July 31st, 2009 §
Photographed above is a quick promo mailer that I sent out at the beginning of this week featuring one of my portraits of the winner of this year’s Tour de France Alberto Contador of the Astana team. I saw the Moo Notecards some time ago and liked the format, and a big plus with Moo products is that you can order a short run so perfect if you’re only sending the mailer out to a select few clients. I wanted to get these in the post the day after the Tour de France ended so with about a week to go in the 2009 Tour I took a gamble and placed the order as it was looking like Contador was well positioned to take his second overall victory; fortunately the gamble paid off and Contador won the race by over four minutes.
July 29th, 2009 §
With the images now delivered and my legs starting to get back to normal it’s time I blogged about my assignment last weekend for Men’s Fitness Magazine and EnduranceLife.com. I arrived on location at Port Isaac in Cornwall at 9:30PM last Friday to meet the Endurance Life crew at the starting point of the Classic Cliffs 57 mile (91KM) Ultra-Marathon; the milage alone doesn’t do the epic nature of the course along the coastal path of north Cornwall and Devon justice however so click HERE to view the profile/elevation drop and gain. I’d been assigned to cover the race for the event organiser Endurance Life, and Men’s Fitness Magazine who had entered a two man team into the race; twin brothers Nick and Steve Tidball of Vollebak who will be writing about their experiences in the next issue. The race got underway at midnight and the overcast skies made for zero visibility although it was relatively warm at least and the storms seemed to have blown over by that point. Boscastle was my first stop on the route at the second checkpoint at 13 miles into the race; one of the race marshals guided me up the steep path to the top of the cliffs above Boscastle and as I struggled to stay on his heels with 30lbs of camera equipment at 1 o’ clock in the morning I knew I’d be worse for wear come tomorrow. From this vantage point I could see the headlamps of the runners appear from far on the horizon and then slowly make their way towards me; a large group came through at one point and the cluster of bobbing lights gradually moving nearer was strangely beautiful.
The inky black darkness of the night doesn’t make for great photos however so I was glad when the sun finally started to come up and give me a little light to work with. The cliffs above Widemouth Sand provided some amazing views of the cliffs and surrounding hills although by this point in the race the competitors were already starting to get very strung out which meant a lot of waiting, and unknown to myself at that point one of the two-man Men’s Fitness Team had dropped out at sunrise with a foot injury. Fortunately one of the marshals eventually caught up with me and relayed the information, and so I packed up and moved on. I later caught up with Nick, the remaining Men’s Fitness team member at the Devon and Cornwall border and shadowed him through the next two valleys.
Hartland Point; the 50 mile checkpoint was my last stop along the course; the coastal path starting to flatten out a little by this point (relatively at least) although many of the competitors had dropped out by this stage due to either injury or fatigue. I hiked up to the top of the cliffs and sat in the long dry grass looking back towards the bay and waited for the runners to come through on their way to the checkpoint below. It was 14 hours into the race at this point and being a sunny Saturday in July there were plenty of tourists around, looking over at me curiously and a few stopped to chat; amazed that yes, they’re running 57 miles, no not cycling, on the coastal path rather than the road, and all in one day.
Final stop was Clovelly; a beautiful but odd Devon fishing village built into the (very) steep hillside; access to which can only be gained via a large gift shop and laying down nearly six pounds per person; essentially the Disneyfication of the archetypal fishing village. No motor vehicles are permitted within the village and any haulage required is done by donkeys that pull sleds up the steep cobbled alleyways; although for tourists who feel unable to walk the half-mile from the car park down to the sea there is a Land Rover bus service available which presumably circumnavigates the village itself. While shooting runners as they arrived at the finish I set up some lights and photographed Nick from the Men’s Fitness team as soon as he arrived; he looked (disappointingly) good for having just run 57 miles and been up for 40 hours and counting by his brother’s estimation. I shot a few more frames of Nick and Steve and some of the other competitors before deciding I had everything I needed, packed up and hiked back up to the car for the coast-to-coast drive back home; I arrived back almost exactly 24 sleepless hours after I left, exhausted but happy with my take.
