out riding because I had no other choice, really

It happens to me sometimes. I have no choice. A bicycle has to be ridden.

Today, I spent a rather pleasant half hour talking to a person I have not spoken to, but have seen before; had a nice visit with an old friend I "bumped" into while riding; and talked to a very nice construction worker building a new high rise condo about the rigours of working through a Canadian winter. He says he has done this for years, and is dreading it.

Oh, and I used my new light as a bright "lookit me!!" light again. A review will be forthcoming when I get the rest of my pictures taken with it sometime this week or early next. I also logged a pitiful 32km or so - at least 30-50km per day needs to be logged by year's end if I am to break 8.5k km by New Year's Day.

But here is the light:

And some more of the new building going in at Allen and Park Streets in Waterloo. I have been watching this go up with interest all year as it is going to change the face of the neighbourhood I grew up in rather significantly (and that is a neighbourhood that I still love.)

why I sometimes like jpeg

Approximately six or so years ago, I revived my interest in photography with my first "good" digital camera. It was one of those Canon super zoom things with just enough manual controls to give the illusion of full control without really allowing it. Today, I use a blend of gear - an Olympus E-3 dslr which is showing some wear but generates lovely results, and a Fuji X-10 compact for taking everywhere.

It was, and is, fun

Today, though, I do things a little differently than I did when I started working with digital cameras. My technique is better, my understanding of how to expose and compose a picture is better, and I have developed a work flow that serves my purposes very well.

For example, I always shoot raw and expose to the right. At first, I had no choice and shot jpegs but when I have a choice, I shoot raw.

If you are interested in photography, you know about the raw vs jpeg debate. If you don't it goes something like this: raw = more flexibility, more depth, better highlight recovery, better shadow detail, a higher level of detail because there is no data loss, etc etc etc while jpeg = faster, more convenient, nail it in camera and don't need pp, etc etc etc.

Funny thing is, both sides of the debate are right. And both are wrong.

In reading about the X-10 that I use as my take anywhere camera, it would be easy to come away with the idea that the raw functionality of the camera is not needed since the jpegs out of the camera are somehow sprinkled in magic pixie dust or something which makes them better than any other camera's output under the sun.

Part of this has to do with fanboyism I am sure. And part of this has to do with lousy raw format support by Adobe and Apple (through no fault of their own - does Fuji give over how to process the EXR sensor raws? I am not sure) and rather lousy software from Fuji to process raws. And a large part of this has to do with the truly excellent jpeg engine that Fuji has in their cameras.

The trick, by the way, when shooting raw with the Fuji is to shoot raw and jpeg at the same time, select size medium and fine output, set the DR to 400%, and use LR4 to convert the half size generated raws into DNG upon import. This gives nice and chunky low res raws with huge dynamic range which are very flexible and somehow the aberrations that people have reported from EXR raws seem to be gone. I don't know why, but I do know I get my best results this way.

However, for those who like to just shoot and who are not into a lot of pp work, jpegs are much much easier.

Which brings me to why I sometimes like jpegs.

Every one of these pictures is a straight from the camera jpeg from the Fuji X-10.  All I did was crop the picture a bit, and in the case of the motorcycle, remove the number plate data. For shooting in black and white, the jpeg engine in the camera produces exactly the results I like with no messing around at all and does so consistently and well. All I have to do is remember to tweak the exposure compensation dial on top of the camera and focus on composition. The camera does the rest.

For colour, and for my Olympus gear, it is raw all the way. But when I feel like shooting black and white, it is, in my opinion, hard to top what I am getting out of my Fuji.

Incidentally, for those who use this camera, the settings I used for the above pictures are as follows: Medium Size, Fine, DR at Auto, Sharpness -1, Highlight Tone +1, Shadow Tone -1, Noise Reduction -2.

why looking down can sometimes matter

I have been enjoying a rare perfect fall day. The appointment that I had for the day fell through, which left me at loose ends for part of the day. I took advantage of that, and the perfect weather, to head out for a walk around a local plot of land owned by the University of Waterloo. Often, it is possible to find and record a significant amount of wildlife at this location if care is taken to be quiet and respectful of animals and their habitat.

A family (I assume it is a family - but I have seen only one of them) of beavers have moved into the area and have made a dam on the stream that feeds Columbia Lake. This has resulted in the creation of a duck pond and a deepening and widening of the creek back of the dam. It is quite impressive actually:

The above video shows the dam, and the new pond which was created back of it.

Here are some of the other things I found while there.

And here is why you look down...

On snow and the need for Frankenfenders

Here is the Frankenfender MKII. MKI Frankenfender was great, but had a problem in that the whip part (shown here - the front fender off of a cheap set of mtn bike snap on fenders) was too narrow and my back, rack, and bags were getting "trashed" when riding in the snow with the new and improved huge snow tires of doom. The problem that required the reinstallation of the Frankenfender MKI was the fact that the new tires simply could not be mounted in a standard fender without the studs picking. There would have been no clearance for snow or water and this would have resulted in some serious spray back and annoyance. So, after some experimentation, I decided that the good old "slice the vinegar bottle in half and bolt it to your bike like a geek" approach was much preferred to being wet. 

Makes me want to get out on the bike and see if I stay dry!

The afternoon today ended pleasantly with a walk around the Huron natural area in Kitchener. I went with Martin, and we brought the dslrs and tripods along. Somewhat optimistically, I brought more than the wider of my lenses in the hopes that we might see some beavers, but we had no luck there with that today. What we did manage to get was some nice enough wintery landscapes. I want to return there later in the winter, after a huge heavy snow fall, and take these over again.

Lately, I have been trying to stretch myself a bit photographically and think of new ways to convey an image I have in my head.

Take the simple image of someone drinking a mug of hot chocolate in a cafe. On the surface, it is a simple enough thing, but I wanted to have a little bit of fun with it and fit it into an idea I had. The idea is straight forward - compose a picture as a cube. Square crops, six photos, all showing part of the same thing. All the pictures related to each other. It would be more of a study of the subject matter than just a single photograph, and, for photographers like me who really got going when digital photography was taking off and who never worked with square formats in their composition, a real challenge.

Here is my first attempt at what I am talking about:

Another new direction?

