Looks like I’m headed in to get an MRI on the knee next week. The cortisone injection from two weeks ago has pretty much worn off, not that it worked too well to begin with. Rode for about 15 mins today and the knee was pretty bad. Pity, the trails are so nice right now, nevermind how nice the road riding probably is. Anyway…

Got the new Mountain Bike today in a packet of mags from Rodale and it had the crazy image I took at Tenney Mountain last fall. The image isn;t that nutty, but the story behind it is. It was of Ben Hewitt, a good writer and fellow northern New Englander. The assignment was to get him doing his first downhill race. It was a two-run format and I opted to shoot him with the 6×7 and a fisheye for the first run, kinda risky shot as the camera is manual everything so I’d only get one shot, but I figured it might work, and then strobes w/digi on the second run. So I waited in the woods for his second run, strobes all set and everything, and he never came down. Went down to the parking lot to see what was up and his car was gone. Just then my cell rang and it was Ben. “Uh, Chris, I’m on my way to the hospital, I think I broke some ribs.” I guess he stacked it really hard just a couple hundred meters after he passed me on the first run. So I came back from the day with one frame of him riding, and they actually ended up using it. You just never know.

So after two false starts last week, Andrew Newell and I finally got it done: shots of him busting his insane backflips on Nordic skis. Drove down to Stratton where their huge half-pipe is still up, and isn’t going to melt down any time soon. Andrew can just flat out ski. The conditions were slushy, temps up near 70, and no one had skied on this area in a long, long time. So he heaped some snow to fill in a bare spot on the run-in to this kicker, hiked up, and let it rip. He crashed the first run after trying a 360, and just decided to go with flips. He pulled almost 10 and showed no signs of tiring. And it’s not like he’s some hacker skier either, he was on the U.S. National Team this past winter, so he has lungs as well as cajones. Okay, so this is definitely my final ski shooting of the winter.

Then a quick drive up to Middlebury to meet with the designer of their mag, with whom I’ve done some work in the past, to show her some of my newer stuff. Good visit and the drive back from there is so pretty, even in the brown Vermont spring. Almost 6 hours in the car, but still fun.

Check it, my man Todd Herriott, fellow old guy (well, late-30s anyway), hilariously bad spelling blogger - Todd Herriott - , and now Amino Vital pitchman. This was one of the shots from the Colavita Sutter Home shoot in Napa, and it’s now a full-page ad in a ton of cycling mags. Just got my Bicycling today and, yup, in there too.

Speaking of which, I shot the Mt. Washington Hillclimb last summer and the images finally ran in this issue of Bicycling. It was so great to see them, the mag’s designers did a really nice job making the images look good. That was one of the biggest nightmare shoots I’ve ever had. The weather was predictably awful, but got worse and worse when it seemed maxed out on the horrible scale. 50 mph winds and driving rain, all in near white out fog. So first the lenses started to fog up with condensation inside the elements, then the digi body packed it in, and finally the film body bought it. Luckily I managed to get a shot of Bill Strickland, the Bicycling writer who was doing the race, about 10 frames before I became camera-less.

Rode the singlespeed for about 45 mins today, seems to be the only bike that doens’t hurt my knee, not that much anyway. The 29er format is so nice, I wish I could have it on my dualie too.

I spent the better part of six years photographing nothing but rowing, but since I went freelance at the end of 2002 I’ve shot it only sporadically. As I drove down to the Connecticut River this morning to shoot Dartmouth rowing races, I realized it had been since the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Seville, Spain that I’d shot a side-by-side 2000-meter. One good thing about living near a college is they’re a good source of photo work. In general they’ve been great to work with and I end up shooting stuff I wouldn’t otherwise. This was from the morning, slowing it down a bit.

I went over to Killington yesterday for another day of shooting with Andrew Newell, but when we got to the trail that was supposed to have the massive kicker they’d plowed it under and there were no jumps at all. Totally frustrating. Two hours of driving for nothing, happens sometimes. Andrew and I are meeting at Stratton on Monday to shoot him in the half-pipe. If you want to check out the stuff he does go to his site X Ski Films. His DVD is sick, very funny.

First off, strapping on a pair of skis in mid-April is a little weird. But, not as weird as shooting images of a Nordic skier catching 20 feet or air on his racing skate skis, check it out. That’s Andrew Newell, US Nordic Ski Team Member, busting some sick air at Killington today. We met up there this morning and basically shot for about an hour. The terrain park wasn’t going to open until mid-day and neither one of us wanted to stick around until then, so we’re shooting the really good stuff tomorrow at noon. Got this one a rather meager kicker, but there’s a big jump he said would be perfect for his major airing out. Wait until you see what this guy can do on Nordic skis. Totally re-writing the book.

