The final shoot from the recent trip to the alps was after all the training and after all the racing. It was therefore way more relaxed. In fact, post Mega, the atmosphere in the changed noticeably where ever you went in Alpe d’Huez or Oz en Oisans. The cafes had more people sitting around evening up their tans, there were people riding other trails than just the race runs, there were cross-country bikes on the lift again. It almost started to feel like a holiday!
I had wanted to get out and shoot with some of the guys I was riding with all week, but as we were all racing it just wasn’t feasible for A: me to ride a training run with all my camera gear or B: for us to keep stopping and sessioning (very) busy trails to get shots.
After the race was much easier and a bunch of us headed cross-country along a marked trail that connected up Alpe d’Huez to the top of the lift back down into Oz (Route#10, via Lac Besson to L’Alpette, see map here for the full trail)
Rider: Son Tran
Without the pressure of race-prep we were free to try out all sort of lines along the trails and around the huge rock outcrops (so huge they’d be mountains in their own right anywhere else). The weather was still obliging too with deep blue skies and scattered with wispy cloud and the occasional high altitude vapour trail ie. perfect for a fish-eye and some fill-flash.
Rider: Son Tran
A while back I had an old Canon D60 converted to shoot infrared, it’s main (some would say stereotypical) use so far has been landscape photography, but I’ve always thought it could work well for a different take on outdoor sports images. So where better to try it out than the middle of the alps: Blue skies go black, vegetation goes white, skin tones are softened, it’s a definite “look”, but it’s one that I like and that I’ll be trying more of in the future.
Rider: Son Tran, Dario Javinar
A full set of the images from a great afternoon are here, thanks again to Dario and Son for the patient riding. And to everyone else involved for a great week in alps.
20100711_Alpe d’Huez Trails – Images by SLIK Images Sports Photography