Some frustration is coming out here I feel.

I have been hosting my photos all over the place since I got back into photography in 2007.

I have tried flickr, and still have a pro account with them even though I am not a huge fan of the way the webpage displays work - I mainly use it as a way of keeping in touch with a few nice people that I have met. I find the "white" background and no options to be limiting and not flattering for picture display. White is great for text, but not so much for pictures. Very very few of my pictures are there.

I have tried smugmug, and while I liked it, I found that after a year of using it that it was a bit too cartoony for my liking. I prefer something a little less flashy. So I left them. This is a personal preference thing and not a reflection on the service or its stability with which I never once had a problem. It is a question of the style sheets and interface more than anything. I don't have the time to devote to writing my own, and while they support that (if memory serves me correctly) I don't have the interest in learning how to create one of my own which suits me better. Also, I found that virtually no one found my pictures and looked at them while they were hosted on smugmug. I don't really care if anyone comments, but there is, in my view, very little sense in taking a lot of pictures and sharing them with people if no one looks at them. Granted, I am not the world's best photographer or self publicist (not by a long shot), but the baked in community on smugmug seemed somewhat lacking. At least for me.

Which brings me to pbase. The community is great, the service is great (customer service, when I have needed it has been first rate), and the options for photo display are nice and streamlined (if limited) and suit what I am displaying very well. There is an active group of photographers who are highly talented, who produce work on a regular basis, share it, and visit other people's work. I cannot say enough good things about the community. However, the site is not always stable. And that frustrates. Frustrates to the point where I am considering completely changing the way I share photography with the world.

The solution I have come up with goes something like this. Host the best of my photographic work on a webpage which is stable, suits the kind of work I am displaying, and is very slick in its operation. The rest of what I want to share I can do via blogger here along with stories to go along with it.

what cycling has done to me

It has made me happy.

I spend a lot of time on my bike - every other day is "ride day" and that means I try to log about 110-140km on those days. My off days are either spent not on the bike, or biking with family, or running around doing errands (on my bike, of course.)

It has prompted a collection of bikes. I have four of them right now. One old race bike (does not get ridden at all but is a classic and I have had it since I was about 14 or so), one old mountain bike (does not get ridden much - 128km on it this year), one cyclocross bike (2464 km on it this year and climbing, rapidly), and one commuter/city bike (3079km on it and going up rapidly). I don't have enough bikes. For some reason, there is always one (or six) more that deserve a hook in the basement to hang on. For example, right now I want a Kona paddy wagon (because inexpensive fixies rock!), a Kona Major Jake (because, well, because!), an Electra Rat Fink (because it is just so cool), and a Kona Dew Delux (not because there is anything wrong with my Dew City - far from it - but because this one is just that bit lighter, and has disk brakes which I think I would really appreciate in the snow.)

My fitness is better than it has been since I was 29, a long time ago. Then, I spent hours in the gym and did five spin classes a week (two back to back often) which ripped the excess weight off of me and made me strong as all get out but did nothing for my endurance. Now? Big time endurance and I feel very fit, but have not ripped off the excess weight like I did before. It is a slower process, but one which is more sustainable and long lasting. More lifestyle related if you will.

It has proven to me that it is possible to significantly cut down on my use of vehicles powered by fossil fuels. I have been bugged for a very long time about the destruction of our environment by our habits in our culture and have decided to do something about it. Being one person, my ability to effect systemic change is limited, but I can and do make a difference when and where I can and am not shy about talking about it. Yes, I still own a car because yes, I need it for some aspects of my work (variable work locations some of which are too far away to bike to in the winter and none of which have shower locations I can use spring, fall, or summer) but no, I don't use it all the time and in fact up until the recent travel for vacation (a few out of town trips) I had almost the same km total on the car as on the bikes this calender year. A real switch and one which I hope in future years swings even further toward the bikes. Using steak powered vehicles really makes you consider how much energy is used for transport.

The most important thing though is that it has made me happy.

Thoughts on car free city centres

Initially posted as a response to this post on Take the Lane, a blog from the Kitchener Waterloo Record.

Car free? Fantastic. However, I do think that it has to be more than a venue for entertainment.
Some of you might find this interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/opinion/sunday/the-dutch-way-bicycles-and-fresh-bread.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general
In particular, the notion of shifting planning focus from car friendliness to overall livabiltiy resonates with me.

I have seen first hand what a city looks like that has banished cars from its interior and they are very people centric. The city I am thinking of (in Germany) has ample parking near the core, but no cars allowed in it. Prior to switching to this, they had streets which allowed cars on them right through the middle of the city and the place was a congested mess. Now? It is very active and places people, not cars, first.

Waterloo is very close to being able to pull this off. Last night, I had cause to be out late with my daughter and she, with the clarity of thought that is often shown by the young, pointed out how many people there were on the street. She was surprised that it would be so active so late. She was right. The place was packed. At times you could hardly move on the sidewalk. Was there something special going on? I don't think so. What she pointed out is that there is already a large amount of people traffic on foot in the core. The public square at Waterloo Square, much maligned by nay sayers at the start, is almost always busy. It would not be a huge step for the city to widen the sidewalks so that traffic is down to one lane in each direction with no street parking and reduce the speed limit to 30kmph (this would be a positive step towards no cars on King Street) between Bridgeport and William streets. At the same time, allow merchants to spill out onto the side walks and increase significantly the infrastructure for parking bikes.

I do hope that something like this gets done - the more liveable and people friendly the core is, the more people will come to it. Making the core people - not car - centric is even more important when you consider the push in Waterloo right now towards intensifying housing in the Uptown. The Bauer buildings, the old Seagram ones, the project going in at Allen and Park, and at least one more which I forget right now all intensify housing right in the core of the city. Add to that the town house developments on the old Labbatts and Canada Cabinets properties and all the single family dwellings already in existance, and you have a lot of people right on the Uptown's doorstep who don't need a car to get to the core. Given half a chance, these people will walk the two or three blocks to the Uptown and will use it for their shopping and entertainment.

It sure beats driving to a big box store.

trying to up my game

I am working hard at the moment at developing one specific area of my photography - taking pictures of birds.

