Cupid Stunt

James wasn't there, he was at the magazine at that time though I took James out for Supermoto magazine when he got hold of a BMW Megamoto before they were launched, took them up over the blacks, around Llyn Brianne, Devils staircase, up to Elan Valley, then back down via Devil's Bridge, Tregaron and the Sennybridge ranges, 180 miles of supermoto terrain

One of my oldest trail videos, this is the rat run from Resolven through to the playground, apologies for the crap quality, this was long before the days of HD helmet cams and was recorded on a camcorder, recorded by Mark and edited by me

Here's a blast from the past January 2010 out testing the latest mid range thumpers for Trail Bike Magazine for their suitability as all rounders My bike is the black, red and white Sherco 4.5i

I've had two VFRs, only thing faster off the line was my V-Max but that didn't stop and didn't go round bends, that's a whole nother story

Stealth Scoot

Well it was resurrect or stay in the grave Tym, can't let an icon die just because of emissions, looks OK to me, not sure how they managed to add 24lbs though thought they'd have made it lighter not heavier

Porthcawl storm

Moon

The Great Nebula in Orion and Running Man Nebula, very common targets

In this case I want pin sharp stars so used a more complicated method than is required All you need is any DSLR and a wide angle lens such as a Samyang 12mm f/2.8/Tokina 11-16mm etc a fast aperture is preferable as you need to gather as much light as you can in a fairly short period, the focal length determines the maximum exposure time you can get without having visible trailing stars, the 500 rule is most commonly used and that is that you divide 500 by the focal length of the lens (assuming it's a full frame camera) that will give the max duration the shutter should be open So for example on a Sony A7RII full frame camera with a 20mm lens the longest shutter speed would be 25 seconds, if you're using a crop sensor camera (APS-C/DX or Micro 4/3rds) you need to calculate the equivalent focal length first, i.e. a 20mm lens on an APS-C camera is actually 30mm equivalent as APS-C has a 1.5x crop factor, Micro 4/3rds has a 2x crop factor An ISO of 3200 is usually best but you can adjust this according to light gathering requirements, higher levels will introduce more noise and generally speaking smaller sensors are noisier than larger one's If noise is a major issue then you cane take multiple high ISO exposures and stack them in post production using a median blend mode (as the noise is random it will be smoothed out but leaving constants like the stars intact) But back to this shot It was taken with my Fujifilm X-T2 mounted on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer (star tracker) one 2 minute exposure for the stars and another of 8 minutes (with long exposure noise reduction switched on in camera) for the foreground, the two then composited together Typical settings for an APS-C camera would be ISO-3200, 25 sec, f/2.8 with a 12mm lens for a single shot

Hi Bob, just a long shutter setting, to get the longest possible standard shutter setting without over exposing you need to select the lowest ISO value your camera can go to and the smallest aperture (the higher the number the smaller the aperture) If it's still too bright out to get a 1/2 to 10 sec exposure (what you need caries according to the speed of the water and the effect you want) then you may need to use a ND filter (neutral density filter) of maybe 10 stops There is a way to do it without an ND filter and that's to take multiple shots each with a shorter exposure with the total exposure time adding up to the 1/2 to 10 sec then blend them in a photo editing program like Gimp/Photoshop/Affinity Photo using a median blend, this will give the same smooth water effect but if it's breezy you might get blurry foliage but you can mask off all but one of the exposures foliage so those parts of the image aren't blending multiple shots together

The Milky Way core over Three Cliffs Bay

Autumn colours are nearly here again This was a previous Autumn at Pont Cwmfedwen

I overshot the Owl's Nest and these scoots have a two mile turning circle LOL, but to be honest I prefer the Sennybridge Cafe over either of them

A little more of a jaunt on the scoot today, just 100 miles but most of that is single track, supermoto style roads Up over the Blacks again through Llangadog and onto the West End Cafe in Llandovery, an expensive bacon roll and cup of tea (£5.90 robbing bastards) Then onto the lane up to Llyn Brianne Overlooking the damn, looks like there's lots of construction work going on there Anything over 40mph on these roads get's pretty exciting, very tight and twisty but rarely used by cars Some of the stunning views, my pics don't do it justice On to the view point, yes I had to ride a little "off piste" to get there Last stop at Llyn Brianne before moving on Down the "Devil's Staircase" and onto Abergwesyn Pass, again, tight twisties, gotta be careful here, the road often drops away with hidden dips but these are often immediately followed by a bend, go over the hump too quick and you'll run off the road and down the bank Into Llanwrtyd Wells (the smallest town in Britain then through Tirabad and onto the Sennybridge ranges, these are military ranges with a road running through them which is mostly open to the public except when they're using live fire maneuvers They have a fake village in the ranges where they hold exercises Onto the A40 and turn off at Trecastle to get on the Trecastle road and head South on the East side of the Black Mountain I rode over earlier Straight down the A4067 to home then, very nice few hours out relaxing and fun at times, especially nearly getting taken out the other side of the blacks by a Lambourghini, Ferrari and Porche none of whom seems to be able to stay on their side of the road when coming round bends< I suspect they were there filming as the road is often used by motoring programs

Yes, the X-Max will do 95mph and cruise effortlessly at 70/80mph all day long in great comfort and ease, no clutch pulling, no flicking up and down gears in traffic/bends, just roll on/off the throttle. Quite enjoying the relaxing ride and still has plenty of punch for overtakes

The Milky Way core over the Old Coastguard Station at Worm's Head Rhossili

Yes, you tend to bobble up and down on the seat a little, however I bumped into a friend out there who rides scoots and he gave me a great tip that cured it.... Place your feet further forward on the forward foot rests, this wedges you into the scoot between the foot rests and back rest, works great, you feel much more secure rather than feeling like being a pea on top of the seat

Hi Phil

Juvenile Male Blackbird

Formation flying

A little "out of this World" Cygnus Wall, a small section of the North American Nebula

Sunset over Carreg Cennen Castle

Here's my tiny bit of Wales, where I live