trying to get back into a bit of riding before I give Ole' Saint Nick a run for his money in the weight department. Yea, I'm getting, or should I just fess up and say I'm out of shape! Haven't been to the gym all that much....same with riding my bikes - Nada! Longest ride has been maybe just over an hour in the last several months. I've set up the trainier with my Cross bike on it - yup! not a single cross race this year - probably should have justr sold the bike, but I'm hanging onto it for that slim chance I'll race cross next year. Sunday was the day I was plannning my first "real" group ride. The Deep Blue Cycling team has a ride going out of Wilmington DE that will go 40 or 70 miles - I wanted to try and see if I could even finish the 40 mile ride. Woke up (it was my birthday) and feeling lazy as usual I bagged the ride and slept in (shocker!!). Decided later in the morning that I would just head out on my own for a short ride. Shortly into my ride I came across some of the Iron Hill Club and they did not seem to mind that I hang with them for a portion of their ride......I was riding pretty much the exact same route as they were anyway. It was nice to actually get out a ride with a few people instead of riding all by myself. In the end I actually road for just over 2 hour and 40 miles - nothing earth shattering, but it's a start.
Hopeing NEXT WEEK to make a group ride with someone somewhere just to try and start getting some miles on my legs and fit back into some of my pants.
Photography related - I had sent in pretty much all my main equipment into Nikon for service or repair (always comes in 3's). D300 body was having some issues with the preview button, D700 had a grain of sand stuck in the playback button that caused the entore back panel to not work....and my main concern was my 300vr f/2.8 was still not tracking focus correctly. This is a $4500 lens that was heading back to Nikon for the 3rd time for the same problem. Nikon is a GREAT company and after a very easy discussion with the Service Department, they agreed to replace the lens with a BRAND NEW 300vr f/2.8! Just got the new lens last week so will have to get it out for a test run.
Saturday was the Beacon Cyclocross race being held in Bridgeton NJ. Even though I was not racing, Beacon is one of my favorite courses and was where I got my start into cyclocross racing a few years ago. The weather was mixed for the day - overcast with on and off rain showers causing difficult shooting conditions especially since a lot of the course is covered in trees. I just picked up a Nikon D700 body which is a Full Frame camera. I thought this would be an excellent day to put it to its "High ISO" test not using any flash. All I can say is I was greatly impressed with the camera. I ended up shooting quite a bit at ISO levels up to 6400 and was amazed at the low noise levels. The slide show I am running below is showing examples of some high ISO images (3400-6400) with the D700. Since the Slide Show only shows small, low resolution captures of the larger image - if your interested you can view larger versions of the images here: High ISO Images
Unfortunately one of the buttons on the back of the D700 body ended up getting stuck causing none of the buttons on the camera to work :( so I only got to shoot with the body for about 1/2 of the race, the rest I had to shoot with my D300 and needed to use flash.
With all my involvement in my daughters soccer, I thought I would show some images I've taken from a few recent games.
Both my daughters have been playing on travel soccer teams this year. Ella with the Hockessin U9 Girls A team (which I have been an Asst Coach) and Maeve with the SCCSC U12 Girls B team. Both really love playing the game and are developing into solid players. I really hope they stick with it as I really think each has some solid potential to become top players. My son, William started playing as well this.....so it ends up we have soccer practice/games going on every day of the week now except Fridays.
On a side note, check out the new Voler Custom Cycling Clothing, they picked up some of my images for their web site catalog.
So what the heck have I been doing? Been busing with a lot of nothing!
Haven't been photographing a lot of races.....seems like most of the races have been falling on days where I am unable to make them.
All three of my kids a full into soccer right now, we have a practice going on every day of the week except Fridays....games on Saturdays and Sundays (sometimes both girls have game the same day).
Today was supposed to be the opening games for both my girls Travel Teams; Maeve is playing on the SCCSA U12 B team and Ella is on the HSC U9 A team (which I have been assistant coaching). Tropical storm cancelled Saturdays games, but both play tomorrow so I'm excited to see how each plays and how their team perform.
