For more than a century the Tour De France has delivered breath-taking scenes, crashes, and controversy - only this year, there's a Kiwi capturing the very best of it.
"When I'm shooting it feels completely normal. There's Chris Froome who's won the tour four, five times, there's Tadej Pagocar in the yellow," Harry Talbot said.
"But then I stop and go 'woah' - these guys were my heroes when I was a kid and I'm just metres away from them."
Talbot is one of just 60 photographers to have had their accreditation accepted by the tour. Already, he's been there for some of the race's most controversial and chaotic moments, like on the cobblestones in stage five.
"There's no other sport where a rider or any athlete has a problem and there's fans helping to put the wheel on, catching it as a teammate throws it across the road, and then there's me, taking photos of it," he said.
Talbot's no stranger to photographing cycling with his career one of humble beginnings - from local meets around Canterbury, to the iconic Tour of Southland. Though he admits the Tour de France is hard to compare to anything he's done before.
It's also expensive, with Talbot having to self-fund his first Tour which means "slumming it" at times.
"It's become a game where can we save money," he joked.
It's meant sleeping in McDonald's car parks or in motorway rest-stops - but he wouldn't change a thing.
"This is my dream, and I'm living it," said Talbot.
He's lucky to have enlisted the help of his friend, Cullen, who is driving him on the tour. Nearly at the half-way point, the pair have got a routine going; shoot the start, leave just before the riders, get ahead of the race and then find the location.
When asked "what is the key to getting the shot?", he replied, "I'll tell you when I get it".
You see, Talbot is determined and motivated to be one of the best cycling photographers in the world.
"It's what you have to do, you have to be here to make it," he said.
Given it's his first tour, his photographs this year will largely be for his portfolio. He will also produce a feature for the NZ Cycle Journal.
It's hoped in the years to come he will be contracted for pinnacle cycling events.
In the mean time, he's literally shooting his shot that just so happens to be on the biggest stages of the sport.
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