Riders of The Dark Hedges – Ireland

Riders of The Dark Hedges

When I was doing a shoot of two of the Curvy Riders Motorcycle Club at Castlefield in Manchester I mentioned I was going to Ireland to photograph a wedding and planned to go back to a road known as ‘The Dark Hedges’ which was used as a location for the TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ and I asked them if they knew of anyone in Northern Ireland who would be interested in bringing a bike along for a photo shoot.  The word went out and a lady known as Mary Doll contacted me and said she would be interested in bringing her bike along.  Somehow the word of the shoot spread rapidly and before I knew it there were well over twenty ladies and their bikes meeting up with me at ‘The Dark Hedges’.

When I arrived I started to walk down the road with my camera to check out the best location and there were five guys with their bikes standing around who asked if I had come along for the shoot.  I said they didn’t look like ladies (could have been a really stupid comment to make 😀) but they said they had only been joking when I explained about the planned shoot I had arranged with the girls and their bikes and they decided to wait around (naturally) to see what 20+ lady bikers were going to do.  I asked them if I could take some shots of them riding along ‘The Dark Hedges’ whilst waiting for the girls and so began the day’s shooting.  One of the lads had a Harley and a wonderful character look and I knew straight-away I had to take a couple of just him and his bike.

When the girls started to arrive I had to think quickly how I was going to do the shoot and decided to try and have them riding in groups of three at a time.  The word cats and herding came to mind 😀 as we tried to organise who was going to ride with whom and then off they set.  The road is a normal thoroughfare and a tourist trap so we had to be careful not to annoy the hell out of others using it as well.  It all went brilliantly and the girls were fantastic.  Most of them decided to ride without helmets as they weren’t going to ride too fast and I think it worked really well as it added to the look of ‘Freedom on a bike’ that I was after.  Two of the girls had brought along their trikes and one of them had a seat on the back.  So I climbed on board and photographed the group as they rode up and down the road.  When the shoot was over the best bit began as everyone headed off in convoy to one of the girls’ house for tea and cake.  I only wished I had taken a camera into the car with me as it was an incredible site as we drove up and down the hills in a huge snaking line down the long straight roads of the Antrim Glens.  The weather was glorious and the company was great.  All in all a fantastic day and I was thrilled with the results.  I hope the girls (and the lads) are as well 😀😀

To see all the images from the shoot click here