I took the photo for Red Bull during the V-Max Project at the Atacama Desert in Chile, in 2016. The highspeed mountainbiker Markus Stöckl tried to beat the world record in speed with a serial MTB – which was a success, he reached 167.6 km/h. After I did a few classic close-up shots and pans, I wanted to show the whole scenery in one shot. The problem was I could not go close enough to do it with a wide-angle lens and with a longer focal length I didn’t get the view in the frame.
The solution was to do a panorama shot. After I found my position, I did multiple photos in portrait format on 35mm before Max did his run. When Max was riding I did the sequence of him with the same focal length and perspective. No tripod was required.
To get the final result I had to do some extra work in photoshop: First of all I stitched the panorama, in the end it was made out of six single shots. After this I had to add the sequence, which was quite an issue because of the stitching. Everything was slightly distorted and it took some time to fit the 44 shots of Max back into the scenery.
Philip Platzer

About the shot

Biography
My name is Philip Platzer and I am a 37-year-old sports photographer based in the Graz, Austria. I have always been active in sports such as surfing, rock climbing, and snowboarding but I always knew something was missing.
I wanted to capture the dynamic and emotion of a single moment. I've always been interested in both photography and sports, so for me it made perfect sense to capture all these great moments and adventures.
I started to shoot friends, and became addicted to photography pretty quickly. I don’t have any classical education or training - I am an autodidact. I’ve also done lots of assisting, and still do, because it’s a great way to learn new things and improve my skills.
In 2009, I started working as a pro photographer, and I’m happy it worked out for me that way. What I love most about my job is creating unique and never-before-seen images.