Bill Hatcher Photography

Sand Storm in Musandam, Oman

In my experience a sandstorm should include a raging wind followed by choking dust. The sand storm that blew in from Iran and hit Oman a few days ago came quietly during the night. The next morning it appeared like a white fog and five days later it is still hanging thick in the air. All week the flights into Kasab have been cancelled so we rented a 4x4 and hit the road for the seven hour trip via the UAE to Musandam. In Kasab I got my hands on a bike and was told Khor Nejd,  a small bay on the Masandam Peninsula, is beautiful in the morning. I guess I didn't have the right filter. I will have to return for that view on a clear day.

Bridge City Cycle

It's an urban jungle out there and I've discovered there is no better way of exploring the concrete trails and roads of Sydney than on my bike. I am especially impressed with Sydney's many bridges. Maybe Sydney should be renamed the bridge city. Below are photos riding around Sydney's two largest bridges the ANZAC and the Harbour Bridge from a view you won't see in a car. My thanks to riders Kath Bicknell and Mike Blewit of the Subaru/MarathonMTB team.

 

Perth, Western Australia

I am back from Western Australia and decided to wait to post images from WA since I was too busy to post on the road.

I only spent a day in Perth, this city is said to be the most remote big city in the southern hemishere. The photo here is looking at the city sky line on the banks of the Swan River. Take note of the cycle path, these cycle and walker dedicated paths are everywhere in Perth.  That gives this city big points in my book. I was up and around exploring the city for a couple of hours in the morning. Not much cycle traffic in the city at 5 in the morning. They don't recognized day-light savings out here so sunrise is at 5:10 am. That means i have to be up at 4 am to catch the sunrise. It's going to be some long days for me while I am out here.

This is my first time to Western Australia so there is some country to explore. I have four days to myself before I leave for my assignment into the bush. The first stop on my tour will be the Southern Forests of WA.

On Assignment: A look inside My Mountain Biking Photo Bag

I am packing now for a job next week in Western Australia. I am excited about this trip because it will be my first time in that country. Deciding what photo gear to bring for this shoot is tricky because the assignment includes a week of pedaling 400 km off pavement on trails with no support vehicle. Will I ever I do a photo assignment that was actually easy? The big challenge on this assignment is I will have to carry all my own gear. My solution is

three wheels

I am in the US for a few weeks and just now have a chance to record some of the sights and activities during my travels. My first stop was in Flagstaff Arizona to see my friend Steve Garro. Steve and I have done many bikes trips together. About six years ago Steve took a hit and lost much of the movement of his legs. That has not stopped his wheeled fun. He still builds custom bikes at Coconino Cycles and gets out on his hand bike. Here are some pics from a rainy morning in the San Francisco Peaks.

 

Steve tells me this mode of cycling is hard work, but it's a great way to get into the mountains. We had to run out of the mountains when the rain and lighting increased.

Sydneys First Mountain Bike Park

Sydney has a new mountain bike park, it's first. I went there yesterday with riders Nic Learmonth, Kath Bicknell and Melanie Bell to check it out.

It's located on Sydney's North Shore at the Golden Jubilee Sports Field in North Wahroonga and borders Kuringai National Park. You couldn't find a more spectacular setting for a bike park. The new park has three trails with a XC trail on the steep west facing hillside and on the hilltop there is the pump track and bike skills trail.

My vote of the coolest trail goes to the XC- flow track and it makes for some nice photos as well.

The park was built in a short few months by World Trail an outfit based in Queensland. These pro's from the far north know about trail building in wet country and how to build a sustainable trail in a place like Sydney where it rains hard, I have no doubts this trail is built to last. The park's official opening isn't until next month, but the trails were open and already busy with riders this weekend. The bike park links

Bikes on Mt. Kosciusko

While exploring Kosciusko National Park last week I discovered that you are allowed to cycle to within a kilometer of the summit of Mount Kosciusko. From where you leave your bike and following the wide, winding graded path it's an easy 20 minute walk to the summit.

Mt. Kosciusko is the highest mountain on mainland Australia at 2,228 meters (7,310 ft.) above sea level. While Melanie and I pedaled to the summit from Charlotte Pass we saw that many of the un-wheeled summit crowd employed the chairlift from the Thredbo Ski area for their summit bid. We counted only six other cyclists on the trail including a father and son on a tandem bike, big points for them!

Near the summit we discovered an international crowd of people hovering around the summit marker like moths to a flame. We waded into the melee to tag the summit then went looking for a rock to hunkered behind to get out of the wind. Our vantage offered a perfect view of the summit circus as well as the mountain views on a clear December morning on top of Kosciusko.

 

 

Overnight Bike Trip with a B.O.B

This week I had the chance to try out a B.O.B. on an overnight bike trip. My carbon fiber Scott doesn't have the attachment points for racks so the B.O.B. might be the solution. These trailers have been around for years and are proven to be tough. Melanie and I decided we would explore the Yengo National Park via the Old North Road. The road was built by convicts back in 1830 and today it has been partly renovated and is open to cyclist and hikers only. Check out the video.

B.O.B. on the Convict Trail from Bill Hatcher on Vimeo.

After a couple of days pulling the B.O.B I found it to be great on roads and even single track, but in the future I would avoid any rough and rocky trails. 

 

The old film days

Reviewing some old 35mm scans I found this unpublished photo I took in 1998 on a mountain bike trip across Alaska. It's a sharp shot probably taken on Fuji provia 100, maybe pushed a stop. Remember the days when we pushed film. 

This week I am just back from an assignment shooting in Australia's Outback. The photo job tooks 8 days and I shot about 4,000 photos. Back In the old film days that would have been about a 111 rolls of film or about five "propacks", remember those?  111 rolls of film is probably more robust and weighs  a lot less than the Mac laptop, hard drives and cables I was lugging around airports during my  recent assignment, but saying that I wouldn't trade-in my Nikon D3s for the old F-100 camera I shot the biking shot with.

Cool bikes and the cool people that ride bikes

{I spent time organizing photo harddrives yesterday and I found this series of bike pics I took in Denmark last year.}  You never know when you might see a cool bike. Just another reason you should always have a camera with you. These are some pedal bikes in Copenhagen the indisputable bike friendliest city in the world.

                                                          

             

All photos taken with a nikon D-700 and 24-70 2.8 zoom. I have a smaller D-300s I use as well, the fact is I still like the slr for nailing a shot than the slower point and shoot or range finder cameras.