The Weekend Everybody Smiled
sep 20, 2012 in Photography
Last weekend I volunteered as photographer together with Ginn at the two day Wine Country Ramble bike tour organized by Cindy, Scott and others. This was a women-only bike tour with its ride starts at the Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua. Saturday afternoon featured a wine tasting at the Gardens and then in the evening dinner at the Culinary Center. Each day had different routes of different lengths. Saturday mostly on the west side of the lake and Sunday mostly on the east side of the lake.
Cindy had tricked Ginn and me into volunteering. She sends us an email saying “I’m looking for two photographers. Can you help?”. “Yes!” we said. Cindy told us we could take whatever pictures we wanted and then gave us a long list of photographic suggestions.
This was the first time this event was organized. About 80 women signed up. Some from this area, some from elsewhere in New York state, from Pennsylvania and other places. Some were experienced riders but for many this was their first organized bike ride, their first time climbing our hills, their first century ride.
It was an amazing event to be taking pictures at. Everybody smiled for the whole two days. Some of the smiles were perhaps a bit nervous before the start of the ride on Saturday. Some of the smiles became a bit strained halfway up the hills around Naples. But the smiles stayed nonetheless.
An important focus on the event was to introduce more women to riding, help them feel comfortable not just riding their bikes on country roads but also fix tires, how to shift and so on. For this both days there were several clinics. Trek sponsored the event and made very nice racing bikes available women could try out on a ride on Saturday or Sunday.
While these were two long days (getting up at 4 am on Saturday, hello), it was a blast. Many of the riders moved their boundaries. Everybody was smiling. And everybody said thank you each time Ginn or I took their picture. And we took a lot. So much that I heard one woman proclaim, spotting me taking yet another photo, while climbing up from the Vine Valley rest stop: “Oh, all those paparazzi! I can’t live like this.”
Our photos are up here. About half the images were by Ginn, the other half by me.
If you want to enjoy more of Ginn’s work then please go here.