Scoot Portrait Overload

One of my favorite subjects to photograph appears to be my motorbike. This just seems to happen, I’m out wandering and shooting, then I head back to where I parked my bike and think “Hey that looks kinda cool, think I’ll shoot it.” So scoot portraits end up on a lot of film rolls.

I’ve been motorcycling for a lot of years. Started briefly in my 20’s, took a long break, then picked it up again in the early 2000’s. I rode big bikes, I rode small bikes, then a friend showed me videos of these highly modified scooters that prowl the streets of urban Japan. They were neat, kinda weird, and terribly Japanese. I thought it would be cool to build one of my own, so I picked up an appropriate maxi scooter, and imported various parts over the next 3 years to transform my ride into something uniquely mine.

Photography has given me a good excuse to get out and ride, to search for an interesting scene and do a bit of shooting. Then I add my bike to the roll as an afterthought. As a result, I’ve got a nice collection of scooter portraits.