We did a family vacation to the Outer Banks in NC and a weekend trip to Washington DC so I thought I would show some images from these vacations.
....oh and about Cross - anyone looking for an almost Brand New 57cm Orbea cyclocross bike? I might have one for sale :)
Sunday - Fathers Day, I spent photographing the Spinners Cycling Cargas Criterium held in Lancaster PA. Excellent race, thought it's always difficult to get decent background in a commercial business park.
Here is a Slide show of some sample images from the day of racing.
Cost to enter a race $30 entry fee $4 Gatorade $20 new bottle of Hammer Gel $20 Gas $8 lunch Feeling just to finish - Priceless!
I have never gone into a race with a goal just to finish, but this week was different. I have all but given up on racing due to some serious back issues, plus time commitments with my kids activities has pretty much kept me off the bike doing any real type of riding. My 1st mountain bike ride in 10 months was last Monday with Green Niner John (formerly know as Green Trek John) and I struggled...a lot! Decided right then and there I was not going to come out of retirement and attempt to race Saturdays No Cents Mountain Bike Race in Sewell NJ......but later in the week I think I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and was kind of grossed out by what I saw and thought it might be a good idea to race just for the exercise. So I decided to race Sewell this past weekend.
I had 2 goals: #1 was simple - just to finish. Even up to racing last year I was always within distance of possible podium finished - just "to finish" was new to me, but giving what I had to work with, it was a sound goal to have.
#2 - don't finish last!
I always race with a plan of attack so I didn't want to make this race any different. I took a look at the MASS race results from earlier this year and decided I needed to try and say with a few racers that I have raced with over the years and felt I had a decent chance if I could just hang with their wheels. Gary Grim (Pure Energy), John Miller (Guys Racing) and Robert Dudas (Guys Racing - Rob did not race). My plan was just to find any of these wheels and stay with them as long as possible - simple!
On to my race: 4 laps 22 miles, no hills, but no places to recover. Start of the 1st lap and I'm sitting just meters off the main group - much better start than I expected. 1/2 way into the first lap I'm still just sitting off the main group and was feeling great that I was able to hang so close to the leaders - but common sense set in and I knew it was stupid to be anywhere up near the front so I backed off and settled into my own steady pace. At this point I was ahead of Gary and behind John (decent place to be in my "Plan")
2nd lap was more of the same - I held off being passed by anyone and actually was making some passes. I felt pretty decent although I did notice that I was super hot, I can't remember sweating so much in a race...I mean soaken wet head to toe in sweat - I guess fat makes you sweat more?
Start of the 3rd lap I passed John Miller and was still feeling pretty good although my back was now getting pretty sore. I was riding technically sound, steady pace although my results time would show I was around 1:30 slower each lap. Random thoughts started running thru my mind that I could end up having a decent race - stupid again I know!
CRACKED! Yup, that's what happened - very end of the 3rd lap I Cracked. Back started really hurting and I just lost all my energy, just pedaling was a struggle. Both Gary and John passed be by so now my focus changed to goal #1 - Just to Finish! Which I did.
Normally I would have be extremely disappointed in my results - heck, this race results wise is probably my worst ever, but finishing Sewell I was actually very satisfied - almost could say proud of myself! I hung with and ahead of some very good Expert racers (who have been racing all year), I've had very limited riding time (and all that has been on a road bike) with Zero, Zip, Nada intensity - not even a fast group ride!
I put the mountain bike back in the closet...maybe I'll pull the MASS race # by next year?
so to speak..... It's been 9 months since I've been on my mountain bike - that's a record! Last "Group" ride I did was back in the winter..... Last race was Cross in the fall..... So in a nutshell, my cycling time is pretty much dwindled to nothing....I still get out to ride a few days a week (sometimes), but the rides are low intensity. I know my 1st group ride which I'm still trying to get to one...I'll be right off the back the first climb.
