It feels as if an eternity has passed since the last time I made an effort to write about what goes on the grand tours. I fondly remember that the first grand tour I did in 2011, I had made a promise to write about my daily adventures on a daily basis. The writing part was hard but I had the time to do it all. As you pick up commissioned work for Tour de France or any grand tour then every spare second goes into the project and little or not time is left to do any personal work. Even with commissioned work I don't have an opportunity to take images outside of the scope I am working on. I guess playing it safe is important but the downside is that your images look up skewed and you often miss out taking photos on what you like. The client rules at the end of the day.
This year, I have decided I am going to be more active in writing about my adventures as well as trying to execute couple of smaller personal projects during the Tour. This little project will fit in perfectly on days where I won't have the opportunity to create extensive galleries.
One of the hardest things to be on your own during the Tour is that you are limited to how many places you can move around especially during an event like the prologue or individual time trail. Firstly, you are governed by your daily deliverables to your client, once that is achieved then it's free play. Photograph what I want and how I want.
The crowds were thick during the 12 kilometre course but getting to one of these ideal locations meant walking for a long time especially when you are the at the start line and potentially missing out of riders. I tried my luck and it didn't quite work out and I didn't want to risk loosing even more time.
In the end I had to choose my safe option, the finish line. Tomorrow is another day for another adventure. I'm hoping tomorrow it's going to be more smack talk with Erik Zabel.
