Serotta test ride

I test rode a new bike today. 2007 Serotta Fierté Ti. Or is it a 2008? Titanium frame with carbon fiber fork, seatstays and seatpost. Shimano Ultegra components. (Fierté is French for pride; I had to look it up :-)

Nice ride. Good price.

This bike is a full 2.9 pounds lighter than my current bike! (And I weighed both bikes myself; I didn't rely on marketing materials or web searches.) My Bianchi Veloce is a steel bike that I've had for nine years and over 30,000 miles. Holy cow, nine years. It's definitely time for a new one.

Bike goodies episode 3 - sunglasses!

Found these on chainlove.com — Tifosi Optics Czar Sunglasses, Metallic Silver/HC. $12.50! (19.34 w/shipping). msrp $37.

My old specs are Smith Moab H/P with interchangeable lenses. I've had them for years and still like the style. But my original platinum (mirrored) lens is badly scratched, and my replacement lens is scratched too. The clear lens got chewed up by my dog. And the rubber nose piece is starting to fall apart. Haven't been able to find any replacement parts lately…

Superwide Zoom

For years I've been wanting a superwide lens to use with my digital SLR. Before going digital I'd had a lot of fun with my manual 20mm prime, but on my digital camera it worked like a 30mm lens.

I've been watching this lens (Sigma 10-20mm) for a while. I especially wanted to buy it after renting that Canon 10-22mm lens last weekend for the Green Acres race.

The Sigma has long been $569. Recently I had seen a used one (a demo model) for $499 and nearly bought it. But it only had a 90-day warranty instead of four years, so I hesitated. And then somebody bought it out from under me just a few days ago.

Looked at my online wishlist tonight and saw that the lens had dropped in price by $90. Woo hoo! So I ordered it right away from B&H Photo (NYC). (I generally split my business pretty evenly between B&H and Adorama.) w/S&H $489.10. Cheaper than that demo lens I nearly got stuck with!

Green Acres CX

Couldn't go to the Sat. race at Afton Alps. But raw bee did. He's created a couple of cool special-effect photos from that race: a "tilt-shift" image that makes the race look like a miniature model, and a "bicycle planet".

Saturday's weather was gorgeous. Sunday, though, was classic cyclocross weather. Now I don't mind 40mph wind gusts, and I can handle temps in the mid-30s, and I don't even mind a little rain/snow mix. But all three at the same time? That was pretty challenging for someone who's just standing around taking pictures. I was dressed properly to keep my core temperature up, and had wool socks to keep my wet feet warm, but my fingers really got cold, making it hard to operate my camera sometimes. Thank goodness the chalet was open and I could warm up in there — and dry off my equipment — between races.

Whenever I was facing upwind, rain and snow-melt would accumulate on the front of my lens, slowly making the resulting photos look foggier and foggier, and lowering the contrast. Had to delete a bunch of these photos — it took me a while to realize what was going on. A lens hood for my 80-200 would've helped. Should have taken plastic bags or some other protection for my gear.

Camster had borrowed a Digital Rebel from the WHS yearbook staff for me, so I was able to rent a Canon 10-22mm lens this weekend from West Photo ($20). I've been wanting to play around with a superwide lens, especially at a cyclocross race, so this was my chance. People may have wondered what that crazy dude was doing, taking pictures just inches away from them. Got some intriguing results; now I definitely want one of these lenses for my very own, for my Pentax camera.

Was glad to see that AlanS added a little color to his kit this weekend, so he made the slideshow! I had been kidding him about wearing all black.

Got home and plugged the Canon's CF card into my PC's built-in card reader. Failure — every card reader stopped working. Tried logout/login, no good. Tried rebooting, same result. Finally looked carefully at the card reader — bent pin! Panic starting to set in. Tried to straighten the pin with tweezers, then with a paper clip. Removed the card reader from the chassis to get better access, still couldn't get to that bent pin. In desperation, took it to a neighbor to see if he had special tools to get to that pin.

Meanwhile I remembered that another neighbor had a Nikon DSLR, so I ran down to their house to see if I could borrow their PC for downloading the pics and burning a DVD or CD. Couldn't get their burner to work! But they offered to drive over to their parents' house to get a USB card reader that I could use. Saved the day!