But I've been extremely busy. Both my daughters are playing soccer right which has taken on a whole new life of its own. Practice is 4 nights out of the week between the 2 girls and I'm coaching 2of those days, the other two Im watching (or sometimes I'll sneak in a quick bike ride :) Maeve has been practicing and playing with the Girls U11 travel team which has been a great experience for her....until she fractured her arm in a practice, so she has been sidelined for the last 2 1/2 weeks.
We have Games on Saturday and Sunday. Hockessin Travel team tryouts are the next two weeks. Maeve (older daughter) due to her fracture is still hoping to be able to make the tryouts for next week.
Photography: I've been shooting my older daughters soccer games, MASS Team Relay race in Marysville, Some of the Red Rose Races Series Races: Kirkwood and the Tour de Ephrata (2 days with 3 races - Road race, time trial and criterium), Tri for Kids sake Triathlon.
Slide show of some sample images from all of these events.
I don't normally do product reviews......especially since I'm not the best writer nor have a lot of extra time, but I am doing this review since I purchased a product from a little know company and promised them I would I would review their product and post my honest review.
What is the gear a photographer may want for 2008?
I own and have been using the Nikon D200 and just recently received the New Nikon D300. I looked into my list of “Want” items and decided to look into a GPS tagging unit for my Nikon bodies – Neither of these camera bodies have a GPS unit built-in, buy they do feature direct support for one and there is even a GPS menu on the camera itself.
After doing some research on the internet, I found there were many ways to go…..but many of the GPS Tagging units did not have the features I wanted, nor would they satisfy my needs. I was looking for a simple way to GEOTag photos without having to worry about any special software and syncing reqirements after the images were taken. Being able record GPS data directly into the EXIF data of a image SAVES TONS OF TIME as opposed to taking notes (which I never did anyway) and is a whole lot more accurate. There were two products that made my final list and after further research I decided to try a new GPS GEOTagging device, the DP-GPS N1 made by Solmeta Technologies
One main reason that I chose the DP-GPS N1 was that the N1 comes with it’s own internal rechargable battery – so it won’t suck up my cameras power!
I ordered two units and they arrived in a matter of days. My first impression is the materials and construction appear to be of high quality – I fitted the units to my D200 and D300 by the 10 pin connector – which the connection mated up perfectly (as it should). The size and weight are certainly not an issue as the units are small, very lightweight and easy to travel with. Reviewing the operation instructions via the user’s manual was straightforward. Mounting the N1’s: they are designed to sit on the hot-shoe or attach to your cameras strap. I use the hot shoe a lot for a flash remote with off camera flash so I attached the units to my cameras strap.
From the companies website: Unique Features ●SiRF star III chipset 20 channels ●Short initial time, no setup required ●Best hotshoe and ten pin connector solution ●Easy to operate ●Small, lightweight and easy to travel with ●Compact & fashionable design ●Real time GPS information ●Build-in rechargeable battery, more than 9 hrs operating time ●Unique camera battery backup support ●Mounted on flash accessory shoe or attached to camera strap ●Support Nikon D3, D300, D2XS, D2X, D2HS & D200, Fujifilm S5 Pro
Main Specifications Electrical Characteristics GPS Chipset: SiRF Star III Frequency: L1, 1575.42 MHz C/A Code: 1.023 MHz chip rate Channels: 20 channel Tracking sensitivity: -159dBm ACQUISITION RATE Hot start: 1 sec., average Warm start: 38 sec., average Cold start: 42 sec., average Reacquisition: 0.1 sec., average ACCURACY Position Horizontal:10meters,2D RMS 1-5 meters 2D RMS, WAAS corrected Velocity: 0.1m/sec. Device Size and Weight Size: 56 (L)mmX36(W)mm X 17(H) mm Weight: 50g
The first thing you will want to do is charge the units battery (rechargable). From my repeated test on both units, it takes approximately 2 ½ hours to fully charge the unit and you will get approximately 10 hours of continiuos usage time. Once your battery on the unit is drained you can then flip a switch to “camera” and now the unit will run off your camera battery if necessary.