Above: Nick Tidball – Men’s Fitness Team – 57 Mile Portrait
July 28th, 2009 §
The new issue of Shred West South West Bicycle Magazine is now available featuring some of my photographs of Yanto Barker illustrating the cover and four page interview within. As always the photos look better in good old analogue so get yourself a hard copy from your nearest bike shop or get a subscription direct from Shred Publishing where you can also read the latest issue on-line for free.
July 26th, 2009 §
Astana team rider Alberto Contador has taken his second Tour de France overall victory at the end of the final stage in Paris today. Contador was the favourite going into the race but I never expected him to be as dominant as he ultimately proved to be over the past three weeks, with an overall time of four minutes and eleven seconds faster than the second placed rider Andy Schleck and five minutes and 24 seconds faster than seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong (an incredible performance at the age of 38 and just out of retirement; he’ll be much stronger next year despite being another year older and will be far more likely to contest the win than a lot of people unrealistically expected him to be this year), Contador always looked comfortable and his explosive attacks at Arcalis and Verbier were matched by no other rider. Contador is without a doubt the best climber in the world right now, and his strength as a time trialist – proven by his win in stage 18′s 40.5KM time trial over Olympic and past four-time World Time Trial Champion Fabian Cancellara by three seconds – means that he’s incredibly tough to beat in a three week tour.
It was also a good year for British riders; Bradley Wiggins just missing out on a podium position with fourth place overall – equalling the previous best British overall performance of Robert Millar in 1984 – and Mark Cavendish became the first Brit to win on the Champs Elysees in Paris on the final stage of the Tour – his sixth stage win this year – but just missing out on the Green Jersey to rival sprinter Thor Hushovd.
The course of the 2009 Tour de France was criticised by many and after a great first week of racing provided a long lull in the middle week; the race organiser (ASO) kind of put all their eggs in one basket with one big, decisive stage finishing on the Ventoux on the penultimate stage, with the objective of keeping the racing interesting by bringing it right down to the wire; this made the race feel at times as if everyone was waiting for that one stage with little attacking or excitement in the GC contention. The gamble sadly didn’t pay off for the ASO however as – after much anticipation – the final stage failed to deliver much action as the top riders sought to protect their existing places with only the Schleck brothers trying to attack in an attempt to bring older brother Frank up to a podium position, but were not able to break away from the group containing the other main GC contenders.
Ultimately the third week did deliver some decent action and the 2009 Tour de France will be remembered as a success; but that was despite of the course I think rather instead of it; it’ll be interesting to see what they do next year when the ASO launch the 2010 route later this year.
Image above is an – as yet – unpublished portrait of Alberto Contador from the sitting I had with the 2007 and 2009 Tour de France winner earlier in the year in his home town of Pinto, Spain.
July 22nd, 2009 §
Personal work; some say the best kind of work, although I’m sure my bank manager would disagree… Featured above is Ken Foster the new Lord Mayor of Plymouth, photographed on location in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour at Council House in Plymouth in a studio set up within about six feet of the Mayor’s desk. This is part of a series of portraits I’ve produced of local figures and personalities as and when I get the time and the whim takes me. I think what I’m finding most interesting about this project is that a lot of the subjects are normally photographed for the local news etc and their usual experience of being photographed is being told to smile, the photographer then fires off maybe half a dozen frames and it’s all over; invariably the result is an obviously contrived expression and a dull, throwaway image. I think that most people are relieved when they’re told they don’t need to smile, and the result is always something very genuine. The new Mayor’s a really nice guy and was very generous with his time; I had 40 minutes with him between appointments so there was time to chat about common interests while working through a couple of different set-ups and burn through the equivalent of four rolls of film (you have to love digital for that if nothing else…).
