9:33 PM Alone in thought

I'm really out of shape. There was a time not too far off I could ride my downhill bike on the Thursday night ride with a full camera bag and still be up top with some of the leaders. Not so anymore. I'll need to do some deep secret training to bring those days back. In the mean time I'll just leave early hike up and capture moments like the one below.

For me shooting XC is more about the element of surprise than anything else. When someone is riding XC and they know where you are they will do something stupid every time. When you hide around a corner and try to camo your flashes you have a better chance of catching the real moment instead of the fabricated one. In the shot below An Le has just reached the midpoint of the climb on the Thursday ride. It's one of my least favorite spots of the ride even when I'm in shape.

While you can't see An's eyes if you're an XC rider you know the feeling...

150mm 1/320th @ F4 ISO 100 One Qflash camera left behind the rider low at 1/4 power with one diffuser, another Qflash camera left directly right of the rider at 1/8 power bare reflector. In post I added fill, reduced saturation (except the blues) and added a slight vignette.

Enjoy!