A lot of my earlier efforts did not come out so well, and left me frustrated. I was not using my camera correctly, I was using too slow a shutter speed, I was in the wrong shooting mode (not thinking), I was using too high an iso, etc, etc, etc. The excuses for operator error were incredible and rather pointless really. The good thing is though that I learned from the process and became better at exploiting the tools that I have availible to me.

In the process of trail and error as I got a bit better at bird photos I discovered a few useful things:
1) The light. You can have the best gear, the best lenses, camera bodies, and skill, but if you don't have the light, it won't help you all that much.
2) Being there. There is where the birds are. I used to get frustrated at the selection of birds I had to shoot around where I live until I realized that they are all beautiful, and if all I can find on a routine basis is a sparrow or two, then it would benefit me to learn how to better shoot them, wouldn't it?
3) Get close. Get as close as you can to your target without spooking it. If you are making a photo where the bird is the total focal point of the picture (like a portrait) the more of the frame the bird fills, the better. If you want a more environmental shot, a bird in context if you will, then close is still good, but not a critical (that rather depends on the focal lengths availible to you).

Here are some recent samples:

 

 

All for now.

Now enjoy the good weather, and bring a camera along.

Back here in blogger land again.

It has been a very long while since I have written anything on this blog. I have been preoccupied with my other project over on pbase but have decided that it is time to work on this some more. Not everything I want to write about fits well with my other project, so I am starting this one up again.

not here much and here is why

You see, my bike related photo a day project over on pbase is turning into a bike related photo a day photo blog project.

If you are interested, check it out here.

It is much more interesting than what I am doing here, which is nothing.

I still read blogs I follow here though. I just don't bother with writing much of my own.

Cheers.

pitter pat pitter pat

Run: 12.56 km @ 8.36kmph taking 1:30:08
Run km Total: 99.61km

Time to assess how the 1500km goal for November 28, 2011 is going.

On the surface, I am going to miss it. However, I think I am on track to making it with ease. In the last 33 days, I have had two days out for Christmas, and no less than 15 out from being sick. Factor that in, and I am on track to blow past the 1500km mark with ease.

Now all I have to do is do it.

I'm back! (sort of)

What a week the holiday week turned out to be!

Family times were good and wonderful, but we all managed to get hammered by one of the worst cases of influenza that I have seen in ages.

Let's just say that the ewww factor was high and leave it at that, shall we? We are all better now and are raring to go again.

Here is a brief run update from Christmas Eve:

Run: 12.5km
Run km total: 87.05km

The mileage is a bit of a guess (I recorded it) because my phone decided to brick itself and had to be completely reset. Naturally, this happened before I had a chance to record all the details. I am, however, within 200m of being dead on so close enough. I remember it being a slow one though.

I miss my bikes.

Speaking of which, within the next week I should have my shiny new Kona Dew City hanging on a hook in the basement ready to go. I am a bit loath to use it in the snow this winter since I have no place to store it and keep it cold. Nothing is quite so bad for a bike (short of running it over in a truck...) as riding it in the salty Southern Ontario snow and then bringing it into a nice warm heated house. You could, if you felt like it, sit and watch it rust for an evening's entertainment. I am crazy, but lets be serious here:) By next winter, there ought to be a shed or something secure outside where I can lock it and let it stay frozen. I might do what a friend does - he has a shed dug into the ground, and inside the shed is a post set in five feet of concrete. This post has a ring welded to it. His commuter bike gets put in the shed, locked to the post, and then the shed is locked from the outside. No one steals it...

On another note, I am picking up an old friend today. Yes, it is a bike. My friend has been holding my most prized possession from my teen years for me for a number of seasons now. It is my old Marinoni road racing bike from about 1984 or so. I forget precisely when the frame was built. It might be from 1981. I put many many thousands of km on that beastie and wore the frame out to the point where the rear triangle is fatigued and hard accelerations cause the gears to change. Ahhh bliss. I am looking forward to polishing it up and making it look like new again. It will then hang on a hook in the basement and get ridden on "special" occasions (like when I feel like it or something...)

And lastly, I have started a new photography project. It is one of those tacky flickresque 365 projects where you take one picture a day for one year with one central theme. Mine is pictures of or from my bikes. Expect more of than from during the winter months... However, there shall be much that is from them when the season starts. I already have plans to carefully haul the rig out to the off road trails and take pictures of my friend (and he of me) whaling it down some trails. Expect too some of the family or bits of it on outings, and at least some of my daily commute. It should be fun once it gets rolling.

Here is the link: http://www.pbase.com/christopheru/365_bikes

Cheers for now,

myself.

epic clean up

You had to see the end of the basement where my workshop lives to understand that the title of this post is not a typical Internet overstatement.

Wow, what a mess.

It now looks so much better.

The room is not very big and sadly has to double as a gardening supply overstock storage room. I also store my bikes in there. Currently, I have my mountain bike and my cyclocross bike hanging from hooks along the long wall. I have another hook with my daughter's old too small bike suspended from it. That hook will belong to the Kona Dew that I am picking up in about five weeks. I have room, unbelievably, for four or five more bikes if I suspend one bike per joist along the length of the room. It would not take up any space that isn't currently waste space.

Somehow, I doubt I could convince my wife to agree to such a thing.

Realistically, what would I get? Keep in mind that I have to get any bike which parks down there through the front door, around a tight turn into a staircase, around a curved flight of steps and then pull a 180 degree turn through a landing, down two more steps, and around into the workshop.

That leaves out anything big (unless I want to fall down the steps with them - the curve in the steps is to the left going down and I am right handed - this means that I pick up the bike on my right when carrying it which puts my feet on the oh so narrow portion of the curved staircase - this is why my bikes park in the living room all summer long...)

Beyond a commuter bike, a cyclocross bike, and a solid hard tail mountain bike, what else do I need?

I suppose a winter beater would be a good idea. It could live in the shed though. You know, that shed we are getting this spring ;p

I could always use a road bike, but lets be serious for a minute. It would make much more sense financially to hot rod my cyclocross bike (sealed cartridge bearing everything) and buy another wheel set with some 700x23c slicks on it and just use the cross bike as a road bike. I did that for several seasons and never once had a problem with it as a road machine. I could keep up with most people I rode with, and only sometimes ran out of gears on huge descents.

