Archive for the 'cycling' Category
Two-wheelers
This was the warmest day of the year so far, and I wanted to make the most of it. The first task for today was to shoot some flowers before the winded picked up.
After that, time to start my cycling season. The first impression when I picked up the bike was that it was light – no trouble lifting this one off the ground… My thigh muscles were not quite happy about pedalling up the hills, but I wasn’t entirely dead beat when I finished my trip so it’s good news.
Later in the afternoon I swapped the bicycle for a motored version and took out the Tricker for a longer ride. I wasn’t sure how comfortable it would be to ride for 30+ km at one stretch, but it turned out to be just fine – I had mostly worried that my hands would go numb, but there were no such problems. In fact, the biggest worry turned out to be my cornering (no surprises there, really). When came into a sharp curve, I was horrified to notice that I was heading awfully straight in relation the curve in the road. Problem was of course that I wasn’t leaning enough, but I had enough presence of mind to release the gas so I managed to stay on the tarmac, if with the smallest of margins. The funny thing about this curve is that I always seem to misjudge it – winter and summer, I find myself breaking in the middle of the bend when I’ve once again driven too fast into it. And it’s not like I don’t know that the curve is there! Anyway, this one almost-mishap aside, the ride went smoothly and it feels like I’m getting more and more confident on the bike after every trip. At one point I even caught myself thinking about something completely else than the bike and the road!
Finally, hepatica
In the past years I’ve sworn not to show any of my hepatica pictures, because I was so fed up with all the hepatica crap that people posted on Fotosidan. Well, that problem is easily cured – I stopped visiting Fotosidan. Thus, I can now finally post a hepatica picture of my own. Not saying that this is necessarily any better than the aforementioned crap on the forums, but it’s my blog!
Canon 100mm f2.8 USM Macro at almost closest focusing distanceIt’s been a while since I’ve used the 100mm macro, have done most of my closeup work with the 300mm f4 since I got it two years ago. I’ve all but forgotten the results the 100mm lens produces… it is one painfully sharp lens! I can count the pollen grains in this picture. The 300mm is not a dud either, but it is very unforgiving with any mistakes in closeup focusing. Not that any lens can compensate for such, but it feels like it’s easier to get the focus right with the 100mm lens than the 300 ditto. My project for the summer is to do more macro and explore flowers in detail, instead of doing “mugshots” with the 300mm lens like I’ve done in recent years. Other than that, I just want to learn to know the flowers a little better!
It’s an incredibly warm weekend with temperatures closing up on 20 degrees centigrade in the shade. Perfect weather for cycling, this sure feels like May! Just had a look at the long forecast and by Thursday we could already be having temperatures close to zero. That would be more normal for the season…
1 commentSummer
We had an unusually warm early May, then it got cold and it was an unusually cold early June. But now it’s summer, with sunshine all around and plenty warm enough for me. In fact, too hot – photography becomes less fun when you can’t decide what’s bothering you more, the mosquitos buzzing around you or the sweat running down your face.So I re-started my cycling season. Warm as it is, it’s a great feeling to roll down a hill at 40 kph with the breeze providing a momentary relief from the heat, then pedal down to the lake and soak your feet in the cool water, watch the gentle waves and listen to the birds singing… Summer indeed!
No commentsTwo wheels
From skis to wheels. Beautiful weather to start the cycling season – last year I was out too early and got a cold. So I took out the bike and it was in great shape, just needed to pump some air and the Scott was good to go. I did a short tour yesterday, didn’t want to overdo it to spare myself from too much training ache. But all that skiing in the winter seems to have paid off, because even the uphills didn’t totally kill me, apart from that last bit back up home which always has me shifting to the lightest gear while pedalling up at a pedestrian speed.So no training aches, but definitely very saddle sore. But somehow you get used to everything… so I had a great time doing another little tour wearing shorts and a t-shirt, on May the 7th. It happens.
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