icyclist 

To ride or to make photographs of a ride, that is sometimes the question. Usually, if I'm on my bike, wherever I am, I'm not going to stop to make a photo. There are times, though, I simply have to stop and pull out my camera. Here's some of what I've pictured so far this year in my golden state of California. I wonder what else for the rest of 2017, whether or not I stop to make a photograph.


After a drought of many years, California was irrigated by nature with enough rainfall to create wildflower super-blooms of wildflowers over the state. These wildflowers grew riotously in the cleared land beneath some power lines in the middle of the city of Manhattan Beach last week.


A pace line builds up some steam heading own a long grade on the Solvang Century, last month.


Yes, it's steep. That's the road up to Indian Head Mountain, east of Oceanside, a town north of San Diego.


There is a steeper road, much steeper, than Indian Head Road! Fargo Street, in the very hip Echo Park district of Los Angeles, stretches for just 1/10th of a mile, and sports a 33% grade. I and about 20 other cyclists rode up it a couple of weeks ago.


Here's the view looking down Fargo Street earlier in the day. The cyclist's bike includes a custom-made 16t front chainring he made. The large cog on the cassette is a 42t.


This is the view down the road that takes occasional cyclists and a plethora of pedestrians to the top of the Hollywood Sign, on Mt. Lee.


The Green Wave: a vineyard serves as a fantastic backdrop to a tandem team on the Solvang Century.


It's almost time to let gravity take a cyclist down the Hollywood Hills to the flatlands of Los Angeles.


Fading light created a beautiful sunset along Ballona Creek, where it runs through Culver City, adjacent to West Los Angeles.


My brother exulted in the end of a long day's ride during another awesome sunset over Oceanside.

2cam16

Great pics !

f4rrest

Nice shots.

Maybe we'll cross paths some day.

Nachoman

Nice!

Trsnrtr

Excellent photos.

dksix

Those are some bigger cyclists, all well ahead of me in tan for the year. Great pictures

Scarbo

Cool Pics! I share your pride in our Great State of California (take that you Texans!).

logical

No shots of Mulholland? I would post one but I cant post any pictures yet.

I struggle to take pictures because once I get rolling on my bike I dont want to stop.

Noctilux.95

Nice pics though not a fan of HDR photos.

hsuehhwa

Beautiful pix!

TMonk

+1 thanks for sharing

Dan333SP

Agree. He got a little heavy handed with some sliders while editing these, I think. Still jealous of the rides and location!

gsindela

Fantastic pics.

logical

Taken with my iPhone.

icyclist are you rolling around with a proper camera? If so how are you carrying it?

VNA

Gorgeous pictures but you make California too beautiful and will bring even more people! Although Northern California is even nicer! ; - )

Scarbo

Shhhhhhhh!

Dan333SP

Not sure what he's carrying but you can fit some very capable cameras in a jersey pocket with a baggie or case. I'm thinking of something like a Ricoh GR. Has a DSLR crop sensor and a great fixed lens. I carry a little Canon S110 which still takes slightly better photos than my iPhone.

kuroba

Great pictures! (:

logical

Ricoh is pricey. I dont think I can justify another camera cause I already have a Nikon DSLR. One of these days Im just going to use the strap to sling it around my body when I ride to see if its comfortable enough to do it often.

Stratocaster

Love it! Thanks for sharing.

icyclist 

Eight if the photos were made with a Sony HX90v. It's very small, has an equivalent field of view of 25mm to 720mm. And of course it is very lightweight. For me, it's a cyclist's dream camera.

Drawback: it doesn't do well at higher ISOs, so camera support is needed in low light situations, which are often the best times to shoot, for making noiseless images. The camera does have a special setting to help with that and other settings to deal with high contrast scenes. Also, because of the physics of tiny lenses, it's difficult to get anything in the background out of focus - except at macro range - to make an in focus foreground pop.

Because of the lightweight nature of the camera, its size and amazing zoom range, I don't mind the camera's shortcomings.

Panasonic has a very similar model, the ZS60. I'm sure other camera companies have similar models, too.

I made two of the photos - the sunset shot along the creek and the rider headed up Fargo Street - with my iPhone, which is really a camera with a phone tucked inside it. The new iPhone Has the ability to blur backgrounds, although there's only one focal length.

icyclist 

I like the photo. Where were you? I see the 101 and the Hollywood Bowl. Were you on a street?

logical

Mulholland Overlook

icyclist 

For a long time I wasn't either. However, I think it's what the majority of people making photos these days like to see - lots of colors and the ability to see into shadowed regions of a picture. Instagram is a prime and insanely popular example. And so I've become a fan, too. Although I usually stay away from raw, I do try to limit digital noise, which crops up with HDR and overly saturated photos.

Scarbo

HDR is at least as old as El Greco.