I could pull that off for under $1000 while a road bike would cost me well over $2000 to get one I would like to ride.

So, I guess I don't need to really fill up the basement with hooks and hang more bikes, do I? Maybe fill them up with extra wheels instead...

Incidentally, I found 20 inner tubes of varying sizes and at least 10 bike tires which are still usable when I shoveled out the corner. Yikes.

on finding another route

My usual running route has narrowed up too much to be much fun at this time of year. The one section has a very narrow sidewalk on it, and try as I might, I am having difficulty passing people who refuse to share the sidewalk. So, rather than risk a collision, I have switched up my route a bit.

Thankfully, there are a lot of MUPs in the immediate area of my house which can be linked together to provide a nice run. I can either do a longer loop (like I did last night) or an out and back along the Laurel Trail and Iron Horse Trail. The only problem is that it is downhill out, and uphill back for the most part. Ouch. The loop I did last night (looping around through the high tech park, University of Waterloo, Laurel Trail, Iron Horse Trail, up Glasgow, down Fischer Hallman, etc) is at least slightly less uphill on the way back since it slices off the side of a biggish hill rather nicely.

Here is the mileage report:

Run: 15.5 km @ 9.19km taking 1:41:10 (I keep getting slower! I cannot shake this cold!)
Run km total: 74.58 km

Quick mileage report

Last night's run was both painful and awesome. Running on a salted hard pack snow base with new turning to slush powder on top is horrible.

Dear City of Waterloo and its citizens,

STOP WITH THE SALTING ALREADY ON THE SIDEWALKS WHEN ALL THERE IS IS SNOW ON THEM!!!!  All it is doing is making a heavy sticky unstable slush base which clings to the shoes and sucks the energy out of anyone using the sidewalk. It does not make the sidewalk safer. A good argument can be made that it makes it worse. Feel free to salt ice if you must, but for crying out loud leave off with salting the snow.

Sincerely,

My aching legs.

Anyhow, here are the running totals:

Run: 12.15 km @ 9.64km taking 1:15:40
Run km total: 59.18 km

the thing about running in snow is...

... that it is almost exactly like running in wet sand.

This means that any given distance tends to take a lot more energy than is the norm.

I call this a good thing. After all, if the purpose of the running is to maintain fitness and be ready for dropping the hammer on the bike (so to speak) come spring time then a little extra effort is worth it.

Tonight's run was a blast. It was snowing lightly, and most of the route I usually run was plowed or shoveled nicely. The temperature was about -9 Celsius. Due to blowing snow, and how fundamentally useless a plow is at making a sidewalk bare, I found myself in about 5 cm or so of snow give or take a cm or two the whole way. There were a (very) few bare patches and a (very) few unshoveled bits.

Big Kudos to the citizens of Waterloo and the city itself for doing such a great job of keeping the sidewalks and roadside MUPS cleaned off even during a week of fairly heavy snow. That takes a lot of effort and is appreciated. In particular I appreciate the MUP being done which runs beside the newish Westmount Road extension. I don't know who cleans it but it is either the city or the University of Waterloo. There are only about two driveways on it (one into Columbia Lake and one into the grad residences for the University of Waterloo) and the distance is almost exactly two km long. At this time of year, I imagine that the primary users of this MUP would be a few walkers, people like me, and a rare bike. A good effort for what amounts to a few users. Like I said, it is appreciated.

The only two unshoveled bits belonged to a condo corp and a school. The condo corp had made no effort to clean up at all (sigh) while the school had it plowed but it had drifted over during the day. To be fair, there has been a lot of wind, and the school does have this big old field, so the snow was not a surprise. With luck, they will get to it tomorrow again. It is interesting to run in snow that is over a foot deep with a trough up the middle. Each footfall is a little dance with a sprained ankle - the trick I think is to be relaxed, not go too fast, and don't fight the slide when your foot slips. Wiping out in the powder would not hurt, so it is not worth dramatics which might involve twisting something.

Anyhow, here is the report on mileage:

Run: 12.54km @ 10.06 kmph taking 1:14:49
Run km total: 47.03 km

Overall, I am very happy with that all things considered. It is within the ball park of what I would normally cover that distance in with no snow and temperatures well above freezing.

on snow, early morning runs, Lady GaGa, and Christmas Pagents

Well, here is another mileage report for you:

Run: 9.19km @ 9.63 kmph taking 57:13
Run km total: 34.49

All in all, I am happy with that run this morning. It has been almost nine days since I have been able to do anything at all physical because of my cold kicking my behind so thoroughly. A nice short one like that at a slow speed was just what the doctor ordered; it helped me feel energized, and it helped clear my lungs and sinuses (for the delicate of stomach, I will just leave it at that, ok? ok? nuff said...)

I left at around eight in the morning. Snow was falling. In theory, we are getting a "snow storm" today but what I have seen so far is not much of anything. The snow is falling fairly heavily, but it is so wet that accumulations do not seem to be amounting to much. What it is doing though is beautifully muffling all sounds of the city and keeping most people inside instead of out driving.

Wonderful bliss.

I saw very few cars while out on the run this morning, and almost no pedestrians at all. There was some evidence of other runners (footy prints in the snow) but that was about it. I felt totally alone.

This is something that I enjoy when I run - solitude. Usually, due to time constraints and the time of year I do my running, I end up running in the dark. Those conditions are fantastic for creating a little bubble that blocks out the rest of the world and running becomes very solitary, and thought provoking (let's face it, running is boring, so I get to do a lot of thinking whilst stumping around the city in my running shoes.) I rarely end up running in daylight. Come the start of the cycling season, running will happen once every seven or eight days for the sole purpose of reminding my legs how to do it so that next winter's running season is not so painful to start. I will be too busy riding my bike to think about running at that point.

Anyhow, the run just plain worked once my legs woke up.

Which brings me to Lady GaGa. I run to her music. There is only one problem with it for running and that is the way the beat changes up mid song throughout most of her music. I just nicely settle into a rhythm matching each stride to a musical thump, and she introduces a little hitch in the song which throws my pace off. I therefore just listen to it and totally ignore the beat. This makes me thing I should source some different music which has a more constant beat if my goal is to use the music to lift the running to a more effortless level.

