Tag Archives: one

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sports

Levi Leipheimer, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California

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Levi Leipheimer, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California
Levi Leipheimer, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California

Levi Leipheimer, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California. Nevada City, California. May 16. 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Team RadioShack rider and previous tour winner Levi Leipheimer rides to the starting line for stage one of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California.

Levi Leipheimer is among the favorites to win the overall title in the 2010 Amgen Tour of California bicycle road race – after all he is on Team RadioShack and he has won several past editions of the race. This photograph was made before the start of the first stage of the race in Nevada City, California as he and the other rides rode from the team vehicles to the starting line for the 100+ mile road race to Sacramento.

As I often do when shooting the team area before the start of the race, I used a long focal length lens so that I could cover a large field of view and react quickly as different riders came past. Sometimes I barely had time to squeeze of a shot or two before they were gone or other riders came into the scene.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 400mm
ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1600 second

keywords: amgen, tour, of, california, stage, one, 2010, bicycle, road, race, pro, professional, usa, north america, sports, nevada, city, levi, leipheimer, team, radioshack, nissan, trek, levi, leipheimer, team, radioshack, armstrong, nissan, trek, rides, starting, line, stock

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: Sports

Mark Cavendish, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California

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Mark Cavendish, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California
Mark Cavendish, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California

Mark Cavendish, Stage One, 2010 Tour of California. Nevada City, California. May 16, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pre-race photograph of Mark Cavendish at Stage One, 2010 Amgen Tour of California

Mark Cavendish is arguably today’s pre-eminent professional cycling sprinter. This photograph was made in Nevada City, California as he emerged from the Columbia HTC team vehicle to sign autographs before getting on his bike and heading to the starting line for stage one of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California. He ultimately one the sprint in Sacramento over 100 miles and several hours later.

I posted yesterday about my photography in the team area prior to these races and the great opportunities this provides for getting close shots of riders, along with cycling equipment, spectators, and the general excitement before the start of a major professional race. My tactic here is usually to put a long lens on the camera, explore, and be ready to react quickly – often a rider may appear for a few moments outside a team vehicle or quickly ride by on the way to the starting line and you have to pick off a shot quickly or not get it at all. In this case I spotted a nearby stairway that would give an unobstructed view of anyone coming out of this team vehicle and gave me a clear shot at the path that riders were taking to the finish line. I decided to spend a few minutes here to see what would happen, and I got lucky when Cavendish emerged and spent a few minutes with fans.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 400mm
ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/400 second

keywords: amgen, tour, of, california, stage, one, 2010, bicycle, road, race, pro, professional, usa, north america, sports, nevada, city, pre, race, mark, cavandish, winner, first place, sprinter, high road, columbia, htc, team, sunglasses, portrait, close-up, stock

Commentary

About the Tour of California photographs

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Since all of the cycling photographs might confuse some site visitors who are more familiar with my natural and urban landscapes, night photography, and so forth… a bit of explanation.

I used to be a very active cyclist. Although I never raced myself, I trained with folks who did, and I was a very serious cyclist. I put in multiple 10,000+ mile years during that period.

So the cycling stuff is “in my blood,” so to speak, and when the Amgen Tour of California comes to northern California each year I’m there to photograph as much of it as I can. I photographed it since the first year when it began with the time trial stage to the top of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.

This year my opportunities to photograph the event are more limited, and it is likely that I’ll only be able to shoot the first stage – from which the current images are taken. Rather than posting a whole batch of photographs at once, I prefer to share them one at a time. So over the next week or so expect to see a lot of bicycle racing photographs here!

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: Sports

Lance Armstrong, Stage One, 2010 Amgen Tour of California

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Lance Armstrong, Stage One, 2010 Amgen Tour of California
Lance Armstrong, Stage One, 2010 Amgen Tour of California

Lance Armstrong, Stage One, 2010 Amgen Tour of California. Nevada City, California. May 16, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lance Armstrong riding to the starting line for stage one of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California professional bicycle road race.

The 2010 Amgen Tour of California started this weekend with a road stage traveling from Nevada City to Sacramento, California. I made the ridiculously long drive up and back to shoot the stage, starting in Nevada City perhaps three hours before the start of the race, later making an abortive attempt to intercept the peloton just south of the town of Auburn, and then making it to the finish in Sacramento, where I found a spot about 200 meters from the finish line.

Since I’m not photographing the race officially – now that would be a kick!* – I take my own idiosyncratic approach to photographing the event. I try to shoot the start of the race, an intermediate point (if possible), and then the finish. But shooting actual racing from the sidelines isn’t an easy thing. With this in mind I also photograph a lot of other “stuff” that surrounds the event of the race. Today I first shot some of the crowds in the middle of old Nevada City, then walked the portion of the course that looped through the downtown area before it heads out onto the open road. But my main plan was to spend the hour or so right before the race in the team area, where it is often possible to grab some good close shots of many of the riders. One of the strange and wonderful things about pro cycling, at least in the United States, is that you can more or less walk right up to some of the biggest names in the sport, and right before the race they usually ride through the crowd to get to the starting line.

I picked a few likely team vehicles and hung out, eventually getting a good series of photographs of sprinter Mark Cavendish, the eventual winner of the stage. (I’ll post some of these photos later.) Then I picked out a spot at the lower end of the team area, knowing the eventually just about all of the riders would have to pass by within feet of me… including Lance Armstrong.

I have a number of photographs from previous Tours and other cycling events posted in my gallery.

* Believe it or not, this landscape photographer (and ex-cyclist) sometimes fantasizes about photographing a stage from the back of a motorcycle. Yeah, hard to believe. :-)

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 400mm
ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2000 second

keywords: amgen, tour, of, california, stage, one, 2010, bicycle, road, race, pro, professional, usa, north america, sports, nevada, city, lance, armstrong, radioshack, team, starting, riding, line, smile