July 20th, 2009 §
I was in Plymouth last night to photograph the Late Night Lido Endeavour, an artist’s film event staged by the Plymouth Arts Centre over the last three evenings at the Tinside Lido amphitheatre on Plymouth Hoe and curated by the artist Tim Knowles whose Wanderlust solo exhibition is showing at the Plymouth Arts Centre currently. Mr Knowles himself is featured above just before Sunday’s screening, and post swim (and it was a cold evening… Paula Orrell from the Plymouth Arts Centre also had a swim but was wearing a wetsuit if that tells you anything). The recent heatwave seems a long time ago now but the clouds cleared and made for a dry evening at least and although not too many braved the water there was a good turnout and it was nice to see the Lido put to good use since its refurbishment. The theme of the event was films that ‘explore ideas of endeavour, where the artists place themselves in challenging, potentially dangerous and unpredictable situations’ which for some reason makes me recall a number of past assignments…
July 16th, 2009 §
8:00AM meeting this morning: Bantham Beach, South Devon. Could be worse, although the only car park there charges a flat rate of £5 regardless of the length of stay! Man, those surfers must have a lot of cash; the place was crawling with them; it’s a big surf break apparently. Was at the beach for a shoot with the good guys at Endurance Life as well as a meeting regarding the details of a forthcoming insanely hard endurance event I’m shooting for both themselves and an editorial client (more on that later…). Bantham is just down the road from the Endurance Life office and provided a convenient outdoor backdrop for the staff photographs; while I enjoy working with a seamless for both corporate portraits and editorial portraits that wouldn’t have been right for a company based around coastal endurance/adventure racing so the beach location and overcast skies (just missed the heavy rain I’m glad to say; it started on my way back) made for the perfect background for the photos. Featured above is Endurance Life Financial and Technical Director James Barker, and below is Customer Service Director Gary Jolliffe.
July 7th, 2009 §
I was on location in Bournemouth at 6:00AM last Sunday (ouch) for the 2009 running of the Bournemouth International Triathlon; on assignment for Triathlete’s World Magazine. The first wave (Sprint Distance) set off at 6:30AM with the Standard Distance competitors setting off from 7:00AM. The weather conditions were cold and the sea was choppy but apart from a few very light showers it remained dry and the weather improved throughout the morning. First man home in the Sprint Distance was Stephen Barratt (Team Durham Primera) at 1:05:21 and first woman was Holly Lawrence (Swansea Uni) at 1:09:12. Full Distance men’s winner was James Gilfillan (Primera) at 1:54:47, and first woman was Tracy Cook (Tri UK) at 2:13:02. Look out for the photos illustrating the full race report in the October issue.
July 4th, 2009 §
The 2009 Tour De France is finally underway with Fabian Cancellara of the Saxo Bank team pulling on the famous yellow jersey after winning the opening stage’s 15.5KM individual time trial by a huge 18 second lead over the second place finisher Astana’s Alberto Contador, with British rider Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream rounding out the top three just one second down on Contador. Head to the Cycling Weekly Stage 1 Report by my lookalike Stephen Farrand for full details. Photograph of Fabian Cancellara featured above was shot on assignment for Procycling Magazine earlier this year for the March 2009 issue cover story and ran double page spread as the article’s jump photo.
July 1st, 2009 §
A couple more of my portraits of Team Astana rider and past Tour de France winner Alberto Contador made it into the new Summer 2009 issue of Cycle Sport Magazine; one in the Opinion section which comments on rumours of Contador’s departure from the Astana team to join Spanish team Caisse d’Epargne, and the large one featured above as the illustration for his pre-Tour profile in a section of the magazine dedicated to each of this year’s Tour De France favourites. Contador’s Cycle Sport profile describes him as ‘…the logical favourite for the Tour. He won it two years ago, and is now more experienced, although he’s never quite matched the scintillating attacking form and climbing speed he had in 2007.’ Just three days to go now before the 2009 Tour de France kicks off with a hilly 15.5KM time trial in Monaco.