I used to do spin classes a lot - upwards of five times a week - and the instructors were very careful to pick music with a steady beat which matched the rate that they wished us to pedal to during whatever interval drill we were doing. It was possible to completely zone out and float away with a thrumming beat and a long enough drill. I need some of that stuff again for running.

Here is a picture from this morning:

Yep, Angel child in uniform :)


I will leave you with that.

Cheers.

on overcoming a fear

Another double header post day. Again, normally I don't post two a day (or even two a week) but something happened that is worth sharing I think.

I was out with a friend of mine taking pictures in Cambridge (Ontario) today. We were both itching to get out and do something with the cameras and I wanted to take some pictures in a city instead of going out and taking yet another picture (while freezing) at the edge of a swamp someplace.

Due to time constraints, we went down the road to Cambridge and wandered around the older parts of Galt.

It is important to understand that I am a chicken.

I really admire street photography, and some of the best works that I have seen that were done recently were done by people who are not chicken. They were done by people who are brave enough to ask someone if they would mind having their picture taken and by people who are brave enough to talk to people and get to know them at least a little bit before taking a few pictures, thanking them, and moving on.

Well, today, I got brave.

Took me long enough.

I did not catch the name of the dog, but I did have a nice chat with its owner and companion. We saw this massive dog walking down the sidewalk with an older gentleman with him. I said to myself stuff this, nothing ventured, nothing gained and asked politely if he (the owner) would mind if we took a picture of him and his dog.

He said it was ok if we took a picture of his dog but not him, and took it off the lead and got him to sit for us. We chatted a bit, and learned a bit about the man and what he is up to and some about the dog. I don't have permission to divulge the conversation, so I won't, but the point is this: I got brave, had a nice chat and got a good picture because of it.

Later. We met Santa.

Again, being brave paid off.  Seeing us and our cameras chatting with Santa prompted this lady (who it turns out knew the Santa) to leap up into his arms and pose for us while we took some pictures.

The moral of the story? Be brave. Be polite. It might just result in something neat happening that was not expected.

some bike pictures

Any of you reading this (all one of you!) who are interested in bikes might find this gallery I have on pbase interesting: http://www.pbase.com/christopheru/gallery/urban_bicycle

It is full of pictures of bikes seen in urban environs with bits and pieces of blathering about the bike and about bikes in general under each photo.

worth a watch

There is nothing quite like this guy: http://www.dannymacaskill.co.uk/videos/

I need to practice more (ok ok, not going to happen, but one can dream, right? Seriously, I would be happy to get my dirt skills back to where they were a decade ago - If I could do that next spring, I would be very very happy. I think I shall have to hit the trails at least once or twice a week and see what happens. Hopefully, I will get back my ability to crash and tumble all over the landscape without getting hurt...Thankfully, one of my best friends is interested in hitting the dirt again next year so I will have some company for some of it.)

In other news, my cold is finally almost better and I think that tomorrow I will head out and get a run in after a week off. Hopefully, I won't cough up any furry aliens from my lungs whilst out there in the cold. I should limit it to about 5km or so just to be on the safe(r) side.

Will let you know what happens!

Oh, and it would appear that my daughter is all pumped for spring - being eight years old, she is a true fan of snow (the more the better) but come spring, she is getting a Haro BMX bike from yours truly here. She has struggled with riding (like I did when I was her age) but really wants to get it right this year and hit the trails with her dad. What an honour:) It is something I am looking forward to immensely.

Cheers for now.

Up goes the Christmas Tree

It is that time of year at our house. Here are some pics of it for you to enjoy.

Wishing you the best this holiday season.

Come now, either winter up or get on with spring

This time of year makes me crazy.

Some years, like a couple of years ago, we get a terrific snow storm sometime mid November and it just snows like a mad thing all winter long. There is just so much to do when there is that much snow that I can often forget about the fact that really, I don't like winter much!

And then there is this year. It is simply refusing to winter up out there. Where is the snow? We had just enough for the city (bless their socks) to salt the roads up, and no where near enough for winter to feel like it has arrived. The sad part of that is, we have these nice clear roads which are perfect (if a bit chilly) for cycling on that are covered in salt! I simply refuse to put either my mountain bike or my cyclocross bike in the salt. The cross bike could probably put up with the abuse, and if I was a road rider, I would go for it, but considering the kind of distance riding I do, ruining my cross bike in the salt just does not make any sense. It is my defacto road bike, and I want to keep it running smoothly.

don't run with a belly ache

It was not my plan for the night, believe me, but I ended up cutting an "over run" short due to developing a belly ache part way around my loop. I had to walk a significant amount tonight.

Well nuts.

Here is the mileage report anyways:

Run: 13.34km @9.29kmph taking 1:26:13

Run km total: 25.3
Bike km total: 0

time to lay out some new goals

I am not a fan of new year's resolutions, and think them largely a sham designed to make people feel bad as they are encouraged to make promises they know they cannot keep, only to be made to feel a failure when the predictable happens and they fail. The whole concept is kind of like deliberately tripping someone, and then mocking them for a clutz.

So, it is in that frame of mind that I make the following fitness goals, today, on November 28th. There will be no pressure this way.

It is my goal this next calender year to run about 1500 km, and to bicycle about 5000km. This is not as outrageous as it sounds, and should be doable without really exerting myself too terribly much since I like to do those things. Where this will be challenging is that I want to drop back down to between 170-175 pounds (I am six feet tall.) That might be a bit tougher although really, it goes with the territory of the sports I participate in.

I figure I might as well report my progress here.

So, with all that in mind, here is my first mileage report:

Run: 12.02 km @ 10.72kmph taking 1:07:17 hours.
Bike: 0 km

Run km total:  12.02
Bike km total: 0

Cycling won't start again until the salt is off the roads again in the spring.


Cheers.

back out on the mountain bike

Due to my cycling season being all messed up, I did not get to the mountain bike until just the other day. It is good to be back out in the woods again, even though it would appear that the snow will be arriving by next Friday (give or take a day or two, forecasts being what they are in Southern Ontario and all that.)

