Bootie time!

Now that I have the guys' attention, you may be disappointed!

I've been working on another street survival post based on the experience I had with the Prius driver in Portland last week. The post is taking a bit longer to get right than I expected. In the meantime, I can't seem to quit finding excuses to play with the camera.

To feed my addiction I took some photos of the completed cowboy booties that Katie crocheted for Ryan. If you remember, she was working on them in the hotel room in Seaside. It's amazing how much work goes into such tiny things! I threw in a photo of Elvira to feed the macho side and to justify putting baby booties on a motorcycle blog. Shameless, I know. On the other hand, there is a better than average chance that two wheels will figure into the Grandson's future. My son-in-law is a bike guy at heart even though he's not actually riding at the moment. My daughter grew up in a motorcycle household. Ryan might as well get used to wearing boots!

The next post will be seriously meaty. I promise. I know I've been a bit frivolous lately. I'm seeing a few more bikes out the last couple of days. Time to start filling the survival tool box, again!

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Some different looks.

Our room was on the second floor and on the end. I figured it might be a bit noisy, especially since there was a tavern across the street, but the sidewalks rolled back early. The night was quite peaceful. Thankfully, the locals are more subdued than the Spring Breakers that will show up later.

I bent around the small privacy wall and took this photo. The sign was on the street side of us.

At a different time of day I took this photo looking in the other direction.

Here's downtown Seaside at 7:30 AM.

Part of the street across the bridge from me was pretty festive the night before. Keeping with the coastal location theme, of course.



Lights reflected on water are always nice.

Reflections on breakfast.

I didn't think about looking to see if the mirror was straight in the frame at the time. One of these days I'll get all the parts of the puzzle in place at once. I could have done something about it in Photoshop but I would have lost part of the picture. Just call it "artistic"!

I pressed the Nikon lense against the dining room window to get this shot.

I liked the way the light made the oblong patterns under the bridge. One of these days, when I grow up in my post-editing skills, I will learn how to take the orange light glow out of the left of the photo.

I think it's time to wrap up the family vacation photos and go back to motorcycles. I read somewhere that the key to making people think you're a really good photographer is to only show off your great shots. Don't let them see your mediocre ones. One of these days I'll get the great shots. For now, well, you go with what you got!

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Bigfoot sighting.

The sign read "Please wait to be seated". Peering ahead into the interior gloom, I thought to myself, "this has got to be the ugliest maitre d' I have ever seen!" Taking a second look revealed that this wasn't an employee. It was apparently the resident mascot. I was especially grateful that it wasn't the cook. The shedding factor would be enormous! Ugh.

This photo was remarkably hard to pull off with the G11. The interior of the restaurant was very dimly lit. Natural wood making up just about everything inside soaked up the light even more. I have a dedicated flash unit for the Canon. It took several attempts, each time adjusting the flash output just a bit more, to get a decent exposure. Fortunately, it was a quiet night. The place is pretty small and I had to stand near the main entry and walkway the wait staff uses. A tired looking but cheerful blond woman was doing hostess duties. For some reason she thought my boldness in trying to take photos was endearing. What is it with me and older women?

Katie and I were at Bigfoot's Steakhouse. I'd eaten there in July of 2008 when Elivra got her first trip to Astoria. I'd ended up staying at a Motel 6 in Seaside. Summer on the coast means really expensive hotel rooms. Motel 6 left the light on for me at a reasonable price so I stayed there. Bigfoot's Restaurant is right next door to Motel 6. I chose it for supper because of the proximity.

Katie's dad professes to believe in the existence of Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest. The whole clan is borderline hillbilly. I don't mean that in the negative Deliverance sort of way. Like me, they enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, working on trucks, and that sort of thing. For that reason I knew Katie would get a kick out of eating here. As you can see from the photo above, the place is done up like an old log cabin. I took some outside shots with the Nikon earlier in the day.

