Spring Equinox, Central Victoria MTB

[digitalhippie]

Heya, here’s a little video I’ve made — it’s been a wee labor of love the last month or so. I guess it’s about the Spring wildflowers, magpies and mountain biking… or it could be about a mid 40′s guy having yet another immensely enjoyable mid life crisis

Anyways, hope you enjoy it!

[Mulger bill]

Oh I did, I did very much

Thanks very much Pete, reminds me that I haven't ridden that particularly beautiful neck of the woods for too long.

Cheers
Shaun

[Mugglechops]

Nice video. I posted it on my local MTB's website too.

Next time I am in Victoria I will be going past Castlemaine with my MTB.

[digitalhippie]

Thanks guys!

Seriously there is great year round riding up this way. If you're ever coming past this way and have time for a ride, you're welcome to drop me a line beforehand, would love to show guys around, and see more people out on the trails.

[Mulger bill]

I'm hoping the weather fines up tomorrow. If it does I'll be heading up that way with the lad on Monday.
Where's the best pre ride coffee in town Pete?

Shaun

[digitalhippie]

cool Shaun.

best coffee.. hmm, mate that's a tough one, so many cafes in the maine but I'm a bit of a junkie - grind my own beans and make it at home.

there's the usual suspects - Saffs Cafe, Togs Cafe, Apple Annie's (nice pastries made on the premises too), The Coffee Bean (opposite The Bike Vault). Also there's a new small italian cafe on Hargraves st, haven't tried it yet though. Coffee Basics of course too. Sorry mate, not a decisive answer. I can vouch for the pastries at Applie Annie's though!

[alf]

Hey Pete,

What camera was that shot with? The shallow depth of field in some sections is fantastic.

Alfred

[digitalhippie]

Hi Alf it was shot with a Panasonic Lumix GH2, a micro four thirds camera. It doesn't offer as much fine control of depth of field as the larger sensored DSLR's but it's still adequate. Arguably though the GH2 is more suited to video overall. Also the footage was all shot with the 14-140 lens, usually the kind of zoom you'd avoid using but after years of hauling backpacks of photo junk around I wanted one small hassle free kit and was willing to trade off some quality. Still, I reckon the 14-140 works surprisingly well!

[digitalhippie]

I'm hoping the weather fines up tomorrow. If it does I'll be heading up that way with the lad on Monday.
Where's the best pre ride coffee in town Pete?

Shaun

Shaun I meant to say - if you're heading up this way would be cool to head out with you guys. There's a section of trail we've really put a lot of work into over the last couple of months, would be great to get some feedback on.

[Mulger bill]

Thanks again Pete, I'd love to.

Looks like today won't be happening tho'. Family issues.

I'll be in touch when things get better organised.

Cheers
Shaun

[MattyP]

Outstanding vid.

Got to get up north some day.

[alf]

Hi Alf it was shot with a Panasonic Lumix GH2, a micro four thirds camera. It doesn't offer as much fine control of depth of field as the larger sensored DSLR's but it's still adequate. Arguably though the GH2 is more suited to video overall. Also the footage was all shot with the 14-140 lens, usually the kind of zoom you'd avoid using but after years of hauling backpacks of photo junk around I wanted one small hassle free kit and was willing to trade off some quality. Still, I reckon the 14-140 works surprisingly well!

Thanks for the info mate. Fantastic work. I know what you mean about carrying a lot of glass around.

[trailgumby]

Outstanding piece of work. Great camera work, excellent shot framing and editing, really appropriate music and the magpie song just topped it off.

More please!

[trailgumby]

I reposted in my local mountain bike forum, nobmob.

Your fan base has grown!

See: http://nobmob.com/node/31568

[digitalhippie]

Thanks trailgumby!!

[digitalhippie]

As a footnote to the video...

One of the things that really motivated me to make the video was not only that the bush had come alive this Spring for the first time in years (thanks to drought breaking rain earlier in the year) but ironically it had also been scheduled to be burned as part of a fuel reduction program (which I think is complete and utter BS...)

The burning started this weekend just gone. In theory these are meant to be cool burns, where only the floor of the forest is burnt.... but pretty much everything got torched in that section, and more to come probably

[trailgumby]

Urrrghh... that looks horrendous.

Last time I rode through an area that was HR burned I was sick for days.

[Mulger bill]

I think I'm gonna cry

[Mugglechops]

That looks a bit more than a controlled burn.

ForestsNSW burned one of our tracks a couple of years back. Took forever to clean up the mess.