There isn’t a single person who hasn’t seen the old images from the Tour de France and thought “man, those are some cool shots”.
Race photography comes at us these days with such hyper-real clarity, and amazing color that, at times, it can be a little overwhelming. And this is coming from a photographer that LOVES to make life look hyper-real. Long gone is the simplicity of the black and white image in bike racing. The colors jump off the page and the rider’s eyes burn holes through the screen with fierce intensity rarely seen. These images work. They are beautiful and portray the venues beautifully.
But, there is still something to be said for a solid black and white image. It has no color…only tonal range. In reality, this is the way the image is first seen. Either on film or through a digital processor, the camera sees only tonal ranges. The range of light runs the gamut from intense white to absolute black. Within each extreme there is no detail, no information. But, if a photographer can create and image that spans the entire length of the tonal histogram (from absolute white to absolute black) and catch all of the tones in between a beautiful picture can be had.
This last weekend, I shot a race on the eastern plains of Colorado. It started in a town famous for the world’s first rodeo. Realistically not much has probably happened there since. Granted, they do have a great rodeo every year. In any case, the race started in Deer Trail Colorado and ventured into the plains to the east of town. The race flyer warned of high winds and high heat. Not a great combo. Mix those two elements in with rolling hills, no trees and a bunch of fallow wheat fields and the photography turns to be fairly monochromatic. What a great opportunity to shoot in black and white. In reality it was a relief. Normally I am shooting with mounds of extra light. I will remotely trigger one or even two speedlights and drop the exposure of the back ground down a bit. But this day was different. Nothing but me and my camera. Just the landscape and a mind that was thinking in terms of tones instead of color.
Life becomes very simple when a photographer thinks this way. Color is washed out. All that remains are shades of gray, and values of light and dark. Contrast creates the drama in the photo. There are no blue skies to stare into. No green trees to contrast with the blue sky. No colorful kit of the road cyclist. Instead you get dark eyes crying out in pain and sun bleached faces that contort from extreme effort. Roads revert back to “black top” and cloudless blue skies go white. What a wonderful way to view the world.
I had my day of shooting, and it was glorious. No frills, no strobes, no fancy techniques….it was me, my long lens and the world. When I got home and looked at the images I thought to myself “are they as cool as those Tour de France images?” The answer? NO way in hell. But it was a ton of fun and it shows what racing in Deer Trail Colorado is like.