XPD Adventure Race – Best Of – Images by Murray Anderson-Clemence

If you haven’t already heard, the 5th edition of the XPD is coming to Cairns and is starting on Wednesday- yep that’s tomorrow! 47 teams of 4 competitors from around the globe trek, mountain bike, and kayak for five to ten days in this world renowned expedition. These adventurers race day and night over a 700km course pushing themselves to the ultimate limits of human endurance.

XPD is Australia’s own expedition length adventure race

Almost one year ago, after going to Craig Bycroft’s (awesome organiser of the XPD) pre meetings, I was in two minds. Either I could race or otherwise I could capture this epic event on camera. I suppose because I am a bit of an outdoor photography guru I decided it would be best to choose the latter and chase the competitors for the most important first five days of the event.

This is where I plan on excelling in providing XPD photographs online for publication. It’s been quite the little adventure so far, awesomely tired but not as tough as the competitors slogging the race out 24/7. Photographs below are available for publication.

XPD Photographs Available Here

Undoubtedly it wasn’t “will you marry this handsome man” but went kinda like this.

Kris – Hey Muzza your a photographer right.

Muz – Yeh that’s right I have this little business called Extreme Photography

Kris – Ah cool and how’s that travelling for you.

Muz – Great I’ve moved into the commercial advertising arena for active lifestyle and outdoor adventure photography (that’s my little marketing speal) and loving it.

Kris – Well you know I’d like to take the kayaks up Behanna George and it’s a bit of a mission maybe 8k’s round trip, my rafting guide mate Dale is willing to do a bit of hard yakka. Are you keen to come and to photograph us in the George there’s a lot of walking for a few runs.

Muz – Hell yes, (knowing he works weekdays) I’ve got Sunday week free lets make a half day of it.

Kris – Nice! lets do an early morning run, I have to be back for a BBQ

Sunday week later – I decided on creating a bit of a story line of the events, which is always good to warm you up before the action. See the story line below. Straight up on Dale’s first run I captured a near perfect shot (9.5 out of 10) for Rafting’s next front page or lets say Eskimos next marketing campaign. What are your thoughts?

Ok you may of asked what happened to the Kayaking in winter… well it is winter in Cairns just that it’s not that cold (17 degrease). Raft on!

I’ve defiantly moved leaps and bounds in my business, photography and organisation of photographing this event. I know contract another great photographer (Stu) to capture the action from a helicopter during the main race. Before I get too excited and explain my setup here’s last years blog on the GPR.

Firstly I research all the materials on this years race, meaning the website, banners, have a meetings with the event & race organiser’s just to make sure I know what’s schedule for the day. And call a week before to wrap up all those little details. I have found research has really helped me evolve in preparing my equipment (not just camera’s) for my long day out.

Below is a list I take to most events and what I use them for.

Basic Equipment – This kit travels with me nearly everywhere, it has all the basic bits ‘n’ pieces needed for any shoot. Versatile enough I can still climb trees and run after my subjects.

• Nikon D200
• Nikkor 10.5mm lens
• Nikkor 17-55mm lens (missing in this image)
• Nikkor 70-200mm lens
• SB-800 flash
• SB-900 flash
• 2 x Compact flash cards
• Spare camera batterie
• 16 AA batteries for flashes
• Elastic bungy cord to secure flashes to posts/trees
• Orange ‘n’ green gells

Race Equipment – Including my trusty D200 and 70-200mm lens this is the perfect setup for me on the bike. I have created some really awesome shots with my D2h mounted to the bracket over the back wheel, with a wireless remote taped to the handle bars to fire the shutter release. See the bottom image of me at work. KISS

• Nikon D2h
• Nikkor 10.5mm lens
• Spare CFC & battery
• Cheap Chinese wireless remote from eBay
• Trek Ex9 mountain bike
• Helmet
• Clip in shoes
• Spare tube & pump
• Apple & a bottle of water

Computer Equipment – Always handy for reviewing my creations half way through the day to see where I stand in terms of a storyline of photographs. Backing is very important, by triplicating the files (on CFC, laptop and external hard drive), it leaves less chance of corruption and or loss of data.

• 13″ MacBook laptop
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
• 320gb 2.5″ external harddrive
• Card reader + USB cable
• Extension Cord
• Power board

Night & Fireworks – I have found using two camera/tripod setups during the fireworks rewarding, having one camera, tripod, fisheye lens and wireless remote really close (5 – 10m) to the fireworks and the other in hand for that perfect shot. My optimal exposure settings are: ISO 320 2-6 sec f22 Beware of prevailing winds.

• Carbon Gitzo tripod
• RRS BH-55 head
• Manfrotto tripod
• Manfrotto Pistol grip head

Other Equipment – There is always that other stuff that doesn’t fit into any category, of course whatever makes your day easier and conformable. What are your thoughts.

• My Commodore wagon to store all my gear
• Gaffa tape
• 5 in 1 Reflector
• Spare set of cloths towel
• Battery chargers for camera, AA’s (flash), laptop all to plug-in to a cigarette lighter in my car, just in case!

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed peaking into my working kit, see you Monday.

An unbelievable five days of fun skydiving over the beautiful landscape of Tully, the wettest place in Australia. Why unbelievable?.. well the weather was blueskys spatted with cumulus clouds.

Yep that’s me, center top photo with the white helmet and black/red jumpsuit. Ten of us excited the Caravan for Wade (Wadedricks) 1000 jump, not a bad feat for a skydiver. Also thanks to BJ for this brilliant photo.

The second photograph is captured with my Nikon D200 and 10.5mm fisheye lens mounted on top of my camera helmet. I have a shutter release cable that runs from the camera to my mount which is held in between my teeth and fired off using my tongue. Oh yes a bit about the photo, this was Vickys Starcrest (learning to jump with eight of more people), everyone made it in by 8,000 feet which was great for me, I had plenty of time to zoom around looking for different angles, here I’m only three meters away.

Every year a hundred keen competitors line up for the Great Pyramid Race. You have to understand this pyramid (mountain) is 3k’s from the start then goes straight up for 3k’s, the race is 12k’s in all. The short clip above is last years winner Neil Labinsky he won the race in 1:15:34 and broke the record by 45 sec.

This is a sequence of photographs converted to a quicktime movie in one of Photoshop CS3′s new features.

For the fith year I’m glad to provide photographic coverage for the Great Pyramid Race advertising and promotional materials. I love doing this event because it is right in my element of extreme. From the start of the race I jump on my trusty old mountain bike and chase the runners to the hill. I know it sounds easy, but you can’t always take photographs while your riding. So I stop grab a few pics then sprint to the front of the line and repeat this all the way to the Pyramid, once at the bottom of the hill it’s on foot for about a K to get them on the way up and wait for the first guys on the way down and back to the finish. By the end of the day I’ve been to the Pyramid three times and like to sit back for a beer.

So I guess I’ll se you there. Muz!

What a trek;- from the 21st-24th of May a dozen photographers including myself trekked on Hinchinbrook. The mission was organized by the AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photographers) in North Queensland, the main aim being networking and working in the field with other photographers.

The first image has captured a 360 degree panorama comprising of ten photographs stitched together in Photoshop CS3. On the right you can see Boulder Bay and left Nina Bay/Beach.

The second is another 360 degree panorama from Nina Peak and a lonely one at that. I packed up camp and headed out by five and had a good half hours walk till I dumped my pack and then another 45 min up hill. By time I reached the top I still had plenty of time to set up my camera and tripod then lay down for a short nap; thanks to the heavy clouds.