Before I became a photographer, I trained as a print maker. My introduction to the print room started when I came back from racing in Australia and enrolled in an Art Foundation Course at Hastings College where I was taught by Ian Brown, an inspirational tutor and master printer. That …
It’s fair to say February is a good month to escape the British winter and head to warmer climes. No better motivation too than when that escape is to spend some time photographing and riding your bike around Gran Canaria’s amazing climbs.
It’s that time of year to look back at a few of the highlights from 2023 and also look forward to what’s install for 2024.
It’s been a while since I last ventured on a road trip to the photograph the Mountains in Europe but with the winter fast approaching, I decided to make the journey to the French Alps to capture some mountains I had previously photographed and explore some new climbs. With all …
It’s always exciting to announce a new project and collaboration but never more so than with one of the oldest apparel brands in cycling – Assos who make some of the finest cycling clothes in the business and have a long history in the sport. In fact they made the …
Original post from October 2016.
At the start of the year, I sat down and wrote a list of all the things I wanted to achieve with the thought that the worst of Covid was behind us and 2021 would be a new beginning. My plans included travel and a return to the mountains for …
Ventoux is one of those climbs that left a lasting impression; for me road cycling Mont Ventoux and the summer is what road cycling is about. I was 19 years old and in my first year as a pro, riding the Dauphiné. The Ventoux was my first experience of a …
Mountains. When I heard that word in my childhood, it made me think of snow, of inaccessible places. Then I heard about these cols, the tough, narrow roads where the most significant dramas of the Tour de France play out. There are no big climbs in my native Bourgogne, just …
Nobody prepares you for it, you can’t even try to be ready. But once it arrives, you realise that you’ve spent your whole life preparing. Not long ago I was re-reading Paul Auster’s book New York Trilogy: “I didn’t die there, but I wasn’t far off, and there was a …
North Dakota is absolutely flat – flat like, Holland-flat. It’s in the Upper Midwest, a state of the Great Plains and formed from a glacial lake, which creates a two-dimensional landscape; there’s length and breath and a tonne of wind but no depth, no mountains. I started cycling in North …
Heath Robinson approach nets high end results. Behind the scenes of a recent photo shoot for Le Col x McLaren, seeing what goes in to making a finished shot for the launch of their Aero clothing range. With so much technology at our fingertips it’s easy to get too carried …
It’s only my opinion but the Passo dello Spluga appearance in the Giro is long, long overdue. I’m not sure why the race hasn’t featured this beautiful climb before – maybe it’s too far off the beaten track on the border with Switzerland or maybe it just didn’t register on …
It’s probably the most embarrassing moment of my career. It was during one of those hard mountain stages in the Tour of Italy when it was freezing cold and snowing really, really hard. The day before we’d been over the Marmolada and on this stage we went back up the …
Here we showcase some of the climbs the riders would have faced today during the Queen stage of the Giro d’Italia, most notably the Passo Fedaia, Passo Pordoi & Passo Giau, all of which top over 2000m.
One of the earliest memories I have of riding a bike is climbing the Stelvio with my Dad at the age of eight. There’s a great picture of me on the climb – it was a bright summer day, warm enough for a short-sleeved jersey, and I was riding my …
I saw my first mountain range when I rode my first Tour de France. I grew up in East Africa and we had had mountains but they seemed far, far away in a distant place at the end of the plains. Seeing the mountains for the first time was a …
I was in pretty good shape that year but I was always got sick in the spring, so I went to the 88 Giro just ‘hunting’ – to see if I could win but if not, I’d go for stages. There were a lot of mountain days but the Gavia …
Training on Mount Teide is what made the difference between Brad [Wiggins] winning and losing the 2012 Tour de France. After he broke his collarbone in 2011 I thought he’d missed his chance but standing at the top of that mountain, in the months before the race, I changed my …
Your genes are what determine if you are a good climber and that’s something that you simply can’t change; the natural climbers are lightweight little fellers, the ones who weigh less than 60Kg. And whilst it’s true to say that everyone can improve their climbing ability through training, if you’re …
They chatted as they smoked in a language that was undecipherable. The air in the car was thick with diesel fuel and strong cigarettes. It was a Lada, or Skoda, or something from the East; I didn’t pay attention, or I can’t remember. My memories are spotty, as if the …
There are no mountains in Minneapolis, so it’s odd that I live there because mountains have always been a big part of my life. At the age of eight I moved from Los Angeles to Washoe Valley, near Reno. I remember the car drive up there from LA into the …
There’s a hint of smoke in the distance and it’s a subtle clue to what awaits the unwary. Moments later, a few reflected flashes of sunlight confirm it’s definitively today’s challenge that’s sending out signals, even if they turn out to be via a self-contained barbecue. As we get nearer …
I once knew of a rider who swore he got a job solely because he never raced with sunglasses. His new boss, he speculated, recognised his face amongst the many. That was enough. For the tenth time in as many minutes, I check the time. The round face of the …
