Lager and memory

I did get out for a ride this morning on the Lager, my fixed gear bike. It was a lovely morning, bright and sunshiny, a little windy, but the sky was clear blue and everything was bright. It wasn’t very early. I was avoiding the colder early morning temperatures and figured I could enjoy some morning coffee and a little internet before hopping on the bike. So I headed out at about ten-thirty.

About the first thing I discovered when I began the ride is that I had neglected to charge my cycling computer. That is one of the big drawbacks of using the Garmin GPS computer. It does need to be charged between rides, unlike some of the other computers that just have to have the battery replaced every year or so. But since I didn’t have a computer I don’t have any stats today. I know I did about 16 miles because it’s a familiar route, and I left the house sometime around ten-thirty, as already mentioned, and I returned around eleven-forty-five. Which would mean I wasn’t maintaining an especially high pace, but then again I usually have a little slower overall average on the Lager. It’s a good workout though.

I did bring my camera along for the ride. The trick with taking photographs while on a bike ride is that you really have to will yourself to stop along the side of the road. Even when you do see a scenic view that you think would make a good picture and would convey part of the reason you enjoy being out in the world on your bike, you think to yourself, “but I have such a good pace going. I’ll have to start over again. Oh, there’s a hill up ahead and I don’t want to lose my momentum.” There are any number of reasons to not stop pedaling and take a photograph.

Further, on a slightly chilly day like today I ride with long fingered gloves, which means handling and operating the camera becomes problematic. And then there’s is the simple factor of where to stow the camera while riding. I don’t usually have a whole lot of extra pocket space on the bike.

All that being said, I did bring the camera along. I did stop. I did get the camera out and turned on. And I did discover that I had failed to put the memory card back into the camera when I took yesterday’s pictures off of it last night. So…no pictures from this bike ride. It simply goes to show that I am very much amateur hour with this photography stuff. Lesson learned.

To summarize, one bike ride, no stats and no photographs due to my forgetfulness. Is this what should be expected when I ride a bike called “Lager?”

Project 365 Begins

I’m going to begin Project 365 tomorrow…Saturday the 21st of November. I don’t have any subject in mind for my first photo. I’m just going to let the day happen, but I’ll be sure to keep my camera close, as I will now want to do all the time for the next year.

I’m guessing that I will very quickly bore myself and everyone else with photos of the leaves and foliage in my yard or the local park, the kitty, my bicycles, and generic landscapes. We’ll see if I can’t come up with creative ideas and subjects to shoot.

I think there are two other friends who may be beginning the project too this weekend, and perhaps a third who was still considering. If anyone else wants to do the project you can start whenever you like really. I was just trying to get a couple people interested, and I thought it might be fun to begin on the same day to add some extra encouragement and amusement to the project. But really, anyone can begin participation whenever they like. They’ll just start their own personal year on whatever date they choose.

You can look for my entries to begin tomorrow, at least I’m planning on posting the first one tomorrow, on my Flickr page. I’ll make a set to contain them after I begin posting. I also plan to cross post them, at least some of the time, to this blog.

Something to remember—the main goal is to take the picture, posting is secondary. If I have to wait until the weekend to get them posted…well, that’s going to happen sometimes.

I hope you enjoy my pictures if you are going to follow along, and if you are going to participate, I look forward to enjoying yours.

Photo Project

I’ve been thinking about taking up a photography project. The one I have in mind is Project 365. The idea is that you take a photograph every day for an entire year. It can be of whatever you want.

You can read more about the project here. I would post the results to that Flickr group, and probably also cross-post to this blog. It would sure liven things up around here a little bit.

Anyway, I’m toying with the idea and wanted to see if I could get any encouragement, or even if anyone out there who reads my dull ramblings might want to join me in participating.

I figure it will, for one thing, force me to make better, and more frequent, use of my camera. And probably, in an effort at creativity, I will explore some of the range of functions of the camera that I really haven’t used to date. But keep in mind that I don’t have a super sophisticated camera. That is to say, I don’t have a D-SLR or anything. It’s just a Canon PowerShot — a pocket camera, with no manual control of aperture or shutter, but I’ve been very pleased with the results I’ve been getting from it, and there are things to learn and discover even in simplicity.

How about it? Any opinions? Anyone else want to join me?