The Tour of Britain is the UK’s most prestigious cycle race and the 2019 race will be the 16th edition.
Over recent years, the race has passed directly through my hometown of Amble in Northumberland. And this year would be no different as Amble was on the route of Stage 3. I’ve photographed the race passing through since 2015 and for all three passings I’ve chosen a spot at the top of a hill known as The Wynd. As the cyclists climb the hill they’ll be going at a slower pace due to the incline, giving a little more time to capture the shot than if they were on a sprint finish or a straight where the pace is generally faster.
This year I wanted to try something different, capturing video of the race as well as higher-up wide angle and telephoto photographs.
Having my tripod at full extension with the centre column two thirds of the way up and being weighted down with a sand bag I managed to mount my secondary camera up higher with a wider angle lens, triggered via a wireless shutter release onto one half of a dual cold shoe adapter, meaning I could mount my GoPro camera onto the other, to record the video of the race.
As the race’s entourage vehicles of motorbikes and cars started to pass through I was constantly checking focus on the cameras and setting the GoPro to record.
The breakaway approached, I quickly zoomed in on my telephoto, composed and took short 3-4 shot bursts, zooming out as the cyclists came closer, reaching into my pocket and triggering the higher up camera at the right moments. Shots in the bag.
However, the race wasn’t passed just yet. There was a sizeable peloton to come along with the crazy entourage vehicles. At this stage there was roughly a 2.5 minute gap in-between the breakaway and peloton. The same procedure as before, once the cyclists came into view I zoomed in, composed and took short short bursts as they drew closer, I reached into my pocket and triggered the remote shutter once again, this time shooting with both cameras at the same time. Shots in the bag, again.
Once they crazy number of entourage vehicles had passed, I packed away and headed home to publish the images. I was primarily photographing for The Ambler - Amble’s Community Newspaper for this event.
