This was my first portrait session with my friend, Roger. We met through working out at the same gym, but we bonded over motorcycles. He has always tinkered with his machines, trying to eke out every drop of horsepower and look as badass as possible. The portrait needed to represent his biker persona while riding his Harley Davidson Fat Boy. Ybor City provided a great backdrop for the shot.

I didn’t want to shoot him on the motorcycle; I wanted to capture the movement dynamics while he was riding it. I devised the rig to hang a gridded speed light and my camera on a C-stand out of the back of my Honda. I put the light at about bike level and slung the camera with the flash trigger down low close to the asphalt. The camera hung upside down to get as close to the asphalt as possible, and the photos were later inverted. While a friend drove, I sat in the back and controlled the camera with my phone. It was a cold night (for Florida) and great weather for his leathers and skull cap. Shooting with a slower shutter speed allowed for motion blur.