18 months with Thomas Gaffney Photography

Over 2010 and 2011 I have been trying to promote myself as a serious photographer, trying to attend races and events, this is how my last 18 months has panned out!


It started great, with filming going well for my film Eventide. This idea came about late September 2010, and by the start of 2011 I had already filmed 2 sections. This meant 2011 started off busy, seeing me travel across England and Wales, meeting new people and seeing new sights along the way.



Every weekend until the Eventide premiere on March 26th I had been filming and editing, focusing all my efforts on the outcome, promoting and double checking the premiere arrangements (kindly sorted by FiveTwo Race Team's John Lee). To my relief, the film went down really well, about 60-70 people filled out the venue, a local bike company co-owner attending and thankfully everyone left with a smile on their face. It was great to see the five months of work all put together in one edit, great company and obviously a massive sense of achievement.


Although this day was probably the best of 2011, I let myself down by not releasing the film in full after. Instead I tried to cut it into sections, which was never the way it was intended, therefore loosing interest and wasting the opportunity!



Filming and the premiere meant I missed the first round of the British Downhill Series at Nant G in Wales. This would sadly be the case for most races through 2011. Although I did get to attend two, the round at Moelfre and the National Champs race held at Llangollen. These races where amazing though, some of my shots from Moelfre made Factory Jackson, Dirt and WideOpen online spreads and the shots from Llangollen Champs making a huge piece on Dirts website, chuffed.




2011 also opened me up to new shooting, as I was doing some stuff with FiveTwo Race Team who specialised mainly in 4X. This took me to shoot a style I had never shot before, I was used to trails and natural terrain, rather than the man-made tracks that to me looked like motorways compared to any DH or XC run. I very much enjoyed my time with FiveTwo, I made lots of new friends and had lots of new experiences. They have recently started up a new team representing Terminal 1 skatepark, you should definitely check it out!


This was not the only new opportunity I had, in August 2010 I started work at a news agency based in Birmingham and have since been out on a variety of jobs, photographing people in all sorts of different ways, collections and events. The best part is that I can go to photo events that I wouldn't get to any other way, meaning I got ace entry to the Red Bull X-Fighters round in London in late 2010 and the Red Bull Pro Nationals round at Hawkstone park and the Weston Super Mare beach race in 2011. For this I found I needed a different set of skills, as the difference between the scale of the tracks and obstacles compared to mountain biking where so much larger and the riders where going so much bigger and faster than usual, but I think my work turned out pretty well none the less.




This took me through to about April, and although shooting races was my main priority, a better opportunity came about. I was approached by Dan from Stanton Bikes, who had come to see my film after being taken up with the hype. He was very impressed and we sorted out a few sit down meetings in his local where I also took shredder Mitch Ingley. From there the first edit with the Slackline came about and from there the relationship blossomed, and the edits haven't stopped coming since! They have been all over the Dirt, Wideopen and Factory Jackson websites, the frame got in Dirt 100 and I got a double page spread in Dirt! Ace.



So to 2012! Where hopefully I will keep a better check on my diary, take on many new projects and hopefully step up my game altogether! Happy new year!

My 18 months' final edit:

Thomas Gaffney Photography
www.flickr.com/thomasgaffney
www.vimeo.com/thomasgaffney