Even three-time TdF champs unpack their own suitcases. When I shot Contador in the wind tunnel a couple years back he and his brother Fran rolled into the parking lot in their rental car, Alberto pulled out his suitcase, and he pulled out some fresh team kit. No entourage, no airs. I had shot him two months earlier when he was winning the Vuelta and in his native Spain he’s nothing short of a rock star in his public profile. He couldn’t go anywhere without being mobbed for autographs and pictures. So to see him in the U.S., going nearly unrecognized, was a poignant contrast.

Watching the TdF it’s fun to see riders I know throwing everything at a stage win effort. On stage 19 I’m watching my man Daniel Oss (Liquigas), the Italian with the non-Italian name, just blitz the final few km trying to take an unlikely solo win. And onr thing you probably don’t know about Oss, and certainly won’t be told by any commentator, is that Oss loves the heavy metal. No kidding, I’ve seen him throw the RJD devil horns. He’s legit.

From a little while ago, almost forget when, pre-vacation anyway. I think this summer will be broken down into pre- and post-vacation, having the break was totally perfect. One of the great highlights, of the year, really, was getting a proper Italian shave. Straight razor, hand-mixed shave cream, tilted back in the chair, hot towel. The works. A small moment but a moment worth savoring.

After the chaos of my schedule from April through the end of June a two-week vacation to Italy with the chicas was just what the doctor ordered. Complete perfection, in fact. Got some incredible riding in, ate my weight in salami, and drank the bottom out of a couple wine casks. Didn’t take all that many photos, just couldn’t bring myself to drag out the camera and point and shoot. But what I did take I’ll post over the next couple days. As well, I’ll try to update some work-related shots I’ve been neglecting. This was the last shot I took in Italy yesterday, before the gnarly flight back home - hello 3 AM!

Summer’s normally pretty nuts, but, damn. I’ve been away from home 42 days since April 1st and the onslaught shows no signs of abating. Which is a totally good thing work-wise but an equally crappy thing family and fitness-wise. You just never know, two trips to Charlotte within a single week, my first ever trips to CLT. Then I smoked the rear wheel on my mountain bike, then it rained, and now I’m looking at more travel. Awesome. But the light at the end of the tunnel is a vaca to Italy in July. Seriously.

Always a big proponent of the happy accident, I love the side shots I get while on location. This gent was out mowing his lawn as we were shooting on his street, didn’t even seem to notice what we were doing. But I pretty much needed to get a shot of him in his lawn mowing glory. It’s been a bike-heavy spring/summer so far, which is a good thing, but seeing what I see other than in the two-wheeled realm makes me want to keep pushing to get these kind of people in images. On the less positive tip, my lingering knee injury (torn right medial meniscus) will keep me off the mountain bike until I get the thing scoped. Because I need two weeks to let the knee recover post-op the surgery would punch a big hole in the summer, making me think I won’t be able to get it done until the beginning of October. Goodbye ‘cross season?

I generally don’t talk about details of shoots too often, not in a public forum anyway. Part of that is respecting the client, part of it is laziness on my part, and part of it is trying to keep some mystery in the whole deal. I had the opportunity to shoot Fabian Cancellara, that little dot in the middle of this shot after winning Paris-Roubaix, in the week between his wins at Flanders and Roubaix. I was told we had an hour to shoot him, so I went out and scouted a location for the riding shots ahead of time. Bam, next morning we rolled out to the location and spent no more than 15 minutes shooting him on the bike. Back to the hotel in Kortrijk and up to his hotel room for a shot I’d thought of (worked out really well, btw). Besides tracking mud into his room and getting a teensy bit lost on our way out of Kortrijk, it was smooth as could be. Clocked just on an hour. He was completely professional, but I got the distinct feeling that when he said I had 60 minutes for the shoot I probably didn’t have 65. Still, even though I shot him from 6 inches away in a scene I completely controlled, I think this shot is my favorite of him from the week.

Imagine my disappointment upon opening my packet of developed and scanned film from my 3-week jaunt only to find the scans were, uh, off. That is, the colors were totally whacked, the BW scans all blocked in the detail. Like opening your birthday present and finding a turd (unless you were actually hoping for a turd). There were a few salvageable shots in there, like this one from the Aptos Jump Jam, but for the most part they came in this morning and are heading straight back out tonight. Go FedEx. Still, worth it. As well, Brian over at TWMP did me a solid interview. I’m always a bit nervous when I talk about myself that much, but you can be the judge as to whether or not it worked. http://www.thewashingmachinepost.net/milliman

Three straight weeks of shooting creates a massive jam of files (and even a big bag of film to be developed). And while I anxiously await the return of the film, and scratch the small patches of poison oak I picked up in NorCal, I need to back up, file, and send out a heap of images. And then plan on further trips. But first a trip into the tube - a MRI to be specific - to see what that “pop” in my knee was. Nothing good, I don’t think.

In a bit under two weeks I’ve driven 2400 KM, mostly in Belgium, Holland, and France. And now SoCal. Monday began in Schipol and ended in Solvang, which takes about 20 hours the way I did it (not necessarily the fastest). Did all the normal Belgie stuff while over there - drank too much beer, ate too many friets, rode in the cold, shot some cool bikey stuff. And, as always, slurped up the local flavors. Like these guys - even though I shot this in France, these guys were totally Belgie. Couldn’t be from anywhere else I don’t think.