Alright, let me tell you about this whole “moto photo tyler” adventure I got myself into. It wasn’t exactly what I signed up for, but hey, that’s how these things go, right?
How It All Kicked Off
So, my mate, Kevin, calls me up one Tuesday. “Hey,” he says, “you’re still doing that photography thing, yeah? My buddy Tyler just got this sweet motorcycle, and he’s desperate for some cool photos. You interested?” I figured, okay, a motorcycle, could be fun. Get some practice, maybe a decent shot or two for the old collection. I said yes. First mistake, maybe.
Tyler. Right. We exchanged a few messages. Seemed alright. Sent me a picture of the bike. Looked pretty standard, nothing too wild. He said he wanted “edgy” and “moody.” I thought, “Okay, I can do moody. We can find a gritty wall or something.”
The Actual “Shoot” – If You Can Call It That
The day comes. We agreed to meet at this old industrial park – my suggestion, for that “edgy” vibe he was after. I got there early, scouted a few spots. Sun was starting to dip, perfect golden hour stuff. Then I waited. And waited. Tyler was a good forty-five minutes late. No text, no call. Just rolls up eventually, music blaring from his car, not the bike.
He finally gets the bike off his trailer. Nice enough machine, I’ll give him that. But then the “fun” began. Tyler, it turns out, had a million ideas. And all of them were, let’s say, very specific. And mostly terrible.
“Can you make it look like it’s going super fast, even though it’s parked?” he asks. I tried explaining motion blur with a static object is, well, tricky without some serious editing later, which wasn’t really the plan for a quick favor.
I started taking some shots, moving around the bike, trying different angles. He’s hovering over my shoulder the whole time. “Nah, not that. Lower. More… moto. You know?” Moto? What does that even mean? I just nodded and kept clicking. He’d jump in, “Wait, let me just adjust my hair,” or “Is my jacket zipped up right for this moto look?” It felt like I was photographing Tyler with a bike, not the bike itself.
Dealing with “The Vision”
Every other shot, he’d want to see the back of the camera. “Hmm, can we try that again, but I’ll, like, lean a bit more? Make me look more… intense.” We spent more time with him posing and re-posing than actually getting creative with the bike. I suggested some shots of just the bike details – the engine, the chrome, the tires. He seemed less interested in those. It was all about how he looked with the bike.
I tried to get him to relax, maybe try some natural looking stuff. But no, everything had to be “epic” or “brooding.” At one point, he wanted a shot of him looking off into the distance, but the “distance” was a concrete wall with some graffiti I’m pretty sure said something rude. I tried to gently steer him. “Maybe over here, Tyler? The light’s better.” He’d just go, “Nah, this spot feels more… raw.”
I took hundreds of photos. My back was aching from crouching, my patience was wearing thin. He kept asking if I could “make the sky look more dramatic” in-camera. I told him I’d see what I could do in post, trying to be polite.
The Aftermath
Eventually, the sun went down completely, and we had to call it. I packed up my gear, feeling pretty drained. Tyler seemed pretty pleased with himself, though. “Awesome, man! These are gonna be sick. Send them over when they’re done. Make sure they look super moto.”
I went home, backed up the photos. Honestly, a few weren’t half bad, mostly the ones where Tyler wasn’t directly in the frame or when I managed to sneak a shot while he was fiddling with his phone. I did some basic edits, tried to make them “moody” as requested, and sent them over.
His response? “Yeah, these are cool. Some of them are a bit dark though? And can you make my arms look bigger in that one?”
So, that was my “moto photo tyler” experience. Learned a lot, mostly about managing expectations and dealing with, uh, enthusiastic clients. Would I do it again? Probably not for free. And definitely not if the main requirement is to make things look “moto.” Still scratching my head over that one.
