1916 boarding the Qantas flight now and guess what karma kickback straight away 55D middle row at bulkead so seat goes back about 50mm but the seat in front goes way back … awesome. Guess its better on a 7 hour flight than a 12 hour one but still crap as. It’s a 747 too so old school narrower-than-a-person aisle so gonna get smashed by every drinks cart that comes past.

0430 (0230 in Singapore) descending into Sydney now. Not too bad flight just the normal saga of folks not sure what the hell a light switch is for and endlessly trying to emulate Homer Simpson “light goes on, light goes off, light goes on, light goes off”. Still there was Family Guy and The Simpsons to take my mind off that.

0508 in Sydney and 2108 in Austria where I left 36 hours ago almost to the minute. Quite possibly one of the bumpiest approaches ever … Man thought I was gonna lose my “continetal breakfast” … And the descent seemed to go on forever as we were early and had to circle outside Sydney to make 5am curfew – think the pilot went to Tasmania for a look see then dropped in to final approach across the Bass Straits.

0533 Cleared customs and immigration, rechecked bags, through domestic security and now waiting for bus to domestic terminal. Then a couple of hours to kill before 0925 departue to Cairns. Starting to feel the fuzzy head now … Still got Cairns to look forward to with the GT boys – Mick Hannah, Mark Maurissen an Steve Spencer … Should be a laugh.

0549 On bus to domestic – drive past an Airbus A380. just looking through the updates above and editing them – they were full of missing words – I guess brain was fuzzy before I felt it. Re-editing this bit too missed like 3 words per sentence!

0739 Tracked down some free wifi – it’s between gates 4 and 5 in domestic if you don’t fancy paying $4 for 15 minutes! Trying to track down Steve Peat in domestic using Twitter.

0855 couldn’t track Peaty down – he left for Sydney. Can’t blame him it’s a cool city. Boarding plane for Cairns. Got window seat on starboard side – perfect.

0920 Take off was nowhere near as bad as landing in Sydney. Which was nice.

1206 Arrive early in Cairns … After great view all the way up the coast. Water was amazing you could see the cloud’s reflections on the ocean let alone their shadows.

1228 Hike through construction works at Cairns airport .. Get bags. Meet Mick Hannah and his dad Dave. It’s 28c here – not bad for winters day.

1235 Quick stop at a welders near the airport to try weld a new tool for Mark Maurissen.

1257 arrive at Hannah’s place in Yorkeys Knob. Put bags down for last time in a couple of days. Grab a much needed and welcome shower.

1315 Head to Cairns to help Mick with some errands.

1604 Ride to beach with Mark and have a couple of beers …

1903 Fall asleep on the couch…

1945 Sean McCarroll drops by …

2013 Fast asleep in bed. Over and out.

As usual travel was an adventure – left home with time to spare – I mean the airport is technically only 15 minutes away. But given the fact that the cape town city council has decided that every major artery to the city has to be worked on all together it gets tricky when you have a flight that requires you to drive in rush hour traffic to try make checkin. Usually I take the direct flight from Cape Town to Amsterdam but for some or other reason this was full and I had to fly via Jo’Burg … Not one of my favourite airports. Not that it’s a bad place like Heathrow it’s just that all the perks and priveleges earned as a frequent flyer seem to fall by the wayside there. Online check-in to get good seats, more baggage allowance, easy access to customs to declare cameras etc. You’d be surprised how much this all helps when you do it every couple of weeks.
Here’s an example of how quickly it can go wrong – try check-in for CPT-JHB – get stung for excess – within gold allowance in KLM but not SAA! Walk 10 mins to customs but now officer won’t declare my flashes and pocketwizards as they are now checked (as has been the case for 6 years of declaring goods) – so we will see how that affects me going back in to SA. SAA can’t check me all the way to Vienna or even Amsterdam or they would have to charge me excess! WTF they want to tale money for a KLM where I have allowance? I smell a rat and decide to just pick up bags in Jo’Burg and recheck myself for KLM flights. But now all the good frequent flyer seats are gone and I get middle seat in middle row. Awesome.

Still in Amsterdam you can sit in lounge get cleaned up, do internets and have a nice breakfast pre- next flights.

Get to Vienna and it’s like 30C and humid. Coming from winter in SA this was a bit of a shock to the system and dragging bags from city-airport train through construction site in Vienna to intercity was a bit of a chore. But it’s a nice place so what the hell.

Two and a half hour train trip later – it’s time for a taxi for last leg to Hotel in Graz. Total time from door to door 25 hours 31 mins. Not bad considering i’ve just crossed Africa and most of Europe.

It’s marathon world champs here in Graz this weekend then the next leg is gonna be tough on the body – Graz – Vienna – Amsterdam – Singapore – Sydney – Cairns … All from Monday to Wednesday non-stop. Nice, but I’m guessing that will help my frequent flyer status no end.

No camera tips this week folks … But you will be pleased to know that after a week of sunny, dry weather it is now pouring in Graz – so the UCI rain machine is here. Seems like every race this season its poured. I wonder is how much it’s going to cost to ship to Oz!

Doing this from my iPhone in some down time so no fancy pics and metadata – and it seems apt I use an iPhone pic. I wish more machines had a light like this.

