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