Crystal Palace

For the first time in my career, I went and photographed an amateur event. The reasoning was simple: the weather was beautiful and I had a choice of either sitting on my backside drinking beer in my garden or sitting on my backside taking photos of bike racing. As you can see, I chose the latter. I enjoyed myself so much, you'll definitely be seeing me back there again sometime.

Smithfield Nocturne

Saturday saw the Smithfield Nocturne coming to central London once again, and once again there was a great night of bike racing. I wasn't shooting for anything in particular, and so didn't shoot the women's race or any of the support races – opting instead to have a beer and be a spectator, which doesn't happen often enough when you turn up with a camera in your hand. It was great to just sit back with some friends and watch a race for once.

Come the elite criterium, though, that changed. Two flashes were set up on a particularly tight corner and I spent the hour or so of the race sat on the cold hard concrete peering through the gaps in the barrier with a fisheye lens. The results are pretty different to everyone else's shots from the night, so I hope you enjoy them. Here's the slideshow.

Scotland the Brave!

Loch Lomond at dawn, from where we were camping

I've just got home from the World Cup downhill at Fort William, where I was shooting photos for, well, pretty much anyone who needs them. It was one hell of an adventure. First up was the night drive, aiming to get as far as we could before conking out. Initially aiming for Newcastle, we ended up carrying straight on and got as far as Loch Lomond, where we were lucky enough to witness sunrise, as you can see from the photo above. There's been no manipulation on that photo apart from a bit of contrast. Stunning.

From there we carried on the drive up to Fort William, where we walked the course and then set up camp for the night. Now, I know Scotland has midges, but I had absolutely no idea it was anything as bad as it would be – it was like a biblical plague! Luckily, there was a Buff given away in the press pack. This was used as a makeshift ninja mask along with a hood and a cap. I thought I was being clever, turns out that the midges were cleverer. At one point I looked down and there must have been around 20 of the buggers sat on just on one of my hands.

Sunday was spent shooting. I lugged the big guns down the hill, set up on some corners and shot away, happily killing the ambient light. Another photographer commented to Stu, my assistant for the day (or as he prefers to be called, my 'flash bitch') 'That's a little overkill isn't it?' No. No it wasn't overkill!

That night we ended up sleeping in a treehouse on a Buddhist retreat in a small village near Lockerbie. It was one of those 'friend of a friend' kind of deals. Thanks to Joe, Andy, and Tom's parents who were kind enough to invite us and let us sleep in that amazing place. Photos were taken on the holga of the retreat itself to use up some film that I shot during the race itself.

A great weekend. Hopefully I'll stop itching at some point in the near future…

Stu: 'Take a photo of me on the start gate. It's as close as I'll ever get to riding down one of these things!'

Gent-Wevelgem Offcuts

The July issue of Cycle Sport is now on the shelves at newsagents around the country. Included in the magazine is the Ghent-Wevelgem feature I shot back in March, be sure to go out there and buy it. Being just a short 4-pager, however, there are plenty of photos that didn't make it into print, so here they are. Enjoy!

Old man, look at my life…

So I turned 30 this weekend, and this is a gift from the inimitable Rich Baybutt (and Stu, mustn't forget that). I'm sure everyone who sees this will wonder why the hairy hell I have a picture of myself riding a dragon on my wall, but sod them. Who needs reasons when you can ride a frickin dragon! Awesome birthday, cheers guys.

The Brixton Saga Continues…

I'm finally tying up the loose ends on the Brixton Bikes project. Above you can see my incredibly technical and difficult-to-work out setup for the shot of Stockwell legend Billy. See if you can work out what I did there… Although the final shot was a little tweaked as I used an ND filter so I could shoot at f2.8 in the evening sunshine for a little DOF on the council estate in the background. Why shoot him in the skatepark? Because the shop is right next to it and sells stuff to cater for any skater or BMXer who may find themselves in difficulty.

Also, wish me well as it's my 30th birthday. Piss up planned for the weekend, existential crisis next week, and putting on three stone for the week after.

Stay tuned for some as-yet unseen portraits of 2001 Paris-Roubaix winner Servais Knaven. Without a doubt, the nicest professional cyclist I've ever met.

Join me…

Yup, I've gone joined the digital age and signed up to vacuous social networking phenomenon Twitter. I did it on Friday, and so far tweets have included such incisive and informative photographic subjects as Twitter spammers, suggesting that someone start a bike magazine called 'Bike Curious', and well, very little else. Give me a break, I've only just started this… Follow me at www.twitter.com/tomsimpsonphoto.

The Brixton Bikes shoot is going well, with what should hopefully be the last three days of shooting this week today, Wednesday and Friday. Until then, have this little offcut. As much as I love the shot, it doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the shots and the article that goes with it.

Brixton Cycles' very own Maggie.