bikes and things

Today London seems a long way away from the lovely weekend we just had. Planning the next escape already.

So the idea of showing how busy the roads were with cyclists and cars didn’t really work out as I set off at 7am. Still I’ve learnt a few things by putting this together in Premiere so though I’d show it. I think the rear facing camera works pretty well compared to looking forward. The GoPro 2 seems to be much more consistent with its exposure and white balance too which is well worth the upgrade.

What’s not to like?

Testing, testing.

When shooting with the D700 on proper shoots I have lots of images of me standing in various places with a grey card looking back towards the camera with the remote shutter release. It seems like with then GoPro I’m going to have a lot more of these style shots – squinting at the camera and seeing if it’s on and recording.

So I got up to cycle to work to record lots of cyclists and mega-traffic-ogeddon but neither showed for the occasion. There was hardly anything to see at 7am so maybe an 8 or 8.30 start next time. Still, the settings and position seem to be a lot better. Facing backwards is a bit more fun as you see cyclists expressions and you’re not aware of the camera recording all the time. I set it to take a shot every 0.5 seconds and ended up with 3726 frames. The GoPro 2 seems to be much much better at getting a consistent exposure as well as a much better overall tone and colour to the images.

Arse cam

No no that awful end of the month cycle ride* from the Southbank that aggravates taxi drivers and has people lifting their bikes over their heads and doing wooooooo haaaaa’s outloud. I mean the increase in cyclists on London’s roads. It’s brilliant, utterly brilliant. All kinds of them from all the various tribes riding along Kennington Road, up over Waterloo Bridge and then dispersing in Covent Garden. There’s a real energy to it. It seems like we’re able to have entire bus lanes to ourselves and even the large ASL at Waterloo Bridge / Strand isn’t enough to get everyone in at rush hour.

It was also odd to see large parts of my commute this morning at complete gridlock. Mainly Waterloo and Waterloo Bridge which brings a kind of smug satisfaction that you aren’t sat in it but also the worry that people are getting agitated and then going to do something irrational once they do get free of the jam.

I think I’ll be recording the commute with a timelapse tomorrow morning to show how many cyclists there are and also how bad the traffic is, especially considering that the games lanes go on tomorrow.

Here’s my last timelapse effort.

*Confession – I used to go, but thought better of it as I grew older. It seemed to create confrontation when there was no need for it. Nice idea but let down by the idiots who turn up.

The eyewitness photography series on the Guardian is always good for a bit of lunchtime viewing but this one’s a real corker. Click through to see the larger version on the Guardian.

Orlando Duque of Colombia dives 29 metres from a rock monolith during the first round of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series at Islet Vila Franca do Campo

© Dean Treml / AFP / Getty Images

Franks is back again for 2012. Same old thing really but I still love going there. Such a simple but effective and incredibly successful idea. That view though, just wow. Love it.

I’m catching up on a few things from the Instapaper feed and thought I’d post this one. A nice little clip shot from an aerial camera and a Canon 5D. Shame it’s just the one jump and not more trails, but still worth watching.

The slightly more impressive thing (to me) is the rig they used to shoot it with. A carbon fibre frame with four rotors attached. Slightly evil looking too.

After close to eight weeks off the mountainbike it was finally time to venture out for a gentle ride round the Surrey Hills with Matt. Nothing too crazy but was great being back on the bike. A little less fit than last time but not as bad as thought and surprisingly no pain the day after either. The trail were still a little muddy in places most were fairly dry. I even managed to catch the sun a little. We took in some stunning views looking South as per below.

We also tried a bit of video. Most of it was crap as per usual but this one was quite fun. Think I like the rear viewpoint and would be better if the rider was a bit closer. One to try on the next trip to Wales I think.

Some lovely work here from “polarisandy” who I originally found via the Singletrack forum and a long running thread entitled “Photos you’ve taken in the last month that you’re proud of“… I’ve since given up posting in that thread due to the quality of his work. A small selection of which is below.