Yes Rocky even though your trip was cut short you're still Living the Dream for most of us. Glad you made it home safe and sound now to wait for more of your pictures.
When I am heading home, and in Southern Idaho, 75 & 93 always looks most appealing to me... I love the Galena pass, and the Lost trail pass as both of them go over 7,000 ft and are nice and twisty. I also love the Sawtooth Mtns... but I forget how nice a road 55 & 95 are... a nice pass right out of Boise, along the rivers, twisty roads and big sweepers. I got int a bit of showers but nothing worth suiting up for, but it was cool, had my electrics on all the way for both days... and cycled them on and off as the temperature went up and down. I was heading for Lewiston, but there was only one room available in Bookings, so there must have been something going on there... so I headed to Moscow instead and got a room at the 6... I was pretty tired by then, so just ordered a Pizza and watched a bit of TV, and went to bed early... up the next morning, ran to Cour de Lane, breakfast and fuel, and got back on the road, and home I went.... easypeezy at the border, and was home by about 2 or so....
Vermiliion cliffs north of the Grand Canyon on Hwy 89A... a beautiful country and road... not to be missed...
...Lake at the top of the Pass on Utah 14, which connects 89 and I-15... another road not to be missed, twisty, high pass and beautiful country...
... in the desert...
.. and again...
... and again...
... and again... this is just East of Ely... the power lines from this farm go over the those mountains to something or other.... but there is nothing there.... lol... after you pass this you go over a nice pass up and down, and into Ely..
... this is on I-80 just east of Carlin... four tunnels.. and just after you get to Elko.... where I DID NOT fuel up.... make sure you do.
I do not remember where I took this picture... lol.. so many pictures, so much country...
... North of Macall, and just missed this rain storm by a bit... a few sprinkles, but got right through unscathed....
... the next three are on the Whitbird grade... the old grade is to the right, the new grade is to the left... they both start and finish at the same places, but the old grade is twice as long as the new one, so that gives you an idea of how many switch backs are on the Old Whitebird grade... The center of the Picture is the Whitebird battle field where Chief Josephs warriors met and fought the US Army and their volunteers...
.. I already posted this picture, but I did not realize until after I did it, that it was off kilter, so I fixed it... you can see the road climb up the Old Whitebird grade, and dont forget truckers use to run this road as a regular part of their work... I cant imagine running down it with the **** JakeBrakes (if they even had them at all) and heavy... brave souls for sure...
... another shot from the grade... Whitebird is just down below and at the bottom of The New Whitebird grade on the right...
... from the top of the old Lewiston Grade...
... Norther Idaho, almost at the border... the Mountains in the background on the right are in Canada, and right by Creston.
So that is it for me for the year for bike traveling.... Darla is going into the shop on Tuesday for all three oils (moving to Synthetics for the engine, already Syn in the other two), new spark plugs, drain and replace the coolant and both brake lines... check the brake pads... and give it a real good going over.... then it is ready for next year.... I am going to keep her for another year, and yes, the Pan is being sold... I have other plans i am hatching for next year, which I will share once i am ready to implement them... and I wont have time to ride the Pan... I need to work for the next week or so, then off to the coast to visit my brother, and dog sit for Adrienne when she goes to Mexico for a week... then back to work full time for most of the winter... lots of work issues I need to plan out and implement... so I can have some time off next year.... I will get to ride a bit for the rest of the season, but not much.... so time to get Darla ready to put to bed, and then she is good to go for the spring with a full servicing, fairly new tires and all cleaned up.
Rocky, been meaning to ask you a question...what kind of camera/phone are you using for your photos? Also, do you keep a log of the times and locations so that when you post later you can sequences them? You do am amazing job of framing the photos and they are pretty sharp and clear and I have/do enjoy them immensely and was wondering about the technical aspect.
Rocky, been meaning to ask you a question...what kind of camera/phone are you using for your photos? Also, do you keep a log of the times and locations so that when you post later you can sequences them? You do am amazing job of framing the photos and they are pretty sharp and clear and I have/do enjoy them immensely and was wondering about the technical aspect.
Thanks for the compliments.... First I should explain that my passion is Motorcycling, and my hobby is photography.... I have been doing both since I turned 16 over 50 years ago... but I never really got into photography until 1997, when I got my first Mac, my first digital camera two years later, bought Photoshop and got into a Digital Darkroom.... this is because I never seemed to be able to get into a chemical darkroom situation.... Photoshop changed all of that for me... I also took a Photoshop course at the Banff School of Fine Arts... and that really got me going into it.
I use Motorcycling and Photography to enhance each other. I never leave on any trip, car or bike, with out both my iPhone and my DSLR and its lenses, and a tripod if I have the cage..... but when I shoot for the Net, I only use my iPhone... my camera is there for the images I intend to work with in Photoshop and print... I have a 10 Ink Cannon printer that is there for me to use when I get into printing in the winter... I love printing, and I will tell you straight up, it aint cheap... When I am riding as I said, i use my iPhone, because it will only be seen on a Monitor, so I don't need my Camera for that.... but the iPhone does not capture enough DPI for me to be able to "work it" in PS, and then print it to my standards... for that, I have my DSLR, a Sony, which I choose because it is small, but also because I can Bluetooth it to my iPhone, so in case I want to use an image from the Camera, I can.... the Camera is set to shoot only in RAW, and at 300 DPI, which will give me the image I need for PS and printing..... If I get to shot I want to take, I decided if it is only NET, or could it also possibly be for PS... then I will shoot the image with both devices.