Wow, what a topsy turvy year! Twenty-twenty started so promisingly with plans for great adventures and new projects, but like most people, these soon unravelled as COVID-19 took hold and the world battened down the hatches. Despite all the turmoil the global pandemic brought, it was still a very successful …
The fourth instalment of my mountains showcase, and this week we take a look at a giant of the French Alps, the Col du Galibier, a climb inextricably linked to the Tour de France and its founder Henri Desgrande. It’s the most frequented climb in the Tour with 59 visits …
The third instalment of a series showcasing some of my favourite climbs features a triumph of Italian engineering, the Passo dello Stelvio. Books and Prints from the mountains series are available here. At 2758 metres, the Passo dello Stelvio is the highest paved pass in Italy and only 12m shy …
Next in the Mountains series is the mighty Mont Ventoux in the Vaucluse region of France. It’s hard to compile a list of great cycling climbs without including Mont Ventoux, such is its status. It’s one of those mountains that ticks all the boxes – it’s a brute to cycle …
With 2020 close to an end, it’s time to look forward to next year and the real possibility of European travel again. Like many people, all the trips I had planned to the Mountains this year were dashed but the outlook for 2021 is looking more positive so maybe it’s …
It’s not often I appear in front of the lens but I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts and motivation behind shooting the Mountains: Epic Cycling Climbs book. Set against the context of this year’s Tour de France visit to the Mont Ventoux, the film examines man’s …
One of the great things about being a photographer is that you don’t really know what you will be doing from week to week. There are jobs that pay the bills, jobs that take you to interesting places, jobs where you get to meet famous people and jobs that you …
2019 was another busy year with some great commissions and personal work for the new Mountains book. Here we showcase a few of the highlights before looking forward to 2020. Commissions Zwift – Certainly the work for Zwift this year stands out as one of the highlights for me. The …
It’s been a while since I last penned a blog but recently I was asked to photograph Bradley Wiggins for an old friend of mine, Yanto Barker, who owns the cycling apparel brand, Le Col and this got me thinking about Brad’s career and when I first came across him …
I’m not generally one to have ‘camera conversations’ but you can imagine that I’m often asked about the equipment and cameras I use. Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject and the cameras I own… When buying cameras, I’ve never dwelled on getting too technical but have …
A polar opposite from shooting the summer mountains of the Tour de France, a recent client trip took me to the extremes of this planet on a journey to Svalbard, Norway, and the northernmost town in the world. See the full portfolio from Svalbard here.
It was during an impromptu meeting on Alpe D’Huez, where both Michael and Will (Mawby) realised they had much in common besides a love of cycling. Michael was working on his Mountains project and was looking to frame some of the work for various exhibitions. As it happened Will managed …
Tell us a bit about ChauDigital and its roots? ChauDigital has been around as a digital imaging specialist since 2002, but before that it was a dark room (Danny Chau photo labs) in the mid 80’s. With the advent of digital, things changed and we made the jump early, using …
If you haven’t already seen a copy of the book you can take a quick tour through the pages with this lovely animation put together by Paperboat Creative.
After three years of hard work the Mountains book is finally finished and gets its official release today! It’s been an enriching process in more ways than one, and I’ve fulfilled an ambition that’s been lingering with me since I first got into cycling in the mid 80’s – to …
It’s funny, when you start out, you never really know where your career will lead and that’s certainly very true working in photography. I started with no formal training as such (I studied print making at university) but picked things up along the way. The big break for me was …
In such a competitive industry photographers are invariably categorised into specific genres such as landscape photographer, fashion photographer, still life photographer, sports photographer (the list goes on). The division goes further and they will subsequently be defined by their style, way of lighting or their specific viewpoint. This helps to …
It’s not often I’m asked to shoot fashion but twice a year I gather together a small team to shoot Misa Harada’s forthcoming collection of exquisite hats. I’ve known Misa for many years and it’s always great fun working together. She’s a real talent and respected worldwide, having created pieces …
The majority of my work has been for either advertising or corporate clients but this year I have started to shoot editorial assignments predominantly for cycling related magazines. It’s fair to say the editorial work doesn’t offer the same rewards as advertising does but it’s a great way to get your …
Traditionally work eases off during Nov & Dec but there is still so much to do before the lights turn off on 2015. The last few weeks have been especially busy with two exhibitions in the same week and a deadline to hand over images for the forthcoming mountains book. …
What an incredible year. As it draws to a close, I have finally set aside some time to portray some insight from behind the lens, showing a bit more about what makes me tick in my work, and the clients and partners I work with. Over the last 12 months …