Floors are natural hardwood. All the tables, booths, and chairs are made of wood. Imitation oil lamps kinda sorta illuminate the place. Burlap bags serve as window curtains. Interestingly, the effect is authentic. Nothing looks fake. I don't know how long the restaurant has been operating but the furnishings look like they have been around for a lot of years and show the wear. My kind of place, actually. I'm a lot more comfortable in these surroundings than in a white linen fancy establishment. I can never figure out which fork to use first. Here you only get one. Simple choice. Fork or fingers? In this case, I used both. Like I say, my kind of place.

The G11 has a low light setting that works extremely well. This photo was taken with no flash. The glossy surface would have blinded us with the flash reflection. Our table was not well lit. This isn't the actual menu, it's more of a bar and appetizer list. The menu is a foldout newspaper thing. Menu items reside alongside local history and news stories about Bigfoot that are, shall we say, somewhat embellished. The food is very good if you like things rustic. I opted for a Bigfoot Cheeseburger. Sorry there's no photo. I need to reverse my plan. I write the story later and use whatever photos I have. A better plan might be to have an idea of a story first then take photos to support it. Oh well. The burger was good either way. Bigfoot tastes a lot like ground beef.

This photo's admittedly a little busy. On the other hand, it sets the stage of the surroundings a bit. So I left it alone.

I made concessions on this one. If you look at the photo above you can see the blue light pole between Katie and the wood carving. There was no way to take the photo of this particular carving without having the blue pole sticking out the top of its head. This was my first venture into cloning in Photoshop. It's cool to change reality by removing the light pole and adding more sky.

It's neat to see local legends getting their due. Makes me feel like there's hope for me!

One more post. I'm hoping to show a more artistic side with the next group of photos.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Scenes from Seaside.

I'm succumbing to the siren call of photography once again. There's this deep urge to post a few more photos. So I'm giving in.

We recently went to Seaside on business. "We" is Katie and I. She wanted to go. I wanted her to go. So it happened. Hey, when you're on the road it's less complicated to bring a date than to find a date, if you know what I mean. I did make Katie ride pillion, though. Or maybe she made me ride so she could get out on the bike. Whatever the case, we lucked out weatherwise. It was fairly warm and calm. Here are some photos from the day and a half we were there.

If a guy is going to take his best girl to the ocean he should take her for a walk on the beach. Even if that's not really his thing. A successful marriage is a lot like a series of Chinese dinners. Each day is a different meal. The meal isn't over until both of you get your cookies. Katie loves walking on the beach. I love Katie. So we went walking.

There's a roundabout at the end of Broadway St. From there people can take the short stairs down to the sandy beach. Our hotel was only a few blocks away from the ocean. Access was quite convenient by means of our feet. I know, what a novel idea. Walking somewhere. Most people seem to have this idea that any sort of a walk will kill them off or something.

We hadn't been walking long when we spied this pipe sticking up out of the sand. How strange to see it out in the middle of nowhere, so to speak. Here's a closer look. Actually, this is only one of about 50 pictures of the pipe. The photography experts preach taking shots from every conceivable angle. I'm down with that. And up with that. And sideways with that. And....well, you get the drift.

As you can see, it has a sort of metal screen over the end. It would also appear that the pipe spends some time under water. Using my fantastic built in GPS array, I finally came to a theory as to why the pipe was there. Lining the pipe up with the corresponding beachside building, I cleverly deduced that the pipe was a part of the water exchange system for the Seaside Aquarium. This place isn't as large or sophisticated as the Newport Aquarium farther south but it still needs some sort of saltwater exchange system. That's my theory, anyway.

For some reason Katie got this urge to show me how fleeting life can be if I had actually brought her to the ocean and neglected to walk on the beach with her. Love's a great motivator, but so is avoiding physical pain. Here she is using a poor crab and her motorcycle boots to provide a visual aid.

Yeah, yeah, I got it. I also got the credit card and the motorcycle keys, girl. The demonstration ended before the crab shell actually got crushed. However, to make sure she took full advantage of the situation, she made me walk farther. Much farther. Not that I minded the walk, and I actually like holding her hand, but every step to the north took me that much farther away from a cold beer that was to the south. Oh well. Life ain't all bad. I got another decent photo of the pipe on the way back. The beach photos were taken with the G11.

