dj whitebread

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Driveway

I headed out to the driveway tonight. I took my bike and I took my camera. I knew things were going to be challenging on the bike as we'd be going up the corkscrew, so I would need to be able to deal with the surge in power up the short and steep part. I knew things were going to be challenging with the camera as I would be photographing at an effective focal length of 50mm. But, I was determined to deal with both challenges.

First the bike side. I did better than before. I still didn't hang on the whole time, but I hung on for half the race. Marked improvement over the last few times. I felt surprisingly good going up the corkscrew. What got to me eventually wasn't my legs, but the time at effort. The climbing I've been doing has been paying off to improve my leg strength. Now I need to start being more disciplined about my training to work in some more structured intervals to get my aerobic fitness improving.

On that note I am actually considering using one of the various excellent coaching services we have in town. I think I would respond well to a structured plan with a real human on the other end. Anyway, more on that in a future post.

On the photography side, the light was a little challenging. The shadows were still pretty harsh, but I got some that I liked. (June in Black and White Day 4)

For example, there is a picture of Dave Wenger before the P/1/2/3 race. His face is in shadow, but the rest of him is in the sun. Obviously not good. However, Dave's an outstanding guy so I kept the picture in the set. He's also doing the standard "waiting for the race to start" pose.

But now to some that I like:

The above is one of three pictures I got as the riders races up and around the corkscrew. The other two I like a little better, but I've cropped them short and wide, so you'll have to head over to flicker to check them out (1, 2... I really like 1 ;) ). This one is neat because of the shadows coming in as sharp lines. The grade of the corkscrew is also such so that everything really feels up and to the right giving nice motion.