Canon 5DMKII 15mm fisheye,  1/800 @ f7.1 @ ISO800

Thats myself, Sven Martin and Damian Breach in Bromont … post and pre rain storms!

Been a wet and wild couple of weeks in Canada … it seemed to rain on and off all the time. I’m sure it didnt it just felt that way. I know we had some good days I have the pics to prove it … but my abiding memory is rain, rain and more rain. I’ve always said it makes for better shots … but when you’re gear is submerged and not working you aren’t going to get any shots let alone good ones.

Still will catch up on Bromont later – those images are still being sent around the place for clients … but wanted to post something anyways cos i have been so slack lately – blog-wise that is. Been super busy otherwise! Mainly cleaning up after the downpours of Bromont! Camera gear took a real beating there with the 5D MKII coming off the worst – and requiring a new shutter. Still it held up fairly well considering the downpour and the type of shots i was taking with it.

The last post in June had a lot to do with shadows so I thought I’d do another of my favourites … reflections. So before and after the 2 Canadian World Cups in Mont-Saint-Anne and Bromont I spend a day in New York City. I’ve been there before a couple of times but its always amazing to see the size and scale of the place. And the crowds! As always I am a pretty crappy tourist – which is pretty bad for someone who travels so much .. or maybe its because I travel so much. But its a great place to play photographically with all the shapes and sizes and colors and all that. But i somehow got fixated on taking some non-standard shots – ie not the Flat Iron Building and not Empire State and not Chrysler Building etc etc … just what took my fancy.

Canon 1D MKIII, TS-E24mm f/3.5L, 1/800 @ 3.5 ISO 400

Canon 1D MKIII, TS-E24mm f/3.5L, 1/500 @ 3.5 ISO 400

In other news, my Cape Epic shadows image won the VeloArto exhibition competition thing in Quebec .. it was a public vote type competition where 10 invited photogs displayed 10 examples of their work alongside some video installations. So I can now officially class myself as an award winning photographer. Ha Ha …

BTW .. I’m working on not one but two books at the moment. The plan is to get them out by the end of the year .. watch this space.

Here’s a couple of images to get you going:

Mens XC Start during the opening round of the UCI World Cup in my ‘home town’ of Pietermartizburg, South Africa.

 
Greg Minnaar of Santa Cruz Syndicate wins the PMB World Cup at home

Sam Hill of Monster Specialized wins the Dual Slalom at Sea Otter.

Lene Byberg of Specialized Factory Racing swamped by press.

Julie Bresset of Breiz Mountain celebrates leading the U23 category.

You’ll notice the Cape Epic is missing from that line-up .. well, this one was tough. Many factors contributed to that but lets say i’m sooo glad its behind us now. I’ll do a proper dedicated post for that just as soon as the mental scars have healed

I have also updated my site at last with image galleries. I feel it is important to show these images to someone – i mean only a handful of people ever go there right?

There is a gallery for the Pietermaritzburg World Cup, the Sea Otter Classic and, the most recent, the Offenburg XC World Cup.

I’m in Belgium at the moment trying work my way through the finest beer selection in the world … managed a Chimay Bleu, Crosendonk Bruin, Leffe (various), Palm, Westmalle (Dubbel) … still many, many more stages in the Tour de Belgium.

Also for those that care or even don’t … i’ve been using Twitter for a bit when signal/time allows .. follow me around if you want (in a non-stalking way please) @garyperkin 

bye for now

g

But now its family time ! Enjoy!

PS: Please ignore the flickr mega compression .. need to work on that!

But truth be told the real reason i know its the end of the 2008 season is i have finally washed the mud out of my Alpinestars rain gear.

Yeah it took a while .. but you know there are so many memories in those manky, all-important rain pants … sliding on my ass down the slopes of Val di Sole, the deluges in Schladming, the fact i never took them out at Fort William! Every stain and “clinging on for dear life” mud particle has been a part of this season as much as my cameras or lenses. In fact sometimes the rain gear samples more of the local flavour than any of us. Oft forgotten but never left behind! Well in my case anyway

So its onwards and upwards for 2009 …

The Mashatu trip was fantastic, riding your bike through a game reserve literally metres away from elephant, eland, kudu, giraffe etc. and then sleeping under the stars with lions and hyenas cavorting in the darkness! I’ve put some photos from the trip here.

The Cape Odyssey is another event run by the Cape Epic organisers and follows a similar idea to that already well-established format – multi-day, 2 person team, fully supported stage race across fantastic scenery. I’ve get the full gallery up on my main site soon – just need to wait for magazines and press runs to get it out. But here’s a couple i quite like

Groenlandberg Recession:

Above the clouds at the Berg River Dam:

Then the Mens Health shoot … that was a bit of an eye-opener. Being a bit of a loner when it comes to shooting – normally i spend all day in the forest or on a mountain shooting Mountain Bike World Cup events on my own – to have an art director, make up artist, designer, production assistant and model all on the shoot was interesting to say the least. Still it went well,  and I managed to get my shots in … i think the issue is out in December.

Off to my home from home this week .. Pietermaritzburg. Yay.