Writing - it will come

Look at that mess. Supposedly there is a book there, about the Lanterne Rouges of the Tour de France, yet unwritten, blank pages wanting for words, experiences waiting to bloom, questions unanswered, friendships renewed, some to begin.

I'm entering into that fun/chaotic/question-my-sanity phase of writing a book, and this one doesn't have a photo outline to guide the vision - only historical confetti... after the parade... I'm knee deep in it. I feel like a street sweeper, pushing a broom about the last 108 years of French cycling history trying to clean up this mess. Scary part, it's only about to begin, I know it. Somewhere in my dimly lit memory I did this sort of thing before. Maybe it's that, that memory, and know I must be alive to have it, that makes this possible. Almost a weird creative mantra; "yes, I wrote a book before. I found the words. I survived the editors. I met the deadlines. I am alive to tell about it."

The odd part - part deux - after assembling over 120 pages of writing on this book - I'm now about to start. It feels like 120 page Prologue - luckily I wasn't up against Fabian Cancellara (see my bike blog for what that means).

Next week I leave for Paris and Liege (why Liege? more about that in a minute) and I feel like the photo above will not change - it will look like that for 10 hours on the flight to Charles De Gaul (sans food stains I hope - the wine will be another issue), on the TGV heading to Belgium, in my hotel rooms in Liege and Paris, and probably, out of having a brain ready to burst with facts, anecdotes and trivia, look like that on the flight back to Portland.

Am I prepared - god no.

My French lessons have fallen into a crevasse somewhere between a lung infection and procrastination. I know some of it has permeated my memory, but beyond pleasantries and a few basic directional aids the vocabulary is pretty pathetic - I'll need my agent Joel to shadow me through every interview and negotiation for access. Ya know, it was easier working in the Congo.

Jenn came home from work the other evening and said my blog entry over on Gerry's Daily Ride totally lost her. After trying to read it for the third time she raised the white flag and pedaled home. Ya, my brain had too many facts, it was doing a defrag looking for more hard-drive space.

Writing a book is like that, different than a magazine piece. Every once in a while I think, I do anyway, need to download all that stuff I have been storing. For example, I now have read and re-read how le Tour de France got started to the point I'm beginning to feel like I AM founder Henri Desgrange (I wish I could at least speak and write French as well). My first book we hired a writer skilled at the abbreviated format of a magazine, it and he never crossed over. One chapter and several months later we went searching for another author.

So why Liege? Liege is the kinda sidetrack that writing books take you on. Required rambling. On your first book or two you don't trust it, it costs money and you favor your wallet not your intuition. Now I go only knowing partially why and over time realize, with patience and outstretched antennae, that it will come, it will come. In Liege I'm trying to lock down an interview with a few cyclists, done deal, and the two icons of cycling broadcasting Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin, not done. It hasn't happen yet, but the race Liège-Bastogne-Liège is there, they will be broadcasting, and I'm buying the beers, it will come.

And finally, look at that mess again - notice anything? No camera. Ya, I plan to take them, actually plan to use them, as a diversion - never thought of them, photography, that way, but I think a daily walk with Jenn on the streets of Paris with camera in hand may help write this book. It will come.

"Quick, quick, quick, like a cat"

(similar post over on my bike blog)
Last night was the Awards for the 2009 Bicycling Northwest.com Bike Photo Contest presented by Pro Photo Supply. Despite a civil war football game distraction we had a nice group of the winners and friends gather at the Lucky Lab NW for a bite, a pint (or two) and a look at all the entries as well as those that carried home the winning swag.

Taking top honors was a great shot by photographer John Rudolff - the crash of cyclist Joe Dengel in last summer's Portland Twilight Criterium. The photo epitomizes the old adage, " luck is opportunity meeting preparedness". Photographically many elements come together quite beautifully in this shot - three in particular that make it work for me. Most critically in my mind, and many of the judges, is the expression on the young girl's face in the upper left corner. Without that this photo doesn't have the same voice. With it, it has what Henri Cartier-Bresson use to refer to as the moment you must go click, "quick, quick, quick, like a cat".

