want to take photos at, that you haven’t been to yet? Nothing in particular, but I always want to explore where I have not yet been.
For you, how does shooting photos at the trails differ to shooting, say, street, indoor parks, contests, etc? At this point it feels much more difficult to create a really strong trails image. I also find myself much more visually stimulated while considering compositions shooting a street scene. Just as trails have reoccurring forms such as lips / landings and trees, ‘street’ has its own; buildings, people, streets, signs. On top of having generally more variety of forms the ‘street’ environment has a much greater variance with each of those forms. Even while I consider trails the most complete form of riding, with the riders having constructed their riding environment themselves, I feel there is a certain creativity required in finding ways to ride structures that have no intentional relation to riding in their design and construction. This creativity is a heightened vision revealing possibilities. It is wonderful to join that with a equally inventive photographic vision and record in a still image. That sort of search and discovery moves me to action more than most other scenarios. Not too interested in shooting contests or indoor parks. For some reason outdoor cement parks aren’t as big of a turn off. Even though the design is every bit as contrived it’s not as blatant. They often exhibit more ‘natural’ looking forms and lines that are much more aesthetically pleasing. Now I am using a Hasselblad 501c with a 150 lens. Lighting: two Lumedyne action packs and heads / 400watt. One Sunpak super-pro 622 and one Vivatar 285. Pocket Wizard radio transmitters to fire them.
Ideally… film, or digital? I’m conscious of the fact that digital makes sense financially, ease, and concerning time and portability but… film – besides being all I’ve used – is where my interest lies. I appreciate the extra bit of knowledge, precision, and patience that it requires to use accurately. It seems with the use of digital systems people often bypass visualizing the final appearance of the image before recording it. I think it is best to decide first whether you want the image to be colour, black and white, flat, high-contrast, etc. The alternative is simply shooting a stock image to later manipulate until the most pleasing form is obtained. I believe this is one of the lines that separates skilled photographers from graphic designers who own cameras. I am a bit of a romantic concerning tangibility as well. I feel there are some elements of craft, passion, and originality that can only be possessed within and viewed in things that exist in a corporeal form. With film there is the original segment exposed to light, it can be directly held and viewed, digital photography does not really have the equivalent. Is this the beginning of the end for recorded history as we have known heretofore?
What tips would you give to people wanting to take better trails photos? Christ! Can I have some advice? Well, just think about how you can best compliment the action. Always be conscious of the relation of foreground / background – forms and lighting, framing of the shot, and any shifts that occur during the slightest shift in perspective. Consider the feeling you get from watching the rider or relating to your own experiences riding similarly – how can you create a suggestion of that sensation through your image? Shoot often and be brutal in critiquing your images, picking out weaknesses and strong points, then move on from there.
What’s your favourite trails photo of all time? The only pic coming to mind is one of Groundchuck laying down a one handed flatty, at, Posh? I can’t recall the photographer. Eh? I imagine that there are ‘better’ trails photos out there, but that one certainly left an impression.
Do you prefer shooting trails in the woods, or out in the open? Woods, no question. Acting purist for a moment, I don’t know if I can consider anything trails if they are not in a woodland setting.
What about dirt jumping contests – how do you see those? I don’t know how much I should actually consider them to be different, but it sure is hard to ignore all the circumstances concerning why the jumps are there, why the riders are there, who is present that knows absolutely nothing about bikes except business, ehh! That’s just a different scene – maybe my vision is just more limited than dirt contests are lacking, but I find it hard to get excited about shooting.
If you were going to, say Catty Woods or Bar End, for a photo shoot for one day with just three riders – who would you pick, and why? What, or where, is Bar End? Ha!
Mark Mulville, badass. Photo, Yeagle.
on 06/10/08