I arrived at a decision yesterday about 30 seconds before the reason for my decision became apparent. I am going to buy some dedicated aggressive mud tires for the off road machine next year. The bike currently has some Maxxis tires (Larson TT tires - they roll fast, and are great on hard pack, but...) on it which, quite frankly, suck for the clay soil that most of the local trail networks are make of. The top soil in the forest is OK with these tires, but introduce just a hint of moisture, and they pack up, become slicks, and skitter all over the place. Even moist air is enough to make the trails slightly slick and with these tires? It can get a bit sketchy.

two dabs and an idiot

Last night, I got to thinking that since today is my once-every-six-workday-leave-early-day that I would do something different than normal. Usually, what I do is take my cyclocross bike with me to work and link up with my friend and take off for about three or four hours of riding with a nice coffee mid ride. However, due to my friend's work schedule, that cannot happen on Mondays and Wednesdays.

I decided therefore to renew my relationship with the other woman.

I have the best wife ever. She does not mind my constant flirtations with the other woman, although lately I have been neglecting the other and spending my time with the mistress. Ahhh marital bliss!

Another day watching the Roller Girls

Spent another afternoon with the family at the Roller Derby. Shots follow:

The light in the arena was much better than last time we went - it was mid afternoon, and light from outside was streaming in through a few small windows and happened to fall on the track where a lot of my shots took place. Just that little bit of extra light made all the difference.

On a side note, I managed to get in about 67km of riding today with a friend. It was terrific, and may be the last ride that is that good until spring. Winter is going to start any day now - the forecast is for cooler weather next week and some rain. As long as the snow holds off until next Friday when I get my snow tires on the car, I will be happy.

All for now.

fancy struck

There is something deliciously funny about this sign. It is in a local bakery which specializes in gluten free cooking as well as food for vegetarians and vegans.

Based on the sign, I have to assume that at least some of the dishes they prepare contain vegans. This strikes me as a bit harsh. Vegans are not so bad that they have to be eaten, are they?

I will leave you with that bit of strangeness for now.

Cheers and have a good evening :)

How do we get more people to use alternate transport?

I have been thinking about this, and there is no easy answer to that question.

I suspect that it will take a fairly large change in our culture's approach to transport in general to get people out of their cars and using alternate forms of transportation. Really, bikes are just a part of the solution and for many, are impractical during the winter. Winter riding is doable, but is admittedly not for everyone

Currently, in Canada, we have cheap gas. We like to complain about it, but compared to most of the world, we have cheap gas. We also have vast distances to cover for many things - people living in rural communities (and by this I mean really rural - not small towns outside large urban centers) often have to drive vast distances just to get groceries and they have no choice if they are going to live there. One group in our society which is stuck in this regard is our farmers. Our farmers, besides having to often make long runs for basics,  don't have much choice about using petroleum powered machines if they are going to run a viable business and as a group produce enough food to feed our cities. People living in semi-rural areas often have the flexibility to move into more densely populated areas should they have a need to (we did, for instance, when we got sick and tired of feeling married to our cars.) The thing is, cheap gas makes it easy to justify daily grinding back and forth between cities and small towns that are often used primarily as bedroom communities or extended suburbs for large cities by people who do not take the time - or even have the time after their commute - to invest themselves in the local community.

Jacket Test: Nine 1 One NGT.BC.006 ANSI CLASS II DUTY JACKET

I got this jacket in a round about way via a friend who ordered one for himself intending to use it as a cycling jacket. It was too small for him, but fit me perfectly and rather than send it back, he sold it to me.

Keep in mind that I am not a professional reviewer and am merely expressing my opinion based on what I have observed. As a rule, I try to be balanced and fair when discussing a product and will only report what I have noticed about it for the use that I put it to. In this case, I will refrain from comment on the jacket's effectiveness as an EMS jacket since I have no clue what the requirements of such a garment would be for that use.

So, here goes.

This is one heck of a jacket. I use it as a general wear jacket when being seen is important and when I want to be out of the wind. The fit is very good for cycling and is cut in such a way that it won't ride up even when down in the dropouts on a cross or road bike. There is enough flex in the jacket that moving about is very easy to do (on that note, keep in mind that the sizing is very precise and that if you a burly individual, you will want bigger than a large - I am size 34 around the waste (and shrinking) and a large does me well). I find that I am warm walking about in bitter fall winds and that there is very little to no wind leaking through the sealed zippers.

Tire Test: Schwalbe CX Pro cyclocross tires

First off, I am not a tire tester. I just ride bikes.

Most of my riding is done on my Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike and most of that riding is done on rail trails. This is what forms my "test bed" for trying out various bike kit.

The rail trail I ride on is comprised of gravel, stone, lime dust chip, and slimy clay. During the fall season, a layer of wet decomposing leaves covers the trail and can make traction interesting as any minor inconsistencies in the trail are covered up and when wet they can be slippery. There are no hills to speak of - just gradual inclines which often take several km to cross. The trail is ideally suited for knobby cyclocross tires although regular hybrid tires (700x30-38c tire size) suitable for commuting also work well.

During the summer months, I was using a set of inexpensive commuter tires which quickly disintegrated on the gravel. They offered OK low rolling resistance, but were a little sketchy when the ground was wet. Due to a dumb move on my part involving a drill and my bike rack (don't ask...) I had to replace the rear tire. I opted to put the original tires the bike came with back on the bike until I got around to getting some better rubber. Once they wore down, I opted for the Schwalbes.

further thoughts on the benefits of small

I have stated publicly that for most of the photography that I like to do, smaller cameras do not equate intrinsically to better. On many Internet fora - particularly ones which cater to the 4/3 community (encompassing Olympus and Panasonic 4/3 cameras and the surging m4/3 class of camera from many makers) - there is significant debate about and, dare I say it, hate directed towards the larger cameras out there. This seems particularly true if the large camera is made by Olympus.

Olympus has long stated that one of the key advantages of the 4/3 system is a smaller size when compared to the offerings of other dslr manufacturers. They claim that their cameras and lenses are smaller. To a large extent, they have delivered on this promise when you consider the size of the lenses they make and compare them to lenses which offer an equivalent field of view when put on a full frame camera. However, to many, the sheer bulk of a camera like mine - the E-3 - and the HG or SHG class of lenses makes the promise of small to be a bit of a joke.

