Urban Fixations....

Fixies are the rage. No Doubt. They have gone from being stripped down, pure race bikes designed for maximum speed in the velodrome, to the ride of choice for bike messengers threading through lines of traffic and pedestrians, to the velocipede of the young and hip. There's a scene in most cities. Bike shops are cashing in selling £199 fluoro look-a-likes that last two weeks max. But hey, they are bikes being ridden right? So, I decided to get slice of the fixie thang and shoot some street level portraits. I had sat in a coffee bar at the crossroads of Goswell Road and Clerkenwell Road and watched as the fixies went on their way so that's where I started. I used an assistant (many thanks Nicky) and one of these. But since I still don't trust the Nikon Continuous Light System for anything other than indoors or low light scenarios, I used my trusty Pocket Wizard Radio transmitters. Armed and ready, all we had to do was stop our unsuspecting victims, ahem, subjects. Of course, once a fixed wheel is up to speed all it wants to do is keep rolling and so we had to do a lot of flagging and shouting above the din of the London traffic to snare our models. But once we told the idea they came in willingly. Working quickly we shot ten frames maximum and then let them go about their business. A lot of shoe leather was worn and a lot of coffee drunk but we think we did good. Going again to add some more to the project pot very soon. Keep dropping by. Click HERE or on the above image to see a slideshow of the fixie winners for this week.