Photography
Well, it’s taken me a while to finally contribute some video footage to istockphoto/getty. Now that I finally have capable gear, I’m curious to see how this does. Here is my first contribution…
Well, normally I see the photos of this event after I can't make it. This year I was fortunate enough to get a few hour heads up that it was going on. So I loaded up the car and the camera and spent another afternoon on the bicycle touring the murals of harrisburg with the harrisburg bicycle club.
After my West Virginia overnight tour with my friend Kyle , I made a list of 6 things I'd do "next time"… Let's see how well I did?
The plan for any good road trip is a simple plan. Ours was "Ride down and visit family and friends in Florida." My Dad recently purchased a new (to him) Gold Wing and was excited to get some miles on it. I have had a Star Stratoliner that's been largely a commuter bike for the past couple years. It was time to get some miles on this thing.
After aligning schedules late winter on when we could make it work, it was time to prepare for the trip. I had new tires put on the bike and did a few local trips to work to make sure it was still in shape for it. Then I went to WalMart the night before and bought two dry bags from the camping department and threw some clothes in it and bungie corded them to the backseat. Grabbed some chargers, camera and a laptop and threw them in the saddlebag. Brushed off my hands and said… Done, I'm ready. (already broke point number 1 of being more prepared. Lol).
I tried an Altec Lansing Bluetooth speaker on the bars, but at highway speed, it wasn't close to being loud enough. So that went in the saddlebag too. It would be headphones when it was cool enough to wear a jacket to hold my iphone. I had even toyed with my GoPro mounts to try to position the speaker in a better location, to no avail, but after fiddling with it, I tossed my GoPro mounts to the side in the garage. Completely forgetting that I had a GoPro camera in my camera bag, but now nothing to attach it to (ok, disregard point #5 now)
We started at 6am each day, because when you are doing 8-9hrs of riding time you need to get an early start to make it where you need to. Leaving PA, I was already unprepared and a little cold that early. First stop, add a hoodie! Then next stop, loose the hoodie. Following stop, open the vents in the jacket. Stop after that, lose the chaps and then finally at the next one, time to lose the jacket and just go with long sleeves. From that point on, we'd be treated to temps in the 80s/90s (until the last 45 min. more on that later)
My Dad confidently said, "I'll go 225 or more on a tank." I was looking for fuel at 120. I had more in the tank and found I could ride about 150 to empty, but I know how remote gas stations can get across some of those stretches of the Carolinas so I didn't want to get stuck. Besides, I need refueling before the bike did anyway. I later decided, I'd prefer 60-80 mi and a quick stop for a quick leg stretch and then get rolling again. Packing in around 100 mi left me feeling like I needed a longer recovery break.
We made Savannah our first night down which at this point was my longest day in the saddle, ever. I did have a sense of feeling like a bad ass that I essentially "threw some clothes in a bag and hit the road". The next day, I was refreshed and ready to make our way to Boca Raton, Fla. But first, we took a extra break at Daytona. (check off point 2, multi-night ride)
At Daytona Beach Harley, we took our big rest stop on the way down. Talk about a huge dealer! Two stories. Bikes galore. And some pretty luxurious ones too! Walking in, I spied a Street Glide I'd considered asking if they'd want to make a trade for… but the sticker was "about $43k"… so I knew we wouldn't find common ground on that deal. Aside from that, I realize I've broken another one of my points. I now have a cruiser and not the adventure bike I initially wanted. That's ok, one of my wife's requests with a new bike was that the back seat be comfortable for her to go for short rides.
Riding down i-95 was pretty uneventful. Hit a few traffic tie ups that delayed us a little, but largely, it's a long stretch of road to get somewhere as quick as possible. I saw some cool scenery that would have been great to stop and shoot with my camera, but that wasn't in the plan for this trip. This was about get there and enjoy and then get home. (another point from the list missed, LOL).
This dog begs to go outside and great the Jungle Queen each time it passes and climbs the tree to get a good look.
Which leaves me with the 6th and final point. Our trip consisted pretty much, "take i-95 south.." So a paper map wouldn't have been all that helpful. So an iphone was sufficient for the few occasions when we needed to know something. But, as long as we are keeping score, mark another point disregarded, lol.)
Our visit with the family was fun. We had a few day trips. We toured the Fort Lauderdale Keys on a boat ride past huge yachts and mansions and day dreamed about hitting the powerball. We took a ride up A1A (beach front avenue), and had lunch along the beach. We visited the site of my Great Grandmother's hotel they had along the beach (which is not leveled for a public beach changing facility) and the pier where I first tried fishing. It was also just waking up and sitting and talking over a coffee. Things like that made the trip even more enjoyable and underlined the importance of the simple plan up front!
The ride back was much the same. Long straight roads and eating up the miles. By the time we reached Fredrick Maryland, dark skies loomed. After 6 days of 90s, we welcomed a little cooling shower and even said, "if it starts, I'm not even putting on rain gear! It will feel nice." A few miles down the road, it started. The temp dropped about 20 degrees in like 5 miles. Fortunately, I needed fuel. While I left the rain gear in the saddleback, I did add a jacket and change the shield to clear again. And of course we lowered our speeds to "play it cool".
Overall, it was a long ride for me. The longest I've done so far. 2500 miles in few days with some fun times in the middle. Makes me look forward to what the next trip might be?
I was reviewing the blog and found in 2014 I had blogged about the new Fuji X-T1 and was looking forward to getting it. Well, I never got it. I had been using the Canon 5D Mk I to get every last bit of life out of it. 12 years is quite a long time to use a DSLR. Now that Fuji announced the newest release, the X-H1, I decided it was time to pull the plug.
