This sums up yesterday’s CX race in Sterling, Mass. Snowy and slippery. But super fun all the same. Kind of a gloomy, dark day so the shooting was middle of the road to kinda grim. Nothing to write home about. Was forced to use the flash a lot, which I’m not crazy about as the images look kinda crummy. Ther backgrounds at Sterling aren’t that great and I’d have rather shot with the 300 opened all the way up to eliminate them from the frames.

But the racing was great. I love racing in the snow. It was really sketchy on some parts of the course, people were crashing on straightaways, their wheels getting caught in soft stuff and ruts and going down hard. You couldn’t relax at all or you’d hit the deck. I was shocked how good my legs felt after not having raced in a month (and travel, getting sick, etc) but I kinda found the tank on empty with half lap to go. Two guys caught me as we came into the final straight, after I’d been passing guys all race, and I didn’t want to take any chances on the super snowy and slippery finish straight so I sat up instead of duking the three-up sprint. I finished in the top 1/3 of the field, which is nice all things being as they are.

You just never know what you’re going to end up shooting. As I had a free day, and Dartmouth’s Medical School Magazine gave me a call, I ended up shooting a new one yesterday. I went to the hospital and shot a doctor performing a cathaterization on a patient - snaking a line up into his belly and then into his heart and installing a stent. The patient was totally awake and the doctor cool as the other side of the pillow, even though he had some piece of foreign material poking around in the guy’s ticker. Not every day you have to put on a lead lined skirt, vest and neck protector for a shoot, but better than getting a decade’s worth of radiation in 90 minutes.

Yeah, so that’s a bit different than shooting trail running.

Messed around with the Magic Arm/Super Clamp combo today. Shot could do with a group of riders just ahead and some nice foliage, that would make it complete. Clunky set up, I need to figure a way to make the bike really rideable with this on it. Keep trying.

Nice easy ride today in unseasonably nice weather, but it’s supposed to snow on Turkey Day so there you go.

Taken on Tuesday at Mt Tam.

What a weekend. Nothing like a blow out lil kid B-day. It was awesome. Running races, cake, balloons, and no crying from a herd of 11 sub-5-year-olds. Excellent. S got her new bike, with pink irbbons in the bars, and she was psyched.

Went and rode out at Jamie’s in Thetford. The trails are kinda gnarly right now, tons of leaves, very wet, and frozen in places. I suffered big. Jamie, Ben, and Jorge Blanco have been hitting those trails all year and I think this was like my 7th MTB ride since February. I had about 1:45 in me and the ride last 2:15 so the final 1/2 hour was kinda rough. Good things those guys are my friends, there was no mocking at all (not that I could hear).

Have some on-bike POV stuff planned for tomorrow, hope the Magic Arm is up to it.

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This was Tuesday. I got 20 GB just like it waiting for some attention when I get back home. Which brings me to….

Now, I’m sitting in the airport having had my flight home cancelled. Nice. The best part about being in the airport is the viewing pleasure of seeing the sweet “business man goatee” - one of Western Civilization’s lowpoints as far as I can tell. You know, the paunchy dudes with their anonymous black roll on bags and leather laptop cases, complemented with the closely manicured salt-and-pepper goatee. One has to wonder.

Missing the USGP finals in SF this weekend for the big S 5th B-day extravaganza. There’s going to be some pinata smashing going on. Still plenty of CX racing to be had, but only one 5th B-day.

So where’ve I been (no update in over a week)? I was sick all last week, off the bike and everything. Kind of the late-fall grunge that gets in your legs, lungs and head. Good times.

And if you can guess where this was taken, you’ll know where I’ve been shooting the past few days. The shooting was incredible, some of the best ever I think. Back home tomorrow.

Here’s Kelli Emmett winning Saturday’s Iceman Cometh in Traverse City, Michigan -check out Adam Craig on the far right hosing her down with some champagne. That was my weekend. Flew to Michigan Friday, the assignment was to shoot Adam Craig racing the new Giant Anthem at the Iceman. I’d never been to Michigan before and it was a very pleasant suprise. Stayed with Kelli E’s parents, which added a great deal to enjoyment of the trip, right on Lake Michigan. Super beautiful up there in the way, way north.

AC and Kelli won their respective races. Even though the race isn’t too much to write home about as far as its course (flattish, double track, and very fast - 18 mph avg) it gets a massive field ~2500 and is a real happening in the area. So, a good thing all the way around.

Doubt this shot of Trebon will make it into print, but I still like it. There’s a bit of distortion going on, but that guy’s legs are super duper long in any event. Had to figure a way to work that massive Gloucester rock (w/spectators) into a shot. A serious challenge was that by the time the elite men raced the sun was low and shadows long, so keeping my shadow out of the show took some doing.

Had a sick ride over on the Blue Ribbon Trail in Norwich yesterday. Probably wasn’t the best choice as far as training goes, but it was some fun. Threw some monstah truck tires on the dualie (Kenda Nevegal 2.35) and went to it. So then when I went out for a training ride proper today I was, ahem, lacking. The first couple intervals went well, but HR started to slide off after that. then, I kind of lost track of things for a couple minutes, then I forgot what state I was riding (not that hard to do actually, living on the NH/VT border). Crossed-eyed and creepin to get home.

While it wasn’t the perfect location to do it, I tried to do a sequence shot down in Gloucester. You see them all the time in skateboard and snowboard mags, sometimes to good effect and others not so much. This isn’t the best use of the effect, but it was fun to try anyway. I think with the right barrier location this will eventually work out very well.

So, it’s Christine Vardaros going into the only set of barriers in Gloucester, seven frames morphed into one. Took about an hour to get it stitched together. All the overlap proved a challenge.