When I found this forest not too far from my place, I immediately wanted to take a riding picture in there, but I also wanted to preserve it as it’s not the usual landscape in France. That's why Jeremy built a special wooden kicker for this shot, so we didn't have to dig in the forest. It was really hard to find the perfect run in for the jump and the timing was tight, as a barspin is such a fast action. We waited for the fog maybe an hour and a half before it barely came in and stayed for maybe 10 minutes.
I used a wide angle lens to show the whole location and put a strobe backlighting the scene, which helped me to give more contrast and texture to the whole photo, and make the rider stands out.
Jean-Baptiste Liautard

About the shot

Biography
I grew up in a small town near Lyon, in the south east of France. My parents live next to a little hill with a lot of mountain bike trails and I got into it when I was 14 years old. After a crash, I slowly started shooting my friends with action cameras. I had no real idea of what I was doing but I was enjoying it as much as riding. I bought my first DSLR at age 18 as I was just finishing high school. Six months later, I decided to stop my engineering studies on a whim to start a potential photography career.
I learnt a lot on my own during the following months but I still went back to school and spent 2 years studying photography and doing internships inside and outside the action sport world. I had the opportunity to work with few magazines and brands on the side of it and right after this, I started working as a staff photographer at COMMENCAL Bicycles in 2016.
Today I'm working as a freelance photographer and filmmaker and I'm lucky to call it my full time job. Travelling the world and shooting in crazy places with my friends might be the best things I've experienced so far. I'm really grateful to work with people who care about art and are always ready to push the limits of their sport, sometimes just for a single frame.
Finding new ideas or concepts as well as documenting the sport is what motivates me to go out and shoot.