BTW, people were paying $39 for a lift ticket today. You really have to love skiing to open your wallet that wide for the skiing that was up there today. I can’t see it.

This is me after I went for a ride today. Just kidding. Took this during the dirt jump finals out at Sea Otter. But I really did go for a ride today on my mtb. Taped up the knee the way a physio therapist showed me and it worked. Rode pretty much pain-free for about 40 mins. I was totally tired, having not ridden much since the end of January (!). But it felt so good to ride again I almost didn’t mind huffin and puffin.

Going to do a really cool shoot tomorrow. This guy who skis freestyle on his nordic racing skis, doing a couple items on him and need to get shots of him riding rails, pulling backflips and the like. Heading over to Killington (where I haven’t been since like 1984) since they still have a terrain park still open. It was over 80 here today, so shooting skiing seems kinda strange but you cannot always choose where and when you shoot.

Flew home from Cali yesterday, not a hiccup to the trip. Sunday was kinda hectic, shooting pretty much every discipline except the road. So I spent all day today, like 11 hours, processing images from the weekend. Got about halfway through them, but it was the important half. The disks go out tomorrow. Took this of Kabush and crossprocessed it, I like the way it worked on this shot.

It was so nice here today, almost 80 and no clouds. Actually warmer than Monterey. So, screw it, I’m riding tomorrow.

As you can see by the image, the shooting at Sea Otter has been way different than my usual fare. The scrum of photographers at the Big Air comp was hilarious. Every goof and his bro with a digi (and trucker hat) was on hand to pose. Pretty funny. That said, there were also some seriously good shooters here this weekend - John Gibson and Sterling Lorence to name only a couple. Also, Tom Moran, the Graham Watson of the MTB race circuit was here, but he’s always on the trails. A great person to shoot the breeze with.

Kabush won the XC in a sprint over Liam K, he’s now heading straight to Georgia to race the road for Jittery Joes, I’ll be keen to see how he does. He is one fast Canuck. The scuttlebutt around the press who care about the road scene was that Lance Armstrong is going to retire tomorrow at his press conference in GA. Doh! Bet Discovery Channel’s not going to be too psyched about that. They didn’t sign on for three years of sponsoring a Lance-free team. LA raced in Ojai last weekend and guys who know said he looked a bit out of shape, or at least shape enough to win a 7th TdF.

Back home tomorrow AM. All my gear is covered with dust from shooting the DH today. Good trip though. Three visits to In and Out Burger. I need a salad.

Man, what a long day. Shot from 8 to 6, DH, Mtn Cross, and road racing. Pretty crazy, but really fun to shoot different stuff. This one is Cedric Gracia in the Mtn Cross qualifier. I’m not much into gravity racing, but it’s really fun to watch gracia ride. He is crazy flashy on the bike, putting style intop every ride. He just seems to really love to get the rush of riding with some flair, and that makes for good photos. He’s also pretty stylish in his bike clothes.

Speaking of clothes, if I see another camo trucker hat out here I’m gonna lose it. C’mon, get some originality. The riding we do back East isn’t really a style thing, but mountain biking is a culture out here, gravity especially. The road race was pretty interesting, a break lapped the field in the men’s circuit race, hard to believe. But HealthNet screwed up the break - they had 4 of 9 in the final break - and didn’t win the stage. They’re so much stronger than any other team, almost like a pro team showing up at a local training race.

Out here in Monterey at Sea Otter 2005. Nice to be back shooting people racing their bikes, and the weather is so perfect, not a cloud in the sky the past couple days. Sea Otter basically doubles as a spring bike tradeshow, so the industry presence here is huge. One of the funnest parts is getting to see fellow journos. Who did what over the winter, etc. Even better is getting to know fellow shooters and writers whose stuff you’ve read but whom you’ve never met.

The big bummer is that my knee is still totally hosed. I rode last weekend for about 20 mins and it was no-go. So I got a cortisone injection on Tuesday right before I got on the plane and I guess it’s helping,but my knee is still pretty sore. So I’m out here where everyone and their uncle is riding and I’m stuck icing my knee at night and hoping for better days. Wah, wah.

More tomorrow.