Big Ring Flyers CX

Hudson, WI — I was disappointed the wooded section of this course was eliminated; it was a challenge to avoid (for the most part) getting buildings, cars, power lines, etc. in the photos.

There was a small section on the course where many of the riders churned sand into the air. Spent some time trying to get some interesting shots of that.

Wished I had a ladder and a superwide lens; a birds-eye view of the crazy chicanes on this course would've been cool.

Dang it! I keep chopping off people's feet, especially at the barriers...

I'm very jealous of this shot by T.C.Worley. (I think he scaled a chain link fence to get it.) I've admired his work for a while, both on his blog and in the New York Times. I'd like to meet him some time. I'll look for him at the next few races.

Another long night; couldn't get access to the home computer till close to midnight. Ended up posting my slideshow link to the mcf.net msgboard at 2:40am. If you think I chose some poor shots for the slideshow, just blame it on fatigue!

Ham Lake CX 2008

• Yuck, had bright sun with harsh, distracting shadows today. I much prefer an overcast sky.
• Felt like I couldn't be as creative today. The course is pretty flat and fast, the venue isn't as picturesque as other recent CX races.
• Bruce at skinnyski did a much better job than I did, getting multiple riders in a single shot (like going around curves).
• My friend Robbie was at the race with his six-foot, bright orange, fiberglass ladder. It was funny to see him carrying that thing through the woods. But he got some good angles that way; looks like he was 20 feet up a tree! I need to try that some day.
• Tried a little panning at 1/180 sec to get just a small amount of background blur on a fast curve, and blur in the wheels and pedals. Those turned out well.
• Pay it forward: found a thermal vest by the side of the road after the races, and turned it in. JHelmbrecht really appreciated that!

BSBC ride

Had a great lunchtime ride today. For various reasons (work, photography, etc.) I hadn't ridden in a full week, so I was well rested. Temps started at 48 degrees, with brilliant sunshine. Eight guys showed up and Robbie brought his Canon G9 camera.

This is one pic from the ride. Robbie's blog has more, including a video of our Snail Lake Hill climb, where I'm at the back of the group. Not off the back, but at the back.

Wirth Classic Cup CX

I tried and failed last weekend to get a good, tight shot of wheels splashing thru mud, so I tried again this weekend to get the same kind of shot in the soft dirt. I got one that I'm really happy with — the first pic in my slideshow. I have no idea who it is in the photo, but the skull socks make it just that much cooler.

In general I tried to be a little more creative this week. Instead of just getting "sports action" pictures of individual cyclists, I was going for more "art" and composition. I was trying to capture the ambiance of the event. The autumn colors helped, and so did the overcast sky — it's like an enormous softbox.

Walked/jogged around the entire course at least two full times, looking for the most interesting vantage points. Found a spot in the woods, just before the barrier with all the hecklers, where there was loose dirt in a right-hand turn. Good location for skids, flying dirt, and a few harmless crashes. At another location, I got this photo that I especially like. It just seems so weird for a line of cyclists to be parading thru the woods to make a u-turn.

Stuff I missed:

• bike-pushing after a barrier (Bruce at skinnyski got some good photos of this)
• the whole party atmosphere around the hecklers

Misc:

• my daughter's busy working on a senior paper, and my wife's finishing her master's thesis. so when I got home I mowed the yard and then took a nap; I didn't get access to our home computer until midnight, and didn't finish my slideshow till 3:30 am. yawn...
• Something I've learned (I remember learning this last year, but I forgot it and had to relearn it): stick with 1/500 sec or 1/750 to stop action; don't expect 1/350 to do the job, especially if riders are streaking right-to-left or left-to-right across the frame.
• 1/45 sec seems just about ideal for panning to get background blur.
• wide-angle photography: that's one of the fun things about this sport; you can get pretty dang close to the action. I really really want a superwide lens though; 18mm (27mm in the old film world) just doesn't always cut it.
• Worried that many of my photos are too "warm" or yellowish. Wish the camera had a color temperature dial for adjusting the white balance.
• I keep thinking about sticking my camera on a monopod, poking it out there snug up against a barrier, and tripping the shutter remotely. I wonder if that's feasible.
• Finally, I've started resizing the files (for upload to flickr) using a PaintShopPro script instead of Jasc Image Robot. That preserves the EXIF info for each photo.

