December 9th 2014: Peaks

I'm not sure if it's possible to shoot too much, but this past week I reckon I came pretty close. It all started chasing wild weather around the coastline on Tuesday with Canon's new EOS 7D MkII. Then we spent the rest of the week shooting the cool high-country characters of Nine Mile Station near Tarras before returning to Dunedin to shoot the Urge 3 Peaks Enduro – a mountain bike race for the absolute insane. To top it all off the wind finally swung offshore on the south coast yesterday so I shot a barrel session with just a handful of guys at St Kilda with JC Susan the standout yet again.

Upon reflection the week is a blur of exposures, lighting and fine-focus adjustments. But it is the Urge 3 Peaks Enduro that was a real highlight as far as shooting goes as I got to share the moments with my nine-year-old daughter Taya. She often comes out as my assistant, but to shoot mountain biking beneath the trees is quite a challenge. It's dark and needs lots of lighting to get nice photos – it's a team effort making images like these. Taya took charge on the remote flash as we added in three lights (600EX-RTs) to ensure crisp images and lots of crisp detail.

She even managed to wield the 5D MkIII by herself a few times and pushed the Canon G1X to its limits, too. Watching that spark of passion for photography ignite is a pretty special moment for a father – it's the beginning of a lifelong fascination with light and creativity – it's a great journey to see anyone embarking on.

The Urge 3 Peaks Enduro is a pretty special event for Dunedin and certainly showcases the amazing world-class trails that encircle the city. Most of these have been dug by volunteers under the management of Mountain Biking Otago over the past 20 years and to see international riders having so much fun on them is pretty cool. Getting to watch riders the calibre of Anton Cooper (yes, the XC Commonwealth Games gold medalist) and Rosara Joseph – who finished seventh in the Enduro World Series last year – is a bit like watching the ABs play at the stadium. And that all happened in the hills of Dunedin this past drizzly weekend and the stories from it have reached right across the globe.

Summer is definitely cominhg back, but maybe not in the next few days. Here's your surf forecast.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Our friends at Tourism Tropical North Queensland are running a competition to fly a budding filmmaker with a gift for story telling and some skills behind the lens, to Cairns. We've worked with these guys a few times and we can tell you: you want to enter this – as much for the experience as for the $20,000 prize package. All the details here.