I got some of my own back a bit later. I convinced the kind folks at Dooger's Seafood Grill to part with a cold pint. They have some sort of arrangement with the hotel we were staying at. Works well, as the two buildings are right next to each other. It was still a bit early for supper. That's the way to plan it. You don't want to rush the beer. If you play it right, there might even be enough time for two beers. Of course, no riding is allowed. So, here we were, in the room, trying to think of a way to pass time until supper. Hmmm, what is there for a man and a woman alone in a hotel room to do?

Katie sat on the bed. She slipped off her light jacket, then her shoes. Giving me a becoming look, Katie told me she had this great idea. We could do something that we'd both find pleasurable. Then she pulled out her small plastic bag and started working on her crochet project. Katie's working on a pair of tiny crocheted cowboy boots for Ryan. She said she'd work on the booties while I could go out and have fun taking pictures. Whew, that was close. I thought for a bit that I would have to let my beer get warm!

Instead, I took the Nikon, the Gorilla Pod, and a zoom lense out on the deck. Since we were there for only one night, I could bring more camera stuff. I mean how much room does a pair of clean socks and underwear take up? Soon I was happily playing voyeur. Three young girls were standing by the side of the street bridge. I find it quite interesting to see how candid the shots are when the subjects don't know they are being photographed. The redhead, in particular, had a particularly expressive face.

I always enjoyed watching my daughter and her teenage friends. Young girls can be so image conscious one minute and silly as heck the next. These girls were enjoying the late afternoon and being silly together. Throwing their legs over the bridge railing seemed to play a big part in the interchange between them.

For the most part, photographs of people seem to be the best when the photographer is more up close and personal with the subjects. At least in my opinion. Even in my limited experience, I'm finding that I can get a subject laughing, thinking, or showing some other emotion. Once they sort of forget about the camera and concentrate more on interacting with me, I can get closeup expressive shots of their face. Although, I have to say you can't beat the carefree foolishness the girl on the left is showing!

There were many other things to photograph. I tried to get some photos of a diving duck in the river below me, but the zoom lense I had with me just wouldn't pull it in close enough to make good photos. Some other things came out pretty well, though. Pretty soon both the beer and the light were gone. Next stop in the adventure was supper. We had alternate transportation worked out.

Stay tuned. Irondad eats a Bigfoot Burger. Interstingly, Bigfoot tastes a lot like ground beef.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Variety is the spice........

Maybe it's just the mindset and not the actual motorcycle but I seem to have a much more interesting life while riding. Take yesterday, for example.

A trip to Portland was on the docket. Lloyd Center Mall is actually one of our customers. For some reason, Terry, the guy who takes care of their many doors, likes me. God only knows why. We don't sell directly to end users. The usual route would be for him to call a distributor. In this case I go meet with Terry and pass the information along to somebody else for the quote. I don't mind. How often do you get to go to a huge mall during working hours and be able to truthfully say it's for business?

Being the first of the month, it was time to mail a couple of checks off. So the day started with a trip to the post office. Since it was before hours, I parked Elvira and walked into the lobby without removing my helmet. As I exited the building and walked back toward the bike I saw this old guy coming my way. I immediately tensed up. I'd met him a couple of times before.

My first introduction to this guy happend at Bing's Restaurant in Lebanon. Katie loves the fake Chinese food thing. Me, not so much. I indulge her off and on. Love and all, you know. Anyway, we're sitting at a table when this old guy walks up to us. Uninvited.

"Does your wife call you 'Honey'?," he asked, pointing to Katie. Without waiting for me to answer he delivers the punch line.

"That's bee poop, you know?"

I don't suffer fools gladly. So I told him to go away. Maybe somebody else would be impressed with his totally imagined wit.

My second encounter was at the post office under similar circumstances. Only this time, I didn't have the helmet on while walking back to the bike. This guy must live close to the post office as he was coming up the sidewalk that time, too. The parking area is on the opposite side if you're trying to put the pieces together. Anyway, as I was standing by Elvira the guy started to talk to me again. It would seem his memory for faces isn't too good, either. He started to tell me something about how he used to ride a scooter. I gave him that cold, blank, stare that cops work so hard to master. The stare totally shut him down and I rode off.