Now for the excitement: First time out using a unit on my D300, cold start – WOW!, very quickly (not more than 40 seconds) a signal was locked. After that, turning the camera on and off the capture time was anywhere from 1-10 seconds. Accuracy is dead on, just as I would expect.
The beauty of this unit is that the GPS information (longitude, latitude and altitude) are inserted right into the metadata of each shot as you take them. There is no need for ANY post processing when you return to your computer. Since I use Adobe Lightroom I can take advantage of this data instantly by clicking the little GPS button in the metadata panel which will automatically take me to the location that I was shooting on Google Maps. I also use Smug Mug as my photography website (www.MLKimages.com) which is also linked to Google Maps. So after I upload new images to my Smug Mug website, Customers are able to click on a “Map This” button which will open up the gallery in Google Maps and show all the gallery images laid out on the map. Flickr users....same thing, upload you GPS embedded images to your Flickr account – Pretty Cool!
The unit has two switches. The first is the CONTROL switch which allows you to control how the unit is sync’d to work with the camera. AUTO – In the Auto position the GPS unit will turn on and off with the camera – simple. This will probably yield the best battery life. However, each time the unit is turned on with the camera in this mode it will have to potentially acquire the satellite signal again. ON - it stays on and connected to the GPS satellites regardless if the camera is on or not. OFF is just that, the unit is off regardless of the camera being on or off. Since the unit has it’s own internal battery I personally recommend the ON position if you are shooting, then moving then shooting again. If you’re going to use it off and on throughout the day, then Auto is probably best. There is a clear indicator right on top that quickly flashes red in a sequence of 3 when it is searching and blinks a slow and steady red when it has locked on. There is one additional green lamp that will light steady when the unit is being charged and will turn off when fully charged. Also when in use, the green lamp will illuminate when the battery is running low.
The second switch is POWER, which controls where the unit gets it’s….you guessed it –where it gets its power. INSIDE uses the GPS internal battery. CAMERA is using the cameras battery.
Solmeta customer service has been nothing but excellent! One item I did not like on the initial units I received was the inability to know when the battery of the unit was drained. I also was not fond of the connection of the chargers to the GPS unit. I sent an email Solmeta and offered them a few suggestions to improve the units. They sent me a reply of thanks and they would look into it. One week later I received a follow-up email saying that the changes I recommended were implemented into new units and replacments were on the way. Now I am using the renewed units and the green light will flash when the battery is low and the connection is excellent between the charger and receiver. Solmeta has also advised me that they are intorducing a new unit shortly that will have a location locking anility so when shooting indoors you will be able to lock the GPS location and embed the data into the exif info when shooting indoors - another requested and cool feature!
Enjoy and if anyone reading my review is planning on purchasing a GPS tagging unit from Solmeta, make sure you mention that you read my review.....that may offer you a small discount ;)
Saturday was the opening race of the Red Rose Races Road Racing Series. 1st race was held in Strasburg PA - lancaster County. This year with some re-occuring back issues I decided not to race at all and photograph the entire day of racing.
What looked to be earlier in the week a day of wet racing....started out cloudy with some damp roads to dry and full of sun! This was my 1st photography event of the year so I was off my game a bit as far as having my rythmn together with my equipment and just feeling comfortable getting set up and moving around quickly. The season is just starting and it will all quickly come back to me.
Decided to try out some new things this year, lighting, equipment, new styles, etc. It will take a bit of time to get everything dialed in exactly how I want it, but so far I really like some of my captures and hopefully everyone else will as well.
Here are some sampel images from the weekend......not your "typical" racing photos...I'll save those for another blog entry.
