Photo Adventures - Bigger is Better
MCN London Motorcycle Show 2023
"What did you do at the weekend?".
"Not much, had a chat with 30,000 new friends in London and rubbed shoulders with adventure royalty!"
Bigger is Better?
Over the weekend Lisa and I were presenting on the Main-Stage and talking to 30,000 people over the 3-day event that is the MCN London Motorcycle Show. When one of the UK's largest bike events calls and invites you to join a lineup of some of the world’s most experienced motorcycle adventurers, you don't say no! What an incredible opportunity to be able to share our passion for photography and two-wheeled adventure. As you can imagine we were more than a little excited, who wouldn't be right?
We wear a few different hats; we're photographers, motorcyclists, adventurers, motivational presenters and public speakers, and we change hats, depending on with who and where we are talking. But it's not often we ge to wear several hats at the same time, but this weekend was different. And that, for us is just part of the thrill and excitement we feel at speaking at this type of event. But, as photographers we all enjoy seeing our work printed, made real and hung for family and friends to see.
So, you can imagine the grins on our faces and the pride we felt when we realized the Adventure Main-Stage backdrop was a giant image of Lisa!
Yep, just Lisa, blasting along in the Australian Outback. Even writing this up now, I'm grinning like a kid. I can't help it, it's just cool!
So, what’s this got to do with Photography?
Well, I had a conversation last week with a photographer who told me he throws out his RAW files once he's cropped and processed them. My jaw hit the floor
He then told me he only saves the processed TIF files, because of file size and hard-disk space. I couldn't believe it!?!?!
Bear in mind that your RAW files are you digital negatives. Look again at the giant print of Lisa on the stage. Sure, I think it's a stunning image of my wife blasting through the Ozzy Outback (but I'm biased :-)), however, one of the reason MCN might have chosen this shot as the main-stage image is because I sent them the processed RAW 'uncropped' file. See the image below. This is the processed 'uncropped image'. This meant there was ton of space to the left of Lisa (riding her bike) that didn't necessarily add to the images presence as a single 'art' print, but crucially made the image ideal for a 'design-professional' that needed an image with extra room for text, titles or additional information.
Just a thought but please, please make sure you keep a tight hold of your RAW files.
A heartfelt and sincere thank you goes out to all the guests that joined us over the three days and spent time connecting with us and our journey.
It was a privilege sharing this with you.
All the best