It has been a pretty crazy couple of weeks here at FastTimes and the rest of the summer looks like more of the same.  After landing in Toronto from my MX shoot in Morden, Manitoba, I only had half a day repack for Mont-Sainte-Anne!   I was scrambling big time.  I had originally planned to head out on Wednesday but promised a buddy, Fraser Briton, I would pick him up in Montreal so he could make it for the course walk on Wednesday.   I like to shoot the course walk as well but the fact is, I have no real market for those images and had more pressing matters to attend to.  Before I could hit the road again, I had all kinds of images to get out to clients including a large upload that stood at 4rs in my FTP queue.  I REALLY wanted to just leave and let it run but knew my editor was counting on me and wanted to be sure everything was safely in his hands before I took off.   I have seen too many FTP errors to trust a big upload like this without monitoring it.  “fool me once…” – George W. Bush.  This wasn’t something I wanted to redo with a ghetto connection on the road either. It went smoothly of course, mocking me, building a false sense of security for another day – well played FTP.  You win this round!

I ended up leaving at around 2:00 PM on Tuesday, which fortunately, was still in time to avoid insane traffic leaving the city.  Traffic starts at 3:00 PM in Toronto – yeah, good times.  The drive to MSA isn’t “that” far, 9hrs, but the fact that you have to go through both Toronto and Montreal traffic is the killer.  Timing it in order to miss it at  both ends is as an art; despite best laid plans, it rarely works out.  It’s construction season here in Canada and every trip down the 401 is a role of the dice.  I lucked out going there but coming home I was parked on the highway for over an hour.  I picked up Fraser in Montreal and we pushed on to MSA.   The drive wasn’t too bad and we pulled into our hotel just after 11:00 PM.

I used most of Wednesday to to get caught up on office work and set my sights on shooting the full-day practice on Thursday. Like it always is at Mont-Sainte-Anne, the conditions were all over the map with unsettled weather in the cards for the remainder of the week.  The running joke is that it’s not just at MSA but rather the entire WC circuit.  It’s been a pretty wet few years at the races.  It’s not the weather itself that is an issue, but planning for a day where it fluctuates so much is.  You need to be prepared – running back to the car isn’t an option.  Case in point, despite having a huge bag with thousands of dollars of gear in it, my Achilles’ heel was that I forgot 10 cent sandwich bags to protect my Pocket Wizards with.  This is something I have in my bag at all times but got left behind this time in my aforementioned mad repacking scramble.

Every photographer has his/her way of approaching a day on the hill.  Weather they start from the top, bottom, hike in or take the gondola they usually have a plan to be at certain locations at certain times depending on the schedule and the weather.  For me, I like to be in the open when the sun is out and in the woods when it’s grey – pretty basic.  The one caveat here is factoring in the fog which can make it’s way anywhere.  It’s cool for a few shots, but it gets old quick.  I shoot the big jumps and features early in the week knowing that, other than Cedric, riders will be more conservative as the race approaches.  I tried a bunch of different scenarios this year and am happy with how things worked out.  As always, the light is the boss and I just work with what it gives me.   It’s a big mountain and if you’re in the wrong spot when the light breaks you can’t always get to the other spot in time.  It’s not uncommon for it to be raining somewhere on the mountain with sunshine elsewhere.  I was shooting beside a videographer below the now famous hip and commented on the epic light that just broke a few hundred meters above us and his reply was “don’t bother, by the time you get there it will be gone”, and it was.  That’s part of photography, and we all have the same chance at capturing that light.  Some call it luck but I think that being prepared at the right location is what creates that luck.  I think that is why I always have such a big kit with me, I hate to be somewhere and realize I don’t have the lens I want. My back isn’t a fan of this though and I am working on using simpler kits to get what I need.  It’s hard to unlearn something like this though.  Most of Thursday was foggy and we were all making the most of it, trying to capture the mood and tell the story in our own way.  Here is my interpretation of the day.

The weather for Friday’s practice and qualifying was fairly similar to the previous day.  I shot mostly with available light on Thursday to try and capture the true essence of the track and the elements but decided it was time to take the strobes off the bench.

During race-day practice, I decided to try my luck at the hip again.  I was hoping for some blue sky but it never came.  There was only a small chance it was going to happen but I had to go for it.  I captured some nice images there last year but had a diffident composition I wanted to try this year.  Everyone agrees the hip has been shot to death and we were all looking for a new way to depict this classic feature at MSA.  I captured other photos I had wanted from that section and earmarked some that I will have to add to my wishlist for next year.  I stuck to the finish area for the main event.  It has changed this year and there were a few new shooting opportunities.  Most of us were gathered in the final berm where you could work a few angles.  The light was really flat and I struggled to get anything that popped.  I shot a few different angles but the pan shot is my favorite from the race.

Once again, the team at Gestev did a great job of hosting what has come to be known as the Crown Jewel of the World Cup circuit.   They have been around longer than just about anyone in the game and have never once wavered in their commitment to deliver a world class event.  Vélirium is now one of the premiere bike festivals in the world.  If you have not yet attended this event, or it’s been a few years, get out there and take part in one of cycling greatest treasures.   Huge thanks to Marie-Claire D’Aoust and her team for taking such good care of me and the rest of the media on site.  You all went above and beyond, thank you!