Last weekend we decided to take the family down to the house on the Chesapeake Bay for the extended weekend for some R&R. The kids had afternoon soccer games on Saturday - this was the start of their indoor soccer season - their first. Off the topic, but I have a bone to pick with the Hockessin Soccer Club. We signed the girls up to play GIRLS INDOOR SOCCER and NOT Co-Ed Soccer Played Indoors!!! Big difference. One of the main reasons we joined the Hockessing Soccer Club was that they offered girls soccer and not Co-ed. My two daughters had a great time playing fall soccer and wanted to try their hand at indoor soccer to get some additional ball control experience. Signed them up and the sign up specifically stated Girls Indoor. A few days prior to the first game we get the team list and it's co-ed. Not a big deal for my younger daughter - she doesn't care, but my older daughter hates playing with boys and absolutely refused to play. We talked it over and came to an agreement that she would play one game and if she wanted to quit - she could...and then I would contact the club and request a refund. Well after the first game she decided to try a few more games (it helped that she scored the first 2goals for her team)...and Ella scored the first goal for her team as well. My second complain is that INDOOR soccer is played agains walls, backboards, etc - there are no out of bounds - these games are not indoor soccer at all - no boards to play off of - behind the goal is out of bounds and becomes a goal kick - just soccer being played indoors - quite a difference. I think next year we may look into another club for indoor soccer.
Get down to the Bay Saturday evening - kids play in the hot tub most of the evening, watched a few movies - all in all a relaxing weekend. Took the time to play around with the camera, try out some colored Gels on my flash. Sunday the temperatures took a plumit and the Bay started to freeze over, wind was howling....pretty much you were unable to venture outside for longer than 15 minutes. I spent a short amount of time outside trying to just grap a few photos, but my hands ended up freezing...so I kept inside. Sunday was also my wifes 39th birthday so we had a nice dinner and apple cake.
Back home on Monday and Tuesday all forms of sickness broke out - everyone in the family ended up sick in bed ALL week - high temperature winner goes to Mave at 104.7. I was fortunate enough to have it the least and no feaver, but most of the time I was completely drained of any energy....but I was looking forward to finally getting on the mountain bike on Saturday - ended up that I was still feeling pretty sick and decided the smarter thing would be to skip the ride. Sunday I thought I could try to get in a nice and easy 1 hour road ride. My friend John called just as I was heading out the door and I decided to ride down to his house for a ride.....stupid move as no rides with John are ever considered easy....show back up home almost 3 hours later and felt like crap. Man I need to get back into shape!
Most of my riding ends up being Solo - with three kids it just ends up being more time efficient to leave from my house for a road ride...and a lot of them just at the spur of the moment. Sunday, I was lucky enough to get out for such a ride and suprisingly I was able to ride two days in a row!
Just wanted to post a quick slide show of some of the scenes I often see on these solo rides. Today I was lucky enough to bump into an old friend that I have not seen in many years. It was nice to have a old friend tag along for a portion of the ride.
Haven't been writing much, busy with odds and ends and just haven't been updating the Blog much.
Well finally after being off the bike completely for 2 months (longest off a bike pretty much my entire life) I have been able to get back and start some riding again. Last week was the Donut ride - a few guys on fixed gears and a few of us on geared bikes.....headed out to NorthBrook Orchards for some famous bakery treats only to find out they are closed for the season????? Especially since their main sign says they are OPEN ALL YEAR!! Kind of a let down, but I lived.
Trying to get back into the swing of doing some routine excersizing a few days a week this week we had two beautiful days of close to 60 degree weather so I did a lunch time road ride on both days - Wednesday was my 1st ever Spinning class at the YMCA - going to try this one day a week for a while just to keep it mixed up a bit.
Today we had a nice group ride out of Marc V's house for a 2 1/2 hour road ride. Perfect weather and as always good and safe company!
As far a photography....had a lot of "upgrades" the past month or so and justbeen trying to learn some new software and get in place a new workflow for 2008 with the goal to speed up some large number pricessing. Switch to using Lightroom (which I love) and CS3, added a few plugins for sharpening (Photokit Sharpener) and Noise Reduction(Noise Ninja) - still learning my way around the new software with the hopes of getting the basics dialed in soon. Picked up a new camera as well - D300 and lens 105 f/2.8vr Micro. My D200 with be my 2nd body now.