In that sense cycling photography is like wildlife photography and unlike so many other types of sports photography. Planning is crucial, preparadness mandatory, understanding your subjects behavior essential, and then realizing you are at the mercy of the universe to bring all the elements together before your lens... that last bit is the hardest part to be patient and accept. If you have never tried photographing cycling - criteriums are the best starting point. Unlike most other cycling events, they are contained within a set "small" manageable playing field - usually a half dozen blocks of city street. You can move freely around the perimeter of the race and take advantage of multiple photo opportunities.

If you are a wildlife photographer and looking for another challenge - even just to keep your eye and index finger sharp - give crit cycle racing a go.

Congratulations to everyone that entered and all the winners!

We will be putting up all the winning images on Bicycling Northwest.com over the coming week - as well, they will be displayed in large print format at Pro Photo Supply later in spring 2010 when we announce the opening of the next contest (I'll post a note here on the blog).

Thanks to Canon cameras for sponsorship of the prizes.

PS - Joe Dengel, the cyclist, is fine and cycling again - the crash did ring his bell a bit.

Searching for new perspectives

Cycling photography has now become one of my new challenges - but cycling photography is and isn't like a lot of sports photography. Most sports are confined by the dimensions of some preordained space - a field, a court, the pitch, or the pool. What ever the imprisonment, it helps get ‘the shot’ for a hungry media, but seriously strains at the coattails of creativity. Let’s face it a lot of daily sports photo coverage is insanely boring – celluloid clichés (alright, now they are digital derivations).

Cycling in most of its incarnations has one enormous photo advantage - it is played out through the villages and countryside of the world – anything with a road or road-like surface is fair game. As a Frenchman once asked me while I was cycling in the French Pyrenees, “don’t you have high mountain roads in your country?” yes, I explained, but we don’t pave a road over every goat trail up there like you do. Photographically this yields a wealth of opportunities. What other sport enables you to cast your actors in an amphitheater of soaring granite and glacial sheets, or against the sun washed stone of a thousand year old Tuscan village. The disadvantage – they never stop moving, never.

The Pros (cycling photographers) have the distinct advantage of a moto” – perched on the rear of a motorcycle with credentials to zoom in and about the peloton (cycling’s big group of riders) as well as venture a field for unique perspectives and return to catch the race action.

As one without benefit of ‘moto’ cycling photography has presented some new and interesting challenges to me. (I’ve also turned to my previous wildlife work for inspiration – there too the ‘game’ is played out in the uncontrollable arena of life.) Fortunately I have no editor sitting anxiously waiting for ‘the shot’ to grace the front page of the sports section or the fleeting lead web story for the day. That freedom gives me the liberty to take some chances – something I just don’t think photographers (regardless your experience) are willing to do – the hell with it, go take a chance, screw up a little, you just might strike gold – accidents are the birthplace of genius.

The Boston Globe posted some of the best photos from the recently completed Tour de France – as you can see, some cycling photo pros are trying to find that new perspective – enjoy.

Over on my cycling website – BicyclingNorthwest.com – I am co-sponsoring a bike photo contest with local Portland shop Pro Photo Supply and Canon cameras. I hope that photographers of all levels and approaches get creative – taking advantage of the millions of opportunities the bike, its infinite habitat and characters, to create some very cool images. Here’s a link to the 2009 Bike Photo Contest.

Some things go in cycles - especially on the bike

Well, while the Water Project gets consumed in more research and defining a "feel" and approach - the cameras and eyes are staying very busy (and challenged) with cycling - not the hydro-type, but that of two wheels and a heap of one-handed pedaling. Bicycling - my other passion. In between postings here you can check out my other life over on Gerry's Daily Ride (blog) and BicyclingNorthwest.com website.