Hudson Riverfront CX

What a difference a day makes! I'm glad I rode yesterday (warm, dry, and sunny) and not today (colder, wet, and muddy). My poor bike-handling skills would have killed me on a technical course like this one. But the change in weather led to more interesting photos.

Saw three co-workers (and fellow lunchtime riders) at today's races: AlanS in the C's, ErikM in the B's on his singlespeed, and GuyA in the A's. Erik and Guy both made the highlight reel, i.e. my slideshow.

Ran into Frye during the A race and admired his new camera. He had given me a shout-out during his race, so I tried to return the favor with a quality photo or two. I also sorta met JimmerC out on the course while he was warming up, so I tried to get a few decent pics of him. I called out Good Luck to StevenCX but I don't think he knows who the heck I am. And All the Way Ray gave me a warning shout as he was threatening to barrel into me on a slippery off-camber corner. I'm pretty happy with this photo I got of him (left).

Thoughts about my photos:

• Was very worried it would be raining all day; brought plastic bags and duct tape in case I needed to protect my equipment. Luckily the rain stopped right before the start of the C race. Also brought bug spray just in case, but got very few bites.
• Oh how I wish I had a second camera body, so I wouldn't hafta waste time swapping lenses (80-200 f/2.8 and 18-50 f/2.8).
• Generally disappointed in the shots I got at the fallen log; difficult to focus in the woods there. Happy with the shots along the sandy beach; should've taken more pics along the beach.
• Tried to get a tight shot of wheels splashing thru mud but never quite got what I was after.
• Dang it's tricky getting the right exposure when there's lots of water or sky, and when trying to shift quickly between woods and open sky.

Someone asked me whether these photos are cropped or as shot. Most of these (from Corcoran and Hudson) are straight out of the camera. I think I cropped 3 or 4, adjusted the brightness/contrast/noise on three, and cleaned up dust on one.

Corcoran CX - photos

I went early so I could take pictures of the "A" and "B" races before my "C" race started.

Some thoughts about my photos:

• Should have gotten a big-picture overview of the roller coaster. I really failed to capture the essence of it.
• I know there were only six women racing in the Open category, but I still feel like I didn't get enough pictures of them. However I do like the way this photo shows some of the competition among them.
• Didn't really get any decent pics of the tricky gravelly corners, especially the hay-bale corner.
• Oh how I wish I had faster autofocus and a super-wide lens.
• I'm really happy with my SuperRookie photo; the unique cropping was kind of a happy accident.

Corcoran CX - my 1st race

This was the first cyclocross race I've ever entered. PaulaP let me borrow her 'cross bike and gave me a brief training session, and EricM gave me a few tips, then I was off to the races! I had two modest goals:

• finish the race anywhere but dead last (DFL)
• be able to walk the next day

A unique and fun part of the Corcoran course was the supercross/motocross section --- crazy 5-foot high bumps and a steeply-banked turn. It was a roller coaster.

I started at the back of the 61-rider field, intent on trying to stay out of trouble. But I quickly started passing people on the wide-open, flat sections. When we got to the barriers, though, my lack of experience & skills started to hurt me. My remounts and clipping in were pretty sloppy. But I never crashed, and I never caused anyone else to crash. On one lap near the start/finish line DanielC cheered me on; it's amazing how much it helps to get a little encouragement from the crowd.

There was one point where I went off course when I got distracted by EricW taking photos of me. :-) My race was only a 30-minute timed event (I'm not even sure how many laps we did), but I'm glad it wasn't any longer. I found myself being grateful for the downhills where I could coast a little and recuperate.

I finished in 42nd and lived to tell about it. So I met both of my goals! I even lapped four riders, and didn't get lapped myself. Not sure when/if I'll do another CX race, but it was an interesting and fun experience.

Photos from EricW...