What "equivalent" means when comparing things like field of view, depth of field and admission of light to the sensor across different systems is a subject of debate. To me, these debates are largely irrelevant. Each sensor standard - be it 4/3, aps-c, aps-h, or 135 - has its own strengths and weaknesses. Throw in the variation each camera manufacturer brings to the table regardless of which sensor standard they choose regarding picture output and the debate becomes even more confused. The trick is to decide which output from which system you like and to go with the one which gives you the look you desire and meets the needs of the kind of photography you do. Trying to use one tool to do the job of another tool and then complaining when it doesn't work out seems a bit silly.

Which brings me to the subject of small as being intrinsically better. It isn't. It is merely different.

I would personally not like to hang a heavy zoom lens (like my 50-200, which while heavy and fairly bulky, is not heavy when compared to the SHG line of lenses from Olympus) on a small camera body no matter what the quality of the camera is. The ergonomics simply don't work for me. Ergonomics are so personal and so important that they have become one of a few deal breakers for me when I purchase anything. I prefer a larger bulkier camera for doing things like wildlife photography or event shooting.

Until Olympus released the E-5 and proved beyond a doubt to my eyes that they can compete IQ wise with the smaller 4/3 sensors, I was seriously considering moving to Canon. Almost everyone I know uses Canon. Canon makes superb gear, but their camera bodies (at least the ones I could reasonably afford) do not fit my hands and are not comfortable to hold. I would not like using them even though the results people are getting with them are terrific. I was actually not happy at the prospect of moving away from the E-3 form factor to one that to my hands is "inferior" ("inferior" to me - I know many users of other cameras who say "ewwww" when they hold my E-3 - it has to do with the shape of my hands).

Having said that, the E-3 is not a great tool for shooting in other circumstances. I am finding it too "in your face" for many family events that I want to photograph. My non-photographer family members feel the dslr is too intrusive. I get that. It is also fairly big and obnoxious when used in some urban environments.

This brings me to the finally fulfilled promise of the 4/3 system: the m4/3 cameras.

I am starting to really like the idea of a camera which can match the results of my E-3 and fits in the pocket of a jacket. I am liking it so much that the odds of me getting an E-5 any time soon are dropping as I debate saving for an EPL-1 and a panasonic 20mm lens for using with family events and for street shooting. I am also really missing the camera when on my bike and a m4/3 camera would fit that role very nicely.

Here are a few samples of this combo from one of my contacts on pbase for you to look at: http://www.pbase.com/surfnmoto2/lake_tahoe

Not all of those are EPL-1 photos, but some are - check the exif.

Cheers and have a good day.

a bit of this and that

There is a wonderful feeling when a major project at work is complete. I do love it.

It has been a strange few days around here. Firstly, I managed a 70km ride last Saturday between Cambridge and Brantford. The ride out was fantastic - three of us went - and fast. However, for some reason, I was not into it mentally and "ran out of gas" about 15km from the end. I had to be towed back (ironically, the person who towed me is someone that I got into cycling a number of years ago who, in return, got me back into it this year.) Sucking wheels because you are too weak to keep up sometimes sucks. ha ha. My reason for not being mentally all there had to do with that then unfinished work project.

Sunday, I had a wonderful run. I managed about 12.25km or so at over 11km per hour. I am not fast, but am consistent with my speed. What made the run great was the fact that for most of it, I felt like I was floating. It was as effortless as the ride the day before hurt. Guess who had the work project almost done?

Monday was good too. I commuted in on my bike (30km round trip) and had a terrific day at work. All went wonderfully, and the work project ended complete by the end of the evening.

Which brings us to today's festivities - another 42 km of rail trails. We flew. It was nice and fast and mentally, I was right on and able to totally ignore minor leg burn and just keep the hammer down. Wonderful.

I don't think I should really push it when the work pressure mounts. Good thing it doesn't mount like that often - only three times a year usually.

***

In other news, last Saturday, my daughter flew into the house all frantic and asked (begged?) to go to the place where her friends were going - namely a roller derby in New Hamburg.

We looked at each other.

We thought about it.

We said, ok.

It was not what I was expecting. Let's be honest, I was not sure what to expect, but I was not expecting to have as much fun as I had. All three of us - plus my daughter's friend and her family - had a total hoot.

Here is the result:

The lighting was a challenge. You see, arenas with black painted ceilings to not make for perfect photo venues. I found myself at iso3200 (not an Olympus E-3's strong suit unless you get the exposure perfect) and my lens wide open and struggling to maintain 1/200 a second shutter speed. It was enough to make me pine, ever so slightly, for the 1d mkIII I saw someone using. I shall have to practice a bit more and see what happens next time. I should think with better panning technique, I could sustain a lower shutter speed and drop the iso to 1600 which is a much better option for my current gear. Also, it would give a nice bit of motion blur should I get it right.

Going back is going to happen :)

over the falls in a barrel of laughs

This weekend past, Carrie and I went to Niagara Falls, on the Ontario side.

There is something vaguely amusing to me about that place.

I think it has something to do with the architecture...

We set out from home at about 7:30 in the morning and got there around 9:20 or so. We did not rush.

On the way in, I noted that the light was absolutely perfect for a day of wandering around and taking pictures. I managed to spend the entire time shooting at iso 100 with decent shutter speeds - not something I am used to. Lately, I have not had a lot of time to get out with the camera, and when I do get out, the light is usually not so great.

One of the joys of urban shooting in a place like Niagara Falls is that it is such a tourist trap. Wandering about taking pictures of everything with a huge dslr is not something that even gets noticed. I like street shooting, but am not very good at it since I feel a photographer should blend in with the scenery, and that is hard to do with a large camera. Odds are because I feel I stick out, I do. I suspect it is one of those self fulfilling prophesies. However, it is not hard to understand why the greats of street photography's history used small fast cameras - it is much easier to be a part of the scene when that is the case I think.

On my list of things to get (my someday list - my want to get in the reasonably near future list is quite different) is a camera more suited for urban photography than my Olympus dslr gear. I am debating between saving for a micro 4/3 camera or some other similar kind.