Here is how I use the tools.... first of all, traveling is the best way for me to shoot the images...... but I don't think that I find the images, I actually think the images find me... That means I need to ride roads I have not been on, or roads in a different direction, or a road at a different time of the day for the light.... So, I am constantly looking at the landscape, looking for an image, which in effect makes me more aware of where I am... This makes me slow down and smell the roses...
Also, my hero is Ansel Adams... who I think is the greatest Black and White scenic photographer of all time. He was co-creator of the Zone System which is very important in Black and White...... and my passion in photography is black and white. My method of getting good photographs is based on the Zone System.... in other words, if it will look good in Black and White, then it will also look good in color, but not always the other way around.... the worse the photograph, the more color you need to make it acceptable, and the composition becomes even more critical.... so when I go to shoot, the first thing I do is look at the Zones, and make sure I like it.... If I don't, then I need to rethink the shot... by changing the composition, or maybe not even taking the picture.
If I like the image for a particular reason, and shoot it only on the iPhone, then I will open it up in Photoshop in my laptop, and attempt to make some modifications in it.... but most often that will not work out.... there just isnt enough material in the JPEG to work it effectively, and that is why I shoot RAW in my DSLR.... more stuff to work with, and no compression issues.
Lets say I find one.. I stop and use the rules i listed below to shoot it.... lets say I shoot ten or twenty... well, you will only see 10 percent of what I shoot in HDF, for some reason I wont like 90 percent of what i shoot for different reasons.... Lets say there are 5 i like... I open up PS Express which is in my camera... put a frame around it, fix any small issues I may see in it... save it, then do the next one, and on and on.... this will save them in an order from back to front, so that when I post them up, the last one in the Camera Roll, will be the first one in the post... that is how I keep them in sequential order... I usually put in some text about the day, then put in the images, put in a small description of the image itself.. then hit Advanced... this puts the post up in a draft, then I can proof it, put an enter between the images, so they are spaced out better, and Post the thread... I always reread it right away to do a second proof, and correct as necessary... Like changing right to left in the text.... lol.
I also have another App in the phone that is called Koredoko.... If I open the images up in that App, it will tell me exactly where I took the image by the Longitude and Latitude, and also the location (so when I said I did not know where I took that image above with the valley and the two railway lines, what I meant was I was too lazy to look it up....lol )
I find the iPhone weak in two aspects... one is exposure... it wont do a good job if you have a bright background and a dark foreground, and it does not take Pano's very well, there is always distortion in the foreground, and if you are panning from dark to light, it does not adjust the exposure... most often I will use my Ultra wide lens on my camera for that, but this last trip I experimented more with the iPhone, but i am disappointed...... which means I need a new iPhone.... and it looks like the camera on the 11 has fixed most of the issues I have with my 8.... I seldom talk on my iPhone.... it is for email, photography, posting to a forum, texting and I can run my entire business from it, which makes it possible for me to travel more... it is not a SmartPhone to me... It is a SmartComTool.
I posted the following up a few years ago... but it still applies...
Some basic rules of Photography (some of which I break often)
1. F8, and be there (in other words, F stop in the middle, adjust the exposure time according, but most importantly.... you can't take the shot if your not there
2. If the picture is not good, you where not close enough (this does not apply to pure scenic's.
3. The sun should always be behind you. (I break this rule all the time for effect)
4. Don't shoot between 10 am, and 4 pm. There are no shadows for definition of your subject (again, I break this rule all the time)
5. Compose using the rule of Thirds. Divide your image up into 9 sections using two lines across and two lines up and down. Put your main subject one one of the lines, and where two lines intersect. You will almost always see Darla in one of these intersections. I move around to get her there, and get the rest of the shot composed with that in mind.
6. The worse the light, the more important the composure
7. Photoshop can fix anything, except rule #1...... lol.... as long as you know how to use it, that is.
It is very easy to compose, as I have my screen set for The Rule Of Thirds.
Look where the tree is, look where the horizon is....
(Not my photograph)
Look where Darla is, look where the sign is, look where the White line starts, look where the yellow line starts and ends, look at the top of the tree line. I had to walk around a bit to do the composition. The main thing everyone will focus on is the sign, because of the statement it makes, and it's color......and where it is, the vertical line on the right third...
It is a mundane photograph, that becomes more than it really is, because of the statement of the sign, and the composition. It isn't winning any awards, but it does capture a bit of the spirit of riding. Which was my intention.
Here is an example of two images I took in the iPhone..... the first one is right out of the can.... the second one was worked over in Photoshop.... so you see that there is some capacity to make some changes using just the basic phone image.... but if I had shot that in the Camera, using good glass and in RAW, then I could have made it sing and dance....
Its a hell of a road.... been up and down it several times... when your making the right hand switchbacks, and your head is leaning left because your going so damn slow, it feels like your head is in the middle of the left hand lane.... LOL....
09-13-2019, 07:42 AM
