Wisconsin Roadbike Phototrekking

So last weekend I finally decided to strap my tripod and camera to the back of my bike (making it much heavier!!) for one of my weekly country backroad bike rides. I've been getting into road biking quite a bit lately, and have put about 480 miles on my bike that I got one month ago.

Madison is really an ideal place to go roadbiking, because I can ride 8 miles from the downtown area and feel like I'm in the middle of the country. So I tried to capture some of it on film. I know, I didn't get the best light, but I tried to convey that it was a hot day in which to go biking. I ended up logging about 49 miles that day, and filled up my memory card with a couple of panoramic series. I got a new panoramic tripod head, which basically holds the rotational point of the lens (which is almost never where the tripod socket is) steady. This allows both the foreground and background elements of panoramic series to align much more easily, and therefore you can make more interesting panoramas.

This shot is from a composite of 14 images, although I cropped off a few of the frames on the right side to make it more visually stimulating. Enjoy. (Sorry about the size, but I had to keep the width within the 640 pixel limit!)

Nice shot, this could be an interesting series of prints. Looks a lot like some of the areas just outside of the city here.

<i>"...so I tried to capture some of it on film. I know, I didn't get the best light, but I tried to convey that it was a hot day in which to go biking. I ended up logging about 49 miles that day, and filled up my memory card ....."</i>

I was just reading what I wrote, and that doesn't make sense. Yes I was shooting digital, but I think I'll always use the expression 'on film'. Like Kleenex and Jello.

Thanks for the comment another view, I'll look into making this a series once I get a better feeling for what does and does not work with the panoramic head. If you want to see some amazing things done with a digital camera, check out Max Lyon's stuff at http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/ . Pretty amazing.

I really like it, Bob! Very interesting shot! The only picky detail I would say I don't like is I wish the top of the foremost telephone pole was included in the shot. I don't like how the post disappears out of the frame.

I'm extremely interested in panoramic (stitched) shots lately, and I think I should get this tripod head of which you speak. What brand, etc. is it?

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for the comments. I wish the top of the telephone pole was in the frame too, but it's hard for me to know at this point how the stitching software will behave. It seems there's a longer learning curve than I expected.

I'm using the Panosauraus tripod head mentioned on Max Lyons' site (see above), but you might want to wait until I give it a more thorough run-through before you go ahead and buy it. Maybe I'll bring it to the Chicago Gathering??? But anyway, check out some of Max Lyons' galleries if you haven't already.

later,
Bob