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More Photos – More Stories – More Travel

A kind of Life Magazine meets cycling

 

I want to share my photos and travel adventures as well as the races, the action, ambiance, cultures, people, cuisines and locales.

All kinds of adventures both good and bad are part of covering the sport.  It’s great to be working and living in Europe for a month or more every year, covering the sport, meeting new people and seeing old friends as well as improving my language skills.  Being at the Tour every summer is almost like camp and the camaraderie is always enjoyable.

I began photographing cycling the summer of 1982 when I stumbled onto the Coors Classic the very week I had quit my job and decided it was time to see if I could make it as a full time freelance photographer.  I’ve since shot 20 years of the Tour de France, a few Paris-Nice races, the Dauphiné-Libéré, the Giro d’Italia, the World Cycling Championships in Colombia, Coors Classics, Tour de Trump, Tour DuPont, Tour of Georgia, Tour of California and various other road, mountain biking and other sporting events.  This summer I should get my award during a small ceremony for 20 years of covering the Tour de France.

I received my first camera when I was 7.  It was a Brownie Scouts box camera with the dancing Brownie elf on the front and a flash bulb holder that plugged into the side.  I still have it and I remember the day I got it.  It’s interesting that I also remember the day I got my first bicycle. 

The two interests merged in 1982 when I photographed my first bicycle race. The pros from Europe would come to the Coors Classic in August after racing the Tour de France in July.  It was a great environment in which to learn and work.  Finally in 1990 I decided it was time to see if I could make it in the big time and in July I went to photograph my first Tour de France.

It wasn’t easy.  My four years of French in high school proved that I had learned something, but not nearly enough.  The sheer size of the Tour de France was pretty overwhelming.  It was so much bigger and with so many more levels of protocol than anything I’d experienced before.  Some people were helpful and some people purposefully made things more difficult.  I managed to survive and learn the ropes.  Now when I photograph smaller events I’m always expecting so much protocol and am almost disappointed when it’s too easy!

My cycling photos have appeared in Velo News, Outside Magazine, Bicycling Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Pez Cycling News, GreatOutdoors.com, and many other publications.  They have also been in ads, catalogs, web sites and various other projects for sponsors such as Giro Sports, Trek Bicycles, Gita Sports, Performance Bicycles, Full Speed Ahead, Michelin, Colnago, LeMond Fitness, Shimano and many more.

Part of my motivation in starting Peloton Post began with my frustration at getting enough of my photos published by the established cycling and sports entities.  Sometimes I was really happy with how my photos were used but too often frustrated at what was published, the images that were left out and the apparent lack of understanding of photography.

I’ve often been asked why I keep going.  I think many of the reasons continue to change.  In the beginning there was a lot of curiosity and the opportunity to prove myself as a photographer.  Being a photographer, one always needs to prove oneself.  There was a famous quote, that you’re “only as good as your last picture.”  It’s also nice working and living in France and I always learn new things every time.  The camaraderie among the other photographers (even though we’re competitors) and race support people is great. It’s like summer camp for grownups. Shooting the Tour (and cycling in general) is incredibly challenging and there’s always something else I want to try or shoot in a different way.  One year I met Robin Williams on the Champs Elysee and talked with him a little before running off to shoot the podium.  I said I was the only American woman crazy enough to be here so many years.  He shook his head and said “not at all”!