So here we are again. For some reason I decided to let him talk a bit. Don't think I'm getting soft. It simply suited me, ok? Sure enough, he started in about how he used to ride a scooter. Sometime during the World War II years he said he rode a Vespa 125 on a route through Europe that covered 4800 miles or so. According to his story, at least. I told him I was only headed to Portland.

What struck me as interesting was his reaction. The weather was cold and foggy. 39 degrees ( f ) to be exact. The man seemed amazed I was riding that far in the cold. Interesting contrast for a guy who rode a 125cc scooter for a 4800 mile trip during war years. Anyway, I bid him goodbye and he gave me this huge smile and a big thumbs up. I really should change my ways and be accomodating more often, I guess. His day was brightened. I feel sorry for those folks so hungry for conversation or a human connection. Or perhaps it's just a need to talk about themselves. I notice that seems to be the agenda an awful lot of the time. The greeting is just a way to get started.

The trouble with riding in fog is that one never knows what kinds of things are going to appear out of the fog. These photos are examples of the kind of thing you really don't want showing up in your windshield.

This is serious! I'm in the fast lane of the freeway and this is filling my view. Here's another look.

Whew! It's in tow. What a relief! I was reminded of an important lesson. Thanks to a suggestion from Bobskoot, I have been carrying the G11 around my neck and under my jacket. Yes, these photos were taken through the windshield zoomed up close on the Canon. I was not as close as I looked. However, let me say this. Just because a rider CAN do something, doesn't mean they SHOULD!

The standard disclaimer about not trying this at home applies. Riding one handed down the freeway, following somewhat closely behind trucks, and fiddling with a camera can be more than some riders can handle! Leave it to us nut cases.

Once we got about 45 miles into our journey, the foggy beginning was rewarded by clearing skies. Fog gave way to sunshine. By the time I got to Portland, the sun was beaming steadily. Of course, it was localized to the Portland area. I encountered the reverse situation returning home. Not only did the fog not clear down south, but the rain came in, too. Luckily, the rain started 10 minutes after I parked Elvira.

I apologize, but I totally screwed up the exposure on this photo. The sun was shining brightly from the right. I should have changed the metering setting. I was more worried about getting a sharply focused shot. The point of the photo is to show the parking area. It is not a space set aside for motorcycle parking. As you can see, it's just a corner that can't really be used for cars. There is a pull in spot where the car on the left is and the same kind of spot just on the other side of Elvira. The two spots are at right angles to each other so the geometry requires that blank corner.

Terry introduced me to Randy, a security guard that has worked for the mall a long time. I asked Randy about this spot. Nobody has ever given me a citation for parking there but I just had to ask. Randy told me it was useless for cars so go for it. So I have official permission. I guess that's okay. I mean, there's a certain feel to it. Kind of like cast off property rather than being honored with a special parking spot for bikes. Personally, I don't care. This works for me.

There is a chance that a bike could get trapped depending on what type of vehicles parked in the end spots. Not to worry. I had scoped that out. If I turned left I could ride over the curb into the entryway. Hmmm, I wonder what Security would say if they saw me doing that?

Here's a gratuitous photo of the sunshine. I did finally pull my head out and spot meter for the sun.

The ride home was uneventful except for one incident. I hit the freeway because I needed to get to my laptop and take care of something. As you leave Portland headed south, the freeway goes up and over the Marquam bridge. Two lanes go to the left and head west. The two right lanes head to the right and then down and to the south. Starting to the left, call the lanes A,B,C, and D. I'm in the C lane. A woman in a car is in the B lane. The car seemed to have a bit of trouble getting up the slope of the bridge. Traffic was backed up behind her. She decides she really wants to go south instead of west.

So the woman right beside me decided to change lanes. Where I was. No harm, no foul, I look after myself. What cracked me up was the coincidental aspect of what kind of car it was. Any guesses?

