bikes and things

Popped out for a bit of a walk this afternoon take a few pics and have a wander. Took the D70, a flash and the wireless triggers to see what I could get. Only took a few shots today and I think these two are the best.

Looking forward to seeing this next weekend hopefully. Was going to go in to town today but there are loads of protest marches on.

National Portrait Gallery: “Annie Leibovitz exhibition”

Shit Fuck Flood, originally uploaded by weequizzie*.

Welcome home Andy and Emma!

Picked it up this morning and rode very carefully home. Few pics here. Not sure if it was worth waiting so long. Read the full saga. Bit mucked about by Condor but it is a nice bike. Just wish they had been a bit more truthful about the cyclescheme cost which they charge on top and also the delay in getting it. A bit boring to hear “it’ll be here in two weeks” each time you call.

Went out again a little while a go and did a few more miles on it.

Went through Forest Hill, Catford, Greenwich, Canary Wharf, City, Waterloo, Camberwell, Peckham, East Dulwich…

Got to the end of the road took my usual turned on to Forest Hill Road this morning and headed past the bus stop. Someone pulled out from the left a bit late and I managed to avoid them. I didn’t see the car behind which was pulling in to the side road. Straight over the bonnet and the full force o the fall went in to my shoulder.

Pretty sore and need to true the front wheel tonight. Quite a shock and was a little shakey afterwards. Fortunately it was close to the flat so I went home, changed and got the bus. Thinking about it I could have come off a lot worse.

Dropped the car off at the garage in Peckham this morning, took the bike out of the car and put the front wheel in. Thought I’d quickly adjust the brake and bring some more cable through, tightened the bolt and then snap… sheared the aluminium body of the brake. So had a interesting ride on the fixed riding brakeless until I could get to the bike shop at Waterloo.

I haven’t been feeling great recently and have had a bit of a chesty cough and a bit of a cold. I still wanted to get some fresh air this weekend so arranged a ride with Vaughan, Matt, Graham and Dango. I didn’t actually ride though, just used the bike to get to the trails on the fireroad. I wanted to practice taking more action shots with remote flashes and balancing natural light. Swinley seemed like the perfect place as there is the jump gulley and also a load of trails on Surrey Hill that have berms, tables and various other trail features which are pretty good fun to session [ie come past me numerous times so I can take pics]. They’re all in a relatively small area so I could set up a shot and not wait too long for them to come around again.

I found setting these shots up considerably harder than the skate park the weekend before. In the skate park I shot in one place and waited for the action to happen gradually adjusting aperture and the flash power until I felt happy with the results. I think I shot a lot of the skate park on aperture priority and also wanted to get used to using the camera on full manual. I’ve been Reading up lots of the Strobist blog and also been looking through other sports shots on Flickr to try and get an idea of how to light them.

I shot around 320 images and edited these down to 50 or so. Some are better than others but the one I am most pleased with is this shot of Vaughan. That bright light behind is the sun low in the sky. I used to two flashes to freeze the action, illuminate him and also remove any shadows on his face. The flash to the left was on a mini tripod and the one to the right ball bungied to the tree.

I’m also pretty pleased with this one of a local rider taking on one of the bigger jumps on the jump gulley.

I think one of the hardest things was not actually setting up the lights but focusing on the rider as they came in to shot. For the shot of Vaughan I literally just popped the camer down low and without looking through the viewfinder pressed the button and hoped for the best. Getting the camera to focus this quickly on a moving target is pretty tough. I had to bin a fair few shots as the camera had focused on the background rather than the rider. I guess the best way to do it is to manual focus and get a large enough depth of field to capture the rider and press the shutter at exactly the right point. One more skill to learn I think… Lots more to learn but enjoying the process!

Went down to the Skatepark today to have a go at setting up some sports shots. I spent the last few days reading up on how to balance ambient lighting and flash. Hard to understand but seemed to work out ok today. Hard to find a suitable place to shoot from as I wanted to protect the flashes so settled on the top of the bowl. First time I’ve had the camera on full manual. Shot around 250 shots today but got the final edit down to around 40. Pretty pleased with the shots I grabbed today.. only room for improvement obviously. So much to learn my head hurts. Full set of images here…

Winter seems to have arrived pretty sharpish. The ride to work has been pretty nippy recently. Don’t think I noticed it so much the last few years as I was only cycling down the road from Kennington to the South Bank.

The extra mileage is good (9 miles each way according to google maps) but I’ve realised I don’t have much in the way of winter cycling clothing. Just bought a new winter softshell jacket but need to invest in some tights to keep my legs warm. Getting a good ride in each day has helped the fitness and getting close to 100 miles a week fixed is pretty good.

Still waiting for the road bike and should be in ‘late November’. Think I’ll take it back over Christmas with one of the mountain bikes and do some rides round Bath.

Not that the summer really started this year but this morning was pretty nippy. Had to wear a thin fleece on the way to work. Ah well, hopefully lots of nice chilly winter rides coming up.

Away next week but moving in to a new flat with Emma the following week. Should be a busy weekend but well worth it. Looking forward to finally not sharing a flat. Happy days.