Most Haunted - You aint got nothin' !

An absolutely hysterical day today! Scott ventured up and Rich came out. We decided to head to a cave half way up a cliff, which we had to climb. It was wet, which made it slippery. Crazy stuff when you are carrying some collective £10K of camera kit. The old cave leads to a working railway line and trains passed us a few times. A mad feeling as they went back with a really wierd front draft and back draft. Convinced we could hear footsteps, we were all a little nervous, but naturally, making each other jump as much as we could and flashing each other in the eyes in complete and total darkness. You could not see your hand in front of your face. Had a play with some flash. Second curtain, 1/4th, 1600 ISO, -2 stops under with a kick from the hand as I took the shot. Some crazy effects got. All just fun, aside from getting out of the cave, which we will leave for another day....

The crazy bending light is the exit of the cave....

I really like these 'exorcism' photos....

Scott and I looking dramatic....the Horfield Dragon's still looking sharp !

Krafty Work....

Tour de Force, Tour de France. What a brilliant two weeks of cycling it has been. Yet, paradoxically, the Tour is more than just cycling. It is a soap opera, a chain of events, shakes and moves that even the most gifted of Hollywood scribes would struggle to create on paper.

Above all else, a lot of focus has been on two men - 'We are the Robots'....

One from the Isle of Man who talks in neither scouse nor Manc, a dismissive 'so what' attitude reminiscent of most council house kids - the Liam Gallagher of the peloton, but an absolutely explosive pocket rocket of a finisher. The one and only Mark Cavendish. Love him or loathe him he has the British talking about riding a bike and even 'The Sun' had more than a few words on him today. Naturally the daily coverage in the broadsheets has been exemplary.

In the words of Bruce Banner, 'Don't make me angry, you wont like me when I am angry'....

Be warned, he might just go green.

The other, a lyrical gun slinger, a thinker and a doer and a machine sent from the future to kill all other cyclists. Had father time caught up with twittering Lance Armstrong or can he produce the goods in the hills and prove once again the he is the best cyclist the world has ever seen. A cowboy from the American West, a man bigger than the sport itself and much derided for that. Irony yes, but no can doubt what he has achieved and what he brings to the table. I like him. In my eyes he has the Brian Clough about him, that ironic wink of a man who knows his talents but is still 'I think' quite humble.

The way the two weeks have panned out with Alberto have been nothing short of a riddle, maybe even a ruse, but thats the beauty of this TV show.

The paper cant tell you the story line three weeks in advance;

The internet cant ruin it for you;

Just a man and a machine against each other and the clock and as such neither can the riders.

I urge you to tune into ITV 4 @ 7pm on an evening and just watch and enjoy or if you have the time sit back and watch the whole thing fold away like a silk ribbon across the wonderful, shame inducing French landscape that makes 'Bristol; a cycling city' look like the abject mess it really is.

July update....

Nothing much doing - aside from playing with some cameras. Of late I am taken by the Canon 50D and the way it can render a photo. The high ISO is pure film and looks great. Nice vivid colours and classic Canon imagery to boot. Loving the Olympus Pen camera Uber stylish and sleek and again, very good image quality that bodes well for the future of the micro 4/3rds camera range. Just over a week til' Spain now, counting down the days. Had coffee with a depression counsellor yesterday and feel better today. Slowly but surely....have added some snaps for you to peruse. Hope you like them.

Sinking....

Feels like an age since I last picked up the camera. It is amazing how little I shoot at the moment. I hope to pick the machine up over the coming weeks, but I do not obsess about it at - time may bring me and the camera back together. I have been focusing on other things of late. Spent a lot of time in the saddle last week and rode around 200K in a week with 100K coming on Saturday alone. Cycling is as good for me as it is bad for me in that it helps stave off the bi-polar but hills really kill me and can bring me down. Climbing with my rugby players frame is never easy. I cant seem to shake off depression anymore despite trying everything. I get very introspective - yet I know I am doing it though I cant help it as it is a big release valve for me. I still have massive regrets over my past and whilst there is nothing I can do to change it, a chance viewing of some photos on facebook really hit me for six. Paradoxically, they could tell me how far I have come but the fact that they tripped me up is not good but I try my best and will continue in this battle....

Depression is such a lonely illness, it really is.

Portrait taking 101....

Portrait taking is easy. Is the subject relaxed, are they talking about themselves for the moment of introspection? Nice catchlight going on. Good - then take the shot.

Here is one of Dad that I made earlier. Resident Evil or just plain bonkers?