If I go that route, I will likely get one of the digital Pens. I would prefer one with a built in EVF but would not balk at getting an ep-2 with the electronic hot shoe mounted view finder. It is supposed to be quite something. For what I am interested in doing, I don't think I want any of the current m4/3 lenses except for maybe the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens. That one is supposed to be terrific and would end up image stabilized on an Olympus body which can be handy. Some of the better lens makers have joined up with the m4/3 consortium and are releasing some truly special glass (manual focus only) like this one: Voightlander 25mm f.95 with a native m4/3 mount. Yep, f.95. That would be one special piece of glass and worth getting a Pen for all by itself and would be an ideal focal length for street shooting.

I have given some thought to cameras such as the Canon G11 type, and have decided that as nice as they are, I don't want one. They hit all the right buttons except for low light shooting, and that is something any street specific camera I buy needs to be able to do.

I like wandering about after dark with the camera and already run into some fun with the E-3 in urban street light at night, so the performance of the G11 is not something that would work for me in those conditions.

However, should Panasonic release the camera they are rumoured to have on the go, I would be very interested. It is a Leica lensed camera with a low f-stop, non interchangeable, which hits the "walk around" zoom range well, and has a 4/3 sensor behind the glass and is not significantly bigger than the LX-3. Now that would be fine. Mighty fine.

***

The rest of the weekend passed fairly calmly - two 43 km rail trail rides, one 12.5 km run, a bit of work, and since it was Turkey Day here in Canada, some Turkey and family.

It was good.

out with the camera for a spell

I finally managed to get out with the camera for a spell.

Work has been so busy, that getting out to just do some shooting is not happening much.

Last night, while my wife was at the dojo, my daughter and I spent some time together downtown. We have this tradition of going out for coffee together while Mel is at the dojo. Often, I take the camera, and often, she is the subject.

I was told that for each shot I got of her, I was getting one done of me :)

Tonight, I managed to get out and get some shots of the birds. The light was simply marvelous, but only one photo is worthy of sharing from this evening's take, and even it is kind of off.

Sunday should be a good day. I am off to Niagara Falls very early for the morning light and photos of Clifton Hill.

I think I ought to take up smokin'

I had this interesting conversation with a person I know the other day. We were standing out in front of a coffee shop. It was the kind of coffee shop which has a laptop on every table with at least two or three people huddled around basking in the electronic glow.

"Geeks," he muttered.

I made some comment about it not being too bad, and he responded with something to the effect that he meant no insult (he didn't). I quipped that geeking at a coffee shop with a laptop is not that expensive a hobby, and that everyone needs a hobby. He gasped, and said, "Not expensive?!?" and took a drag on his cigarette.

That is why I think I should take up smokin'.

You see, it must be cheap if a laptop looks expensive.

Supposing I decided to destroy my lungs, heart, and all that at a rate of 1 pack of ciagrettes a day, I would be spending approximately $10 CDN daily without obtaining any real benefit to myself. A tenner a day. Pocket change!

Until you consider this: 10 dollars a day times 365 days a year equals 3650 dollars a year. Hrmmmmmm. Nice pockets. That would nicely cover something I would very much like to get to support my "expensive" hobby, with rather a lot to spare.

There is this wonderful lens that I have had my eye on for quite a little while. It is the Zuiko Digital 150mm f2 SHG lens from Olympus. It would make doing this:

and this:

 

and this:

much more enjoyable.



I just checked and I can get it for 1900 USD from a reputable retailer, leaving me with enough for a lovely Olympus E-5 to go along with it.

So I definately need to start smokin' (some money, that is, into a bank account at the rate of 10 a day for one year) so I can get a lens that is smokin' hot and a smokin' new camera to go with it.

Wonder what I would do with the next year's worth of smoke money?

energy sucking rain

There is nothing like it for sucking energy out of yourself. Rain.

Today, Rob and I cycled from Cambridge to Brantford via Paris on the rail trail. For most of the ride, it sprinkled rain, or poured. The temperature hovered around 8 degrees Celcius.

This does two things to you when riding: one, the trail becomes very soft relative to what it is like when dry which adds considerable drag, and two, the temperature, combined with the wet, sucks the energy out of you making a 68km ride feel more like 100.

Nevertheless, it was a terrific ride. We set out at a brisk pace and warmed up in about 2 km. The trail was virtually empty of people, and we were able to maintain a good clip without undue effort. This prompted us to bypass Paris and head on into Brantford - I cannot get out on the bike tomorrow, so extra km today were a good idea.

It did not really start to rain hard until we started back.

We got soaked.

***

Have you ever noticed how strange people behave when they are in a group of like minded people? 

I have encountered groups of cyclists on the road or on the trails that are wonderful people - chatty, friendly, interested in making new friends - who, when they encounter another trail user, become strangely psychotic and aggressive, yelling and screaming at people who are slower than them or who "get in their way" somehow. 

I have seen this same mentality with groups of runners.

It is truly odd since I am willing to bet that most people who act like that from the protection of the group would not consider acting like that when alone. The pack mentality is a strange thing.

Take today. We encountered a very pleasant group of people around our age and younger (I will let you guess what that means) who had done some canoeing on the Grand River. They, like us, were soaking wet and they, like us, were just going about their business and walking onto and down the rail trail. There must have been about 40 of them. They filled the trail from grass edge to grass edge and left no room to go around.

Virtually every single person or group of people we have met on the trails has been considerate. There exists this mutual understanding that all of us are trying to get where we are going and trying to enjoy the trail equally. People say hi, slow down, move over, give each other space. Dog owners pull in their loose dogs. People smile. Not too shabby.

This group did not do that. They would not move. In their defence, they probably were not expecting a couple of soaked cyclists to appear, but ringing the bell, saying excuse me politely, asking for a bit of room, and even pointing out in reasonable tones that we cannot go around and and have to get through produced almost no effect. It took almost five minutes of very slow manouvering to get through. It was truly bizzare. Every one was super friendly, but they would not share the trail willingly.

The pack took over.

It makes me wonder what they thought of us trying to get through.

***

Back to the ride. I ran out of "gas" about 10 km from the end. The cold and wheel sucking trail had done its work and I needed fuel. I felt great, but had no energy.

The sad part is, I want to go out again even as I write this.