He’s photographer to some of the world’s best-known brands, working some of the coolest locations on the planet for the likes of Nike, Adidas, Canon and Belstaff, and on the brink of a career as a film producer in Hollywood. But a trip to Wales with no particular destination in mind – this time on the other side of the lens – opened Niall O’Brien’s eyes to the joy of riding

The 37-year-old, whose only previous experience of riding was a dabble with motocross in his youth, loved his Triumph Street Scrambler adventure in Snowdonia so much he’s buying some land to get off-road in his own backyard! For three days, Dublin-born Niall joined a friend to discover some of Snowdonia National Park’s 1,300 sq km of stunning and diverse landscape, from verdant valleys, mountains and twisties to straights, with picture-postcard viewing areas in-between. “It’s a beautiful place with camera opportunities at every bend, so it was strange at first not to be shooting. But within a few hours I was glad I wasn’t. I lost myself in the scenery and the moment,” he says. “I took my camera and we spent a bit of time trying to get shots of the Scrambler cornering at speed as low down as possible, but motorcycle photography is quite niche, so we got some shots, then after a while we just wanted to ride.” Land-speed love Niall fell in love with Triumph during an assignment to film last year’s land-speed record bid at Bonneville Salt Flats: “In-between shooting, I zipped around on a Bonneville T120 and felt like a film star myself, so it was an experience I was desperate to repeat back in the UK.” A three-day ‘journey into a green unknown’ in Snowdonia scratched the itch as he and his friend tried to keep to the forest trails and tracks, using only paved roads when they had to: “It’s a less extreme kind of off-road riding, so it was perfect for me to get a taste for it and I can’t think of a better bike for this type of terrain than the one I borrowed. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”