Month: November 2011

Tour De Bintan 2011 – Stage 2

Waking to a fine day on the second day of racing was a relief as it meant I would not have to flounder about trying to keep all my gear dry and shoot at the same time.  As soon as the flag dropped two riders, Ryan McKay (Cannasia-Cannondale) and Timothy Lim took a flyer off the front of the peloton. With the first king of the mountain at the 8km point, getting away early was essential to gaining early points in this competition. Sadly for them a couple of Pico Bikelabz riders bridged the gap and robbed them of the points. Unfortunately, due to an unprepared Motorbike driver, I had to leave the race at this point to fill up on petrol so I missed some potential scenic peloton shots along the resort road to the checkpoint which led the race into the ‘real’ Bintan.  After rejoining the race a break formed around the 25km mark and stayed away until the finish.  Here are some images from the day.

Click here to see additional Stage 2 photos.

Ryan Mckay drives the two man break from the flag drop.

The break is joined by one of the Pico Bikelabz riders.

Zamri Salleh (Pico Bikelabz) attacked the break to claim the first KOM points for the day.

There were numerous attempts after the first KOM to get away.

The winning break.

Tim Wilkins (Cannasia-Cannondale) rejoins after his nature break.  What a chase to get back on and I’m sure he’ll think twice about doing that again.

 

Rider Portraits – Tour De Bintan 2011

After each of the stages I tried to grab some quick portraits of some of the riders.  I felt sorry for them having a camera shoved in their face as soon as they had finished racing but hey, that’s the life a cyclist, pro or not.  I took my inspiration from an amazing photographer Timm Kolln and his book ‘The Peloton’.  Up and coming cycling photographer Veeral Patel also encouraged me to get in there and get some closeups of the dirt and sweat us cyclists have to endure during racing.  I’ve intentionally over sharpened the images to hopefully bring out the pain and suffering they had to endure but most of them seemed happy to see me and gave me a smile.

Click here to see a few more portraits on my website.

Tour de Bintan 2011 – Stage 1

One of my dreams as a cyclist and a photographer is to photograph a race from the back of a motorbike. In November I got the opportunity to realise this dream by photographing a fantastic little race on the island of Bintan in Indonesia. I spent the majority of the 157km Stage 1 following a breakaway of 8 cyclists from the Men’s Open Cat 1 over hills and through rain storms. It was an exciting and eventful day and after over 4 hours on the back of the motorbike I came to learn that it’s almost as tiring and painful as the actual racing! Below are a selection of my images from Stage 1.

Click here to look at more images of Tour de Bintan Stage 1.

The Cat 1 Open men ready to roll.

The break formed early and held on to the finish.

One of many short sharp climbs the riders had to get over.

It rained early on in the race which kept the temperature slightly cooler than usual.

The constant rollers and attacks during the last few kilometers kept the break on there toes.

A great sprint finish and the pain really showed.  For some more than others as the winner was later disqualified.

 

Gardens By The Bay – Visit 6

September 2010 – Access to shooting locations outside of the site was impossible during the end of August, the whole of September and the beginning of October due to the Singapore Youth Olympics and the Formula 1.  Entry to all of my off-site locations were guarded and barricaded by hot and bothered security guards so all this months photos are taken from within the site boundary.

The Cool Dry Conservatory gridshell has been prepared for receiving the glass panels and installation has started at the rear and is rapidly moving forward.  Inside the conservatory the construction of the Baobab leaf, a huge Post-tensioned concrete structure floating over a 1000 Seat Events Space, is almost finished.  The cultivated world planters and viewing terraces are also well under way.

The Cool Moist mountain has reached level 5 and has continued to climb skyward.  The Contractor has obviously learnt from the construction of the Cool Dry and has started erecting the gridshell before any of the arches have been erected.

Gardens By The Bay – Visit 5

August 2010 – The Cool Dry Conservatory has progressed quickly over the last month and the final arches have been erected.  The gridshell has been completed and they have started to remove the external scaffolding. Support hangers between the arches and gridshell and the gridshell bracing are being installed on the Cool Dry.  The Cool Moist Conservatory core is rising out of the ground at an alarming rate and monthly visits don’t seem enough to keep up with the speedy rate of construction. Sandwiched between the two conservatories is the Visitor Hub area where builder’s works are moving fast, you can see the construction sequence of the fairfaced concrete elipse-shaped columns in a progression of photos below.

Gardens By The Bay – Visit 4

July 2010 – Visit 4 proved to be very busy! The arches for the Cool Dry conservatory are almost completed and the Cool Moist concrete core has been poured up to level 4 with the formwork for level 3 slab ready for casting. The photos included in this blog are a bit more varied to my previous visits for a number of reasons, the first being that we are currently in the South-West monsoon season in Singapore and my visits were interrupted by torrential downpours! I have also decided to include some candid shots of the workers onsite as their style varies from that of Construction workers in New Zealand. In addition to my standard shots I took a trip up to the ‘Skypark’ of Singapore’s newest building, Marina Bay Sands, Integrated Resort which towers 56 stories above the Gardens By The Bay site and provides fantastic views across the site and beyond.

Gardens By The Bay – Visit 3

June 2010 – Visit number 3 proved to be a very long and hot day of shooting.  The Cool-Dry Conservatory construction is continuing to move along at a considerable rate and is proving to be a challenge to capture.  Critical locations for shooting are either inaccessible or have large machinery parked in the way.  The Cool-Moist Conservatory is also now starting to take shape and come out of the ground.  The main core is well under way and the concrete shoes for the arches are being cast.

Gardens By The Bay – Visit 2

May 2010 – As you will see from the images below the Cool-Dry Conservatory construction is progressing extremely fast.  More arches are being erected every week.  The gridshell, which is a self supporting structure, can be seen behind the white, unpainted arches.  The red structure is called a ‘crash deck’ and is a temporary structure to support the arches and gridshell during erection.  This is a major piece of engineering on it’s own.