The Highland Fling was always a race everyone had on their calendar and I was no different, shooting 5 and racing 1.  I say was as 2017 was the last year but fortunately, only for me, that meant I could ride the 100km+ race and join in on the fun with everyone else. 

  Working with Huw and his great team was always great as they were so organised and knew how to have a good time.  Part of my brief was to submit a photographers plan detailing shot locations.  Huw was pretty liberal with what I wanted to do but always wanted to make sure I was up to speed with my plan.  So after scouting the course either by car or bike over the years I got to know the course very well.  I wanted to photograph new locations each year and ideally get images of the leading riders where I could.  So after working out logistics of travel, access and trail features a plan would be submitted and if any adjustments needed made before the race began.  This was critical as some of the course also goes through private land and keeping those parties informed of our plans meant no problems. 

  As per usual I provide a gallery of images post event having them done within 48hours while still fresh in my mind for selecting and editing.  These are delivered originally by CD to the Wild Horizons office but later as digital downloads from my website client galleries.  

  In keeping the event fun Huw offered some unique course features that he always asked for me to try and capture.  Things like the doping confessional, free bike wash, bag-pipe wakeup, last chance saloon drink 1km from the finish line were always fun to photograph.  As well as these fun race day antics, there was events on the day before the race, the RollOff World championships catered to the gravity advantaged rider, the business challenge, kids skills camp all needed images to help the event grow. 

  Lastly, it all had to be timed so that I would get to the finish line to capture the winners of the main race categories.  This was usually spread out over a few hours as the 50km, 100km and 160km winners never finished close together.  This provided time to wander amongst the event centre capturing the relieved faces of finishers as they enjoyed their celebratory beer and well deserved feed.