Saturday July 26th my tour group along with our guide Darren and myself spent the day watching the Tour de France time trial in Saint Amand Montrond France.

Shooting fast moving sporting events has always eluded me and my photography skills. The time trial is an excellent chance to photograph these elite athletes one at a time. The speed is higher but with the riders singled out they provide excellent portrait opportunities.

All shots are with my beloved Nikon D70 and Nikon 80-200 ED 2.8 lens at various manual and automatic settings.

Below are a few of the riders and what I beleive to be fairly good photos of them…

One of the most aggressive and prolific riders of the tour. Jens Voigt

Bernard Kohl beginning his sprint from the last corner of the course.

Either Andy Schleck catching Kim Kirchen(sp?) or vice versa???

Carlos Sastre in his yellow jersey keeping ride!

The man, the myth and the legend…Eric Zabel

George Hincapie looking at the camera during his ride.

Top American GC hope Christian Vande Velde smiling for his portrait in the final straight.

All for now, I’ll be posting a few pictures from Paris in the next few days but I still have some interesting portraits of these amazing cyclists in my gallery

Wednesday was a great day to be in Centre France. My weekly tour group and I went to have a look at the big race, for the group it was the first time they’ve seen the Tour live, I told them it’s better on television but everyone should see it at least once in person.

I had some issues with the auto focus and rapid shots with the D70 and the 80-200 2.8 ED lens so I didn’t get as many shots of the peleton as I would have liked but here are a couple of them along with a photo from the CSC team truck. I have some more decent photographs from the day, I’ll post’em as I have the time.

The yellow jersey tucked safely into the pack.

The leaders flying ahead. They’re caught in their valiant effort 200 meters from this photo.

CSC Truck

This is the last photo I got before the buffer filled up on the D70, note to photographers everywhere; Don’t shoot raw action shots.  This shot is George Hincapie leading out Team Columbia for the stage win for Mark Cavendash(sp?)  A guest who was shooting right next to me with his newer Canon got some amazing shots and fired at least 20 in the time my camera shot 6.

The lesson has been learned for now, no more raw shots when trying to shoot professional sports with a D70. The time trial at St. Amand may lend it’s self better for it but I’ll try both and post the pics to this site.

All for now, I have some arty shots of Bourges that I may put up later.

Today we revisit our vacation to Provence with our second day in Orange. We were there for a Thursday market, let me tell you…The southern French markets are what the hype is all about. Super fresh food, amazing quantities and selection of everything. We went to the market in Orange for supplies for the night’s dinner of stuffed zuchini blossoms with grilled eggplant and sauted Girole mushrooms and fresh goat’s cheese.  No Recipe, I made it up as I went along…

The eggplant.

The girolle mushrooms.

The assembly line.

A really old door and entrance way.

An old door and entrance way.

Nothing more to write.

Sometimes the world seems to have a body down. No matter what life you lead or what you do, life will remind you of how insignificant you are. It will remind you that the world will exist without you and function as well as it did before you. Is this is a dark thought or a positive one? I’ll look at it from a positive, if I do not matter then every good that I bring to another is something that should not have happened. I’ve made someones day better than when they started, therefore I’ve affected someone and I’ve made a change in another insignificant life.  I suppose I’m trying to say, live your personal life the best you can and make as many positive impressions in others and you may or may not find a purpose.

I look for inspiration in my life to keep on rolling, I have a beautiful wife and daughter that keep the wheels on the truck but sometimes I need a non involved friend.

All of the time I need to look back to the beautiful wife and daughter though…

Sorry for the arty, philosophical post, I’ll be back later with something else…

This is the start of a few short posts from Provence. We start back up next week with 4 and a half weeks of tours so the postings will be sparse.

Provence is absolutely beautiful! I’ve said it, it does not need to be said again. It is a photographers paradise, everywhere is amazing color, ancient architecture, blooming botanics and plenty of people. I brought as big a kit as I would on vacation, with the D70, the Nikon 18-135 3.5-4.6, Nikon 80-200 2.8 ED, Sigma 10-20 3.5-5.6, SB-600 for lighting and the Manfrotto for all of those tripod shots. A whole lot of gear and I didn’t see any of it! I left the 18-135 on the front and the rest of the stuff in the bag. I’ve come to the realization that when your not very good at the taking the pictures part of photography, you don’t need a bunch of gear, it’s neat but it’s too overwhelming. Composition, exposure, ISO, lighting, F-Stop are what I want to perfect, so down with you Nikon and all your toys, I’ll buy you later.

We drove down to a camping club outside of Remoulins which is right close to Uzes (ooz -es) and took our time on the drive. It’s about 500km from Patinges to Provence so we stopped to visit and take some photos along the way.

Roadside Ruins on the winding climby road down to Provence.

We stopped for lunch in the town of Florac and had a nice little wander around this beautiful town.

Thelma thought a drink of this water would be a good idea on a 33 degree day!

That’s it for day 1.  I took quite a few photos of this leg and they’re on my gallery page if you care to see more of my photos.  Check back for more soon!!!