Having two days in San Diego has been pretty nice. Chance to get in some nice rides, work on that sweet biker’s tan, and shoot some things I don’t get to otherwise. Namely, beach culture. Shot a whole pack of 4×5 Polaroids which came out great and all kinds of other cool formats I don’t get to too often. All in all a very nice quiet restful little sojourn . . . before I go back to shooting bikes.

Little rant coming: The running next to the riders on climbs? Gotta calm down with that. The Palomar climb in the ToC was ridiculous, every knucklehead and his brother was running next to the riders. And it wasn’t like they were cheering on anyone in particular, it was just doing it to do it. And it was stupid. So stop already before you take down a rider or hurt another spectator. There, done. Anyway. ToC was huge, the “Lance Effect” was insane, just turning people out in their thousands along the route. Took 3+ hours to get back to SD from the top of Palomar and that was with the sneaky driving thrown in. I’m glad I worked the race in the way I did but not sure race shooting really suits what I want to get out of photography any more. It did a few years ago, but now? Not so sure.

Throw a 120-mile transfer and afternoon LA traffic together and you have the wonder that followed today’s stage. Jesus. But as I’d never seen the whole LA Freeway scene, what better way to do it? Anyway, I passed the stage in the 2nd team car for Liquigas. Not too much to report other than getting scared out of my mind by Matteo’s insane driving on the mountain descents. I asked him if this was sketchy driving. No, he said, driving in the Tour and Giro can get kinda scary. Not interested in being around for that. Nothing like the lingering smell of burning brake pads. Also got to see two Liquigas team guys drop out of the race, which seemed far less straightforward than you’d think. They kind of lingered a bit before showing up in the broom wagon. Since I don’t speak Italian I couldn’t quite figure out how bummed the riders were or disappointed the directors were.

Brian Vandborg again, post time trial in Solvang this time. I took a few days off the race to hang with the family in the Bay Area, a much needed respite that will keep my energy topped off through tomorrow. And the sun is finally shining which helps. The bummer is we had another shoot planned for Wed in San Diego that got scrapped because of an injury to the rider we were going to shoot. But still heading to Italy on Wed I think, so no rest.

OK, this is Brian Vandborg and he’s from Denmark. The Danes are tough, almost as tough as the Norwegians. And just look at him, he’s suffering like a madman in the shitty California weather, less than 10 miles into a 100-mile stage today. And if he was suffering, imagine how everyone else was feeling. Red legs, guys dropped within a few miles of the start, bad crashes. Today’s stage was a stunner: cold, windy, and rainy conditions that’d make a Belgian think twice. But even in the best conditions shooting a stage race can be immensely frustrating. And I always seem to forget that until I start to do one again. The effort/return ratio is terrible and some days you drive for hours and literally get nothing worthwhile. Unless you have a very specific task (and great access, which happens only intermittently) stage race shooting seems like an effort in futility. Do with that what you will.

Wow, what crap weather. Stood in the Boony Doon climb at the ToC and the rain/sleet/ice was nuts. The riders looked like their were suffering in a big big way, but the front guys just looked different: not wearing leggings, some with bare hands. They were rolling. A friend asked an interesting question: if it keeps raining will the Euros come back in the future? Good point. BTW, the shooting in rain and dark stormy weather totally sucks. Totally.

One of the problems with a tight closed prologue circuit is getting shots that don’t look like every other photographer’s out there. Mission not accomplished yesterday. Some days it works that way though. It was funny, last year when I shot the prologue, the only stage I shot, I did it 100% on my terms since I wasn’t shooting it for anyone (just happened to be in the Bay Area on another job). So no one was paying me to be there, I shot it all film, tons of B/W, some crazy cross processing, mostly start house images. And the shots from that day, when I sent them around a few weeks later, got me a good amount of work and really got a buzz going for me. I know I wouldn’t be here this year if I hadn’t done what I did last year. So here’s the rub: I created interest by shooting exclusively what and how I wanted but once you’re hired by a client you need to shoot on their terms, that’s just how it works (with your input and skills, of course). Then you also come to realize that what worked last time won’t necessarily work this time. I think as the days go on I’ll be able to better integrate everything into what I need to do..

Making the annual mad break from north country winter, and I’m not going to miss it one bit. We snuck in a couple good days of winter shooting - well, good for New England - before everything went all slushy and then last night I scooted on out to California for the start of a whirlwind month. It’s raining out here now but at least I can see the grass, not see any dirty snow, and smell some early-spring blossoms. I was due. And in a couple weeks I’ll have a first for me: flying from the West Coast to Europe - LA to Milano - and that promises to be brute but well worth it.

I don’t leave on my epic month until next week but I’m already getting geeked up for it. It could well be the busiest four weeks I’ve ever had as far as variety of work, variety of locations, and amount of plane flights. It’ll include a trip to LA, my first ever. For how many times I’ve been in Cali for work and personal reasons it’s hard to believe I’ve never been between Monterey and La Jolla, which is a pretty big swath of the state. I’ve never felt like I was missing much but I should at least find out first hand.

One of the fun things about location scouting is seeing things you’d never see otherwise. And not just the things you were looking for in the first place. Witness: the Super Bowl remnants found on the road from Norwich to Strafford, VT. Just about perfect, dirty snow and everything.