Mountain bike photography: Early in my magazine photographer days

This race photo is from 2004, a few years into my full-time magazine days as a mountain bike photographer. That year, the downhill race at the NORBA National at Snow Summit in Big Bear Lake, CA, was a novel, four-person mass-start format called “Downhill Mania,” which didn’t stick…

Professional mountain bike photography, Ryan Cleek's photo of Big Bear NORBA National Downhill Mania Event

Long-time friend, “E.C.” Eric Carter would win the event that day. (At this time, I was also in the middle of making a feature-length documentary film starring E.C. called, “Downhill Speed,” which I recently loaded to YouTube so it can forever live in standard-definition glory). In this photo, Bryn Atkinson (16); reigning DH world-champ, Greg Minnaar (1); and the late Jordie Lunn (58) slash through the first corner of that track. (The fourth rider isn’t in this slide film frame that ran full-page, but he’s back there somewhere.)

It’s been a decade since I’ve shot a mountain bike race. For over a decade prior to that, I practically lived out of a suitcase year-round shooting mountain bike events and projects around the world for a monthly magazine. Can’t say I’m interested in that lifestyle any longer. Although, getting to experience countless incredible places from my early 20s to mid-30s had its moments. And, for a 23-yr-old Indiana kid whose less-than-marketable skillset included a knack for holding onto handlebars, an aptitude for stringing a few words together, and a serviceable understanding of how to operate cameras, being a staff photographer and writer for a worldwide mountain bike magazine was probably the best I could’ve hoped for.

Big Bear photos bring back a lot of memories. SoCal is a special place to me, and the damage to Los Angeles this week is heartbreaking. I lived in LA longer than anywhere in my life, and I still love SoCal. Yet, those LA-based, full-time magazine years were challenging—constantly traveling solo and rarely ever being home (numerous international magazine projects and racing trips before I was even old enough to rent a car), but I liked the pressure of always having to return home from an unfamiliar part of the world with a deer on the hood. (Then, I’d be on the hook to write about half of the magazine and all of the stories which those photos illustrated.)  And today, with a perspective only time can provide, I understand that pressure to deliver is what attracted me to all of this to begin with.

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