I'm blown away with the advancements in camera tech in that time. There is quite a lot of new features to understand. It's like learning a new language. So far, I'm incredibly pleased with the images from the new camera.
The stylish slow ride in Harrisburg gathered together a group of colorful characters. Muralfest is a two week project of 10 murals in the city.
SAMBA is a community minded local Mountain Biking Associations that can be found here in Central Pennsylvania. Responsible for maintaining over 65 miles of trails surrounding Harrisburg Pennsylvania.
We got together for a ride and some lifestyle photos for promoting the club. Some of the photos were used on brochures. Some were used on kiosks.
A few photos from a scouting ride I did in Michaux for a route that I'm taking my son's Boy Scout troop on. Coming up this weekend. Hope the kids are prepared and have fun!
We've enjoyed craft beer and home brewing during our travels. It's always cool seeing new places and try things unique to an area. We managed to visit a few breweries on our recent trip to Atlanta. We even snuck in a trip to Fullsteam when we were passing through Durham (after seeing them on a recent Brew Dogs TV show.)
We enjoyed our trip to Atlanta. One of the highlights was the Atlanta Aquarium. This place was pretty spectacular.
I wrapped up a portfolio for Katy who is Miss Pennsylvania Plus America and moving on to the national competition. Wish her the best of luck.
A little inspiration from the recent weather in central PA...
Available to license at: istockphoto.com
Well, it's not "here" here... but it's announced. Hopefully it will be "here" in my hands soon. I've been eyeing up the Fuji X series for a while and I think that X-T1 is the one to get. As with most of the Fuji series, the sensor seems the same pretty much across the board. Processing is likely to be similar. Early reports sound like focusing is quick and doesn't suffer like some of the other cameras have.
I like the WiFi capable... I love the retro look. And I'm REALLY impressed that they weather sealed the body. THAT is rather attractive to me as I've been thinking that the mood of poor weather is excellent and conveying emotion. It's just a pain in the butt to do with with a traditional "exposed" DSLR. Sure, I'll need to weatherproof the lens till Fuji gets their weather sealed ones to market, but that seems easier to do then the body and controls.
Looking forward to seeing and hearing about this cam. I'll be curious to see if this was the rumored X-Pro2 that was supposed to come out this year?
Read a review of the Fuji X-T1
I'm a big fan of the voice this year. The talent is amazing and probably a little more selfishly, one of the contestants is someone who modeled for us at the RalieghLypse istock event about a year ago. I had the good fortune of meeting Kat at that event.
While watching the show tonight, I took a moment to revisit what I may have "left on the cutting room floor". Thanks again Kat... It was great to meet you and Guillaume. You guys are a great couple. All the best! Hope you win.
A new collection of photos from the DSLR from the Motorcycle camping overnight I did with Kyle from FairingEast into West Virginia.
Truer words were never spoken about a photoshoot. I heard this on episode 104 of The Grid podcast with guest Peter Hurley. I love a photo critique episode and I really appreciated that the audience seemed to take exception with some of Peter's comments. But he was spot on. Expression and emotion of a photo will always trump technical perfection.
RC chimed in with an old standby quote that I believe is attributed to Jay Maysel (but it's possible i'm wrong), "There is nothing worse than a sharp photo of a fuzzy idea." And that is absolutely true. Art (& Photography) should say something.
I was curious how my photos would hold up to this critique. So I reviewed my portfolio at the top of this site. I think my images would hold up to the scrutiny. And the more Peter spoke, the more I realized I share a lot of the same ideas... if not outwardly consciously about it. On my shoots, I like to have fun. When he said that, It struck me how many photographers on our podcast (LightSource, on a long hiatus... lol) said just that.
If you can't get the person in front of the lens to connect with the person behind the lens... they won't connect with the person looking at the photo.
Forget technical excellence... Just make more interesting stuff. ;-)
I was really excited about the recent work I produced at the iStockphoto.com minilypse event – Raleighlypse. Istockalypse events bring a group of photos to a single city with a pool of models and locations and your group rotates from station to station and you have a brief time “at bat” to create something amazing. This makes for an interesting challenge because you are short on time, so you have to work quick and get the shot before the clock runs out. Luckily, you have the rest of the photographers in your group to photo assist you (and then you assist for them.) The costumes, locations and models at Raleighlypse was absolutely incredible (and I would love working with my group again, go team.)
Sir Walter Raleigh Award from the first annual Raleighlypse.
I felt like I’ve created some of my best work in a while. And when someone recognizes stuff you are pleased with, that makes it even better. I was honored to get a “Sir Walter Raleigh” award at the “first annual” Raleighlypse. My wife thought I was being silly for being so proud of a trinket trophy. But as I was telling her of the amazing talent at the event, she started to understand that it was more about the honor of it and not the headless skeleton that now sits proudly on my desk.
After sharing some of the preview images on Facebook, they earned the most likes I’ve seen on my photos in a long time. Tonight, I got an email from my 500px.com account that my “Sir Walter Raleigh” image from the event earned “Popular” and “Upcoming” status. Now I just need to get these images on iStockphoto and hopefully the image buyers will find the image equally as interesting.
Thank you everyone for you help in creating the photo, and everyone that appreciates it.
Last week I took a little trip to Virginia to ride the Skyline Drive on the motorcycle. We encountered a bit of rain, but at least the photos had some "atmosphere" to them.
Another HDR remix for today again from LR4. I really like the features in this application for handling HDR. It seems to allow you to produce more natural looking images.
Was listening to a recent podcast talking about the new HDR features inside Lightroom 4 and thought I should try it with one of the few images I've attempted in HDR. HDR is something I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with. Some are stunning images, but some seem just very artificial. Seeing how easy HDR is now inside of LR, I may have to shoot a bit more.
