Seven-Years Ago (14-September-2012) — Belgium

Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 22: Field Trip to Brugge, Belgium.

Street Photograph of Bicycles in Motion in Bruges. There are lots of bicycle riders in Belgium. My goal was to photograph them with the bicycle and rider in focus with the background in motion to give the viewer the impression that the bicycle was moving. You need to focus on the rider and keep moving the camera to keep the subject centered for a long exposure (~ 1/15 sec). In normal daylight even at f/16 the image is overexposed. You can use a filter. On this day the sky was cloudy, and I could just get away with a 1/15 second exposure. I think I had a 1 in 10 success rate for the day to get these 5 images.


Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.


Saturday (07-September-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Three of the Sourland Spectacular Bicycle routes passed by my house. The Sourland Spectacular is a charity event that supports the Sourland Mountains. I put a Garmin VIRB-360 camera up on my mailbox to record the early morning riders. Unfortunately, the plug to the external battery pack fell out, so the camera only recorded an hour of activity. There were a couple of heavy dump trucks that passed by. I wouldn’t want to be a bike rider on these narrow roads with those trucks passing.

Daily Electric Energy Used (37.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (55.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny in the morning, some clouds in the afternoon. Still cool enough that the windows can be left open and no need to run the Geothermal HVAC. Overall a net surplus of 18.7 kWh (almost making up for yesterday.

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Thursday (29-November-2018) — New Jersey

Elby Electric Bicycle.

I picked up an Elby 9-speed electric bicycle. Some assembly required — attach the left pedal, and straighten the handlebars. Plus adjustments to the seat height. My last bicycle was a single-speed Schwinn that I had trouble getting up the hill to my house. The Elby has four-levels of power assist, and four-levels of battery regeneration (when going downhill or breaking). A bit of a learning curve to figure out how to use the SRAM X5 derailleur for shifting since the levers were a bit too close to the RC3 controller. I also installed a mount for my Garmin VIRB-360 camera (the bike has a USB power outlet). Once I got things figured out, the power-assist was great, and got me up the hill to my house. One potential downside is that the company that provided the BionX 500 watt DC motor for the bike went bankrupt. I look forward to having the bike along for my next road trip.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Elby-9 Electric Bicycle. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 7 camera (ISO 200, 21 mm, f/4, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)

Sunday (18-March-2018) — New Jersey

Late-Winter Bike Race in New Jersey.

The other day I noticed some yellow turn signs on the side of the road near my house. I went online, and found that there would be a 80 mile bike race “Hell of Hunterdon” that would pass my driveway on Sunday morning. The race was scheduled to start at the nearby Elks lodge in Blawenburg. A little after 09:00 I went out with a camera and started taking pictures. I probably should have set up a tripod and automatic shutter because my hands and fingers got really cold.


Three-Years Ago (14-September-2012) — Belgium

Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 22: Field Trip to Brugge, Belgium.

Street Photograph of Bicycles in Motion in Bruges. There are lots of bicycle riders in Belgium. My goal was to photograph them with the bicycle and rider in focus with the background in motion to give the viewer the impression that the bicycle was moving. You need to focus on the rider and keep moving the camera to keep the subject centered for a long exposure (~ 1/15 sec). In normal daylight even at f/16 the image is overexposed. You can use a filter. On this day the sky was cloudy, and I could just get away with a 1/15 second exposure. I think I had a 1 in 10 success rate for the day to get these 5 images.


Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.