Titled Mythic for the posture of the subject, this image was created with a Nikon D3X and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 1/400th of a second exposure. The setting was the Silverstone National Pit Lane, 2013. Click on the image above to see a larger version pop up.

Though it looks like it might have been posed with Rossi’s cooperation, in fact this image is the result of many attempts to catch the rider looking down in this way. At some point while working in pit lane it occurred to me that the riders often look at the wear of the rear tire just after getting off the bike. I thought it would make a good photo if I could catch this action from a low perspective – it might look like the rider was looking down at the camera and create a version of the classic low-perspective shot.

After trying many times, I finally got this image, which was just what I’d visualized. It’s one of my favorite Valentino Rossi shots in the PhotoGP archive.

For a much wider selection of Valentino Rossi images, please click here.

This images is the subject of this Photo Reconstruction on the PhotoGP YouTube channel.