We made this shit simple.

Funny really in that sometimes I feel like a fraud. Always have done, dunno why; I suppose I hate fraud's and it is something I always try not to be. The one thing I like about life if you need to talk the talk and sometimes walk the walk. I rode well today, I pushed the bike in searing heat and rode a good 45 odd miles with my riding buddy 'Ad's'.

Everything came together today. I had a sports massage over the weekend, prepped well and had a nice ride over the distance. I like to think of myself as a one way rider going south as I got the train home. Is it me or does North always seem uphill?

The funny thing about cycling is that it really is simple shit. A frame, two wheels, cranks and a chain and your energy. As bikes evolve and get lighter, you have to start to pay credit to the old legends such as Eddy Merckx who rode the Tour on Steel bikes with steel wheels etc. Crazy. But I am not Eddy, I am just me, a simple guy who is loving being back in control on the saddle, riding out the thoughts of the day and the aches and pains that come and go over a distance. Cycling reminds me of being a kid with nothing to worry about.

Arriving home, Ad's and I stopped for food at the Mud Dock cafe; Bristol, a local cycling haunt that has kept the tea cake ethic but is much bigger. I went to the loo and on the wall facing me was a huge poster of the equally loved and loathed Lance Armstrong. He once said 'it aint about the bike.' Too true - though it flipping helps. Personally, I fucking love Lance Armstrong but then I am a big kid at heart and I still want to be him. Have a look at this - 'the look' - possibly the greatest moment in cycle racing I have ever seen. Armstrong has since claimed he did not look back at Ulrich, but for me, it was the way Armstrong let the stage play out like game of chess and killed it when needed by lulling the leaders into a false frame of mind by riding with the peloton for a bulk of the stage. Awesome. Oh to ride like that and to look like that.

Jumpers for goalposts and all that....here is the route we took. Not quite route 66 but a touch of the coast never the less.

Rat bush city limits....

So day 2 of the Rat Race ventured out of the city today. It was a case of choosing locations and targets as I/we could not shoot them all, such is the speed at which the lead teams get around the course. Word has it that the first two or three in are Military and RAF which stands to reason given the visceral condition the bodies of the people running are in. You can see subtle differences in the way trained people react - things like getting in and out of a kyack etc. We decided to hit the big off where the teams depart Bristol on bikes down steps. Easy enough, but it was an overly bright day which made exposure tricky. Meeting it head on I decided to fire flash right at the riders which gives off that lovely sparkle effect. I think I was at a low ISO with 1/200th and around F/8 to combat light. Oddly, the majority decided to walk the bikes down rather than get back on the saddle and let the bike do the work for them.

We were then fortunate enough to blag a lift with photographers from www.sleepmonster.com which was cool as we knew the way and actually expedited our arrival so a win win for all as they say. Location 2 was a weir half way between Bristol and Bath. My longest lens was 200mm which was too short for the impact action on full frame so I decided to take my shoes and socks off and wade out to the middle of the weir with my camera in my back pack. Actually very refreshing, not too slippery and I got half a dozen photos which are bordering OK but overall not really working for me. I then decided to wade back over to the bank and score some 3rds photography. Again, it was easy to spot the regular boaters as they are the ones who oares are in synch and obviously not the ones going around in circles Homer Simpson style. The occasional 'x' from the oars allowed me to get a couple of nice frames in my classic symmetrical shots. Photography wise I tickled the camera up by a third of a stop, spot metered the water and bobs your uncle. I think that the colours on show here are testament to the brilliance of the Canon 5D2.

Wrong!

Right !

Wrong !

Right !

Also managed to get a nice couple of ambience shots, documenting the day.

I then found another low spot on the bank.

This almost brought me perpendicular to the rat racers.

After 'wrapping' here we moved back to the city where the rat fans were due to absail down the car park at Cabot Circus. And they did. I hated it. I seem to suffer from vertigo now and it gets worse as I get older. Looking down, my legs literally go to jelly, but I am OK looking up. So I rattled out a few frames and went down asap. For some of these I went under by at least two stops and spot metered the brightest part of the photo to give some some drama and I had a play with them in Lightroom 2 for effect. Interesting being up on the roof at Cabot Circus with a camera given that photographers of all ilk were made most unwelcome by the shopping centre management. These are nothing more than average, but I am proud of them given my wobbly leg status.....

Really pleased with the abstract nature of these shots.

So there it is Rat Race 2009; Bristol done and dusted.

I was going to enter it next year until the climbing bit came up...!!!