A gold Prius! With a handicapped sticker, no less. The woman realized her mistake and swerved back into her lane, almost going too far to the left. Maybe I should be more careful in future about taking jabs at the Power of Prius. Who knows what kind of cosmic karma I'm messing with?

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Why I don't.

This popped up on the instructor e-mail list the other day. Where to credit the photo isn't known. However, I find I sort of identify. As a matter of fact, it really hit home with me. Hit me where I live, if you will. If you ride a scooter, please remember that this is offered in the spirit of fun and tongue in cheek. Some of you are pretty wild about this stuff, especially you daredevil accountants!

I can see the fun and practical side of owning and riding a scooter. I've even toyed with the idea of actually buying one myself. For some reason, I just never seem to be able to pull the trigger on the deal. Now I have an inkling of why.

When Orin and I had lunch we talked about how folks "brand" themselves by what they ride, own, or wear. I scoffed at the idea that I could be one of "those people". I'm secure in my manhood, riding skills, and Warrior persona. Turns out, perhaps my scoffing was hypocrisy.

Maybe ole Darth and I are too rooted in our Warrior personas. Which means we actually have become "labeled" more than we want to admit. Even worse, is it possible that beneath our respective outer armors ( Darth's mask and cape, my helmet and 'Stich ) lies extremely fragile egos?

No, it can't be that. Perish the thought. Darth and I are secure in our Warriorhood. No, I think it's more the picture of how the world should be. Anything different makes us uncomfortable. That's okay. Haven't you ever looked at something and said to yourself,

"That's just not right!"

This is a good thing. It keeps everything right and proper with the world.

I mean, come on, can you imagine John Wayne on a Shetland Pony?

I rest my case.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

The ecology of riding.

There's a number of reasons why I encourage people to use a motorcycle for transportation as much as possible. One really big one is that the quality of the experience is much higher than in a car. Another big one is the smaller footprint we leave. There are other vehicles, such as hybrids and electric cars that are attempting to do the same thing.

I can't help but think that in many ways motorcycles are still more successful in the effort to use less resources.

Linn Benton Community College has been working on some energy saving improvements. One of the projects has been the addition of some charging stations for electric vehicles.

There are three of these things available. At this point the charging stations are functional and ready to use. Demand has been almost non-existent. I'm presuming it's because there aren't really many hybrids or electric cars being driven to the campus. Part of it might be that there's also a bunch of construction containers and equipment stored right next to the charging stations.

At the moment a driver can use the charging stations free of charge. A card is issued from the college which activates the unit. I haven't seen one, but I think the cards must be more of a circuit board covered in protective hard plastic. The cards are supposed to have cellular phone type communication abilities. When the car is fully charged the card receives a signal that notifies the driver.

The system is a great start. For cars that run totally on electricity, these kind of charging stations are going to have to be plentiful and convenient.

I applaud the efforts folks make to ease the strain on our planet. I still think motorcycles are an excellent way to do the same. Perhaps even better in some ways.

So this is kind of a thought provoking photo. A motorcycle parked next to the charging stations.

I don't know all the ins and outs about this global warming stuff, for example. Some studies claim that our pollution is causing harm to the weather patterns. Others claim the opposite. Or, at least, that the warming trends are part of a cycle that happens naturally over many years. Like I say, I'm not sure what to believe. I do know some things, for sure, however.

Whatever resources are on this planet are there in finite quantities. Whatever waste is produced from driving, manufacturing, and so on has an effect on the earth. And most of that effect isn't very good for the environment. So whatever we can do to mitigate the consumption and excretion process has to be a good thing.

It kills me when hybrid drivers look down on me for riding a motorcycle. I don't know about you, but it happens a lot to me. It's probably a combination of the smugness inherent in some people and the negative stereotypes of motorcyclists that people still harbor. Is it the motorcycle or the fact that I'm not drving a hybrid or electric car? Do they think I'm pouring pollution into the atmosphere? I don't get it but sometimes their superior attitude gets a bid old.

