Substance Project ran a great event called ‘Homage to Ice’ April 2, 2011 and it couldn’t have been more appropriately named! Great conditions made for great pictures and great riding. Lots and lots of snow and ice! There were two races – a 25km and a 50km.

Luckily it wasn’t too windy but was a wee bit cool (for me) in the morning. However, that also meant for easier riding as the wheels weren’t sinking in the deep snow. As for the later race (50km) they had a much harder time as the sun began melting the snow which left deep ruts that made for lots of hard pedalling and uncontrollable lines.

Taking pictures was equally as challenging as the sun kept popping in and out of the clouds. The morning was sunny and I didn’t need strobes as the snow acted as a perfect reflector dish which illuminated my subjects faces quite nicely. However, there were nasty shadows in the trails. So I stayed out of the trails until the sun hid for a hour or so. During that time, I went into the trails and used either one or two strobes pending on the lighting conditions.

By the end of the fourth hour my feet were throughly wet and by now numb. I took over 500+ pictures and have uploaded them onto my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecilegambin/. If you are interested in purchasing a picture please contact me via Flickr or through this website for details and pricing. Thanks for looking!!