In the long run, it doesn't really matter to me. What they think of me doesn't change who I am. When I go to bed at night I'm still me. I must be a bit hacked off, though, if I'm prompted to write this after a recent encounter. I'll leave out the details. One of those times when if we lived in the Old West I could have just taken some smart mouth's head off. Instead, I have to swallow my bile and hope the bastard realizes how lucky he is to be able to walk away unscathed.

Some people just can't be reasoned with and hurting them isn't worth going to jail for. In a rare circumstance, I remained silent and retreated.

Coincidentally, I was reading about some remarks made by Pat Egan, vice president of customer and community affairs for Pacific Power. This is the power utility that serves our area. Pacific Power, in turn, is part of Mountain States Power. It's a large utility.

Pat stated at a Chamber of Commerce lunch that Pacific Power still generates 58% of its electricity by means of coal fired plants. The rest comes from natural gas, with a small percentage being generated by wind turbines. We do have a few dams in the area and I don't know how much electricity they produce. Whatever amount that is figures into the 42% balance.

Electric power in cars doesn't create emissions, but the production of much of the electricity does. When a hybrid car is cruising down the freeway it's using internal combustion the same as my bike. I'm probably getting better mileage which means Elvira's fuel injected engine is probably running cleaner. Since the the vast majority of my riding is at speeds where a hybrid is using the engine, would I really be doing much good if I drove one? Better fuel mileage has to translate to fewer emissions, at least in my book.

My bike takes a lot less resources to produce in the first place. All that metal, upholstery, glass, and so on requires manufacturing waste to be produced. There's just flat out less material used for a motorcycle.

There may be some advantage when the car is running on battery power at slow speeds. I don't know. The batteries have a relatively short life. Do you want to talk about cumulative hazardous waste disposal at the end of an electric car's life compared to a motorcycle when it dies?

All in all, I feel pretty good about the ecology of riding. The post may not make much sense but it's my rant. I feel better, now. Go ride and feel good about it! Speaking of which, I've got to go. I have a meeting an hour North of here. It will mean riding in the drizzle but I'm going to celebrate every mile. I'm going to give a cheerful wave to every Prius driver I see today. Just to mess with them.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Over the edge.

There just may be a point where the photography thing can go too far. Especially in a grocery store produce department. More especially, when asking to photograph another woman's fruit. I mean, she did have nice tangerines.

Perhaps I should back up and fill in a couple of blanks.

The kids are coming by with Ryan later today. After that, we're off to Katie's sister's place. Today is Katie's parents' 53rd anniversary. That's a whole lot of apostrophes in two sentences, isn't it? A supper gathering is planned. We're doing a late lunch for the kids and taking food to the supper party. This all dictated a trip to the grocery store. We chose to go somewhat late last night. So far so good. Per usual, I stuck the G11 in a pocket.

Once at the store, we went looking for cookies for the lunch. Getting to the bakery entails a trip through the edge of the produce department. Did you know there are a lot of colors, shapes, and patterns in this land of fruits and veggies? It's a kind of paradise for an aspiring photographer.

Some so called expert wrote in a book that one has to not be afraid to look strange in front of other people to get truly great photos. Ok. I can buy that. I'm pretty secure in my own skin, anyway. The banana display caught my eye. I pulled out the G11. I'm okay with being the only person taking pictures of produce. Did you know it's harder than it looks to get a good photo of bananas in a store?

I hate using the built in flash. The other flash unit was at home. Anyway, if possible, I try to get pictures with no flash. I tried opening the aperature as much as possible. With the focal length I wanted the widest it would open was f/4.0. So I tried cranking up the ISO. I changed the white balance. All to no avail. I couldn't get more than a slightly dark photo. Photoshop Elements wouldn't do much for it, either. I added the camera raw plug-in but it only works on the Nikon. The G11 is listed on the camera application but so far it won't upload the raw photos. Eventually I could probably fix the photo, but it's not worth the effort. Anyway, it's not about the banana photo. It's about the story. Here's the photo just for a grin. Amongst such innocence doth trouble begin.

As I'm reviewing the result of my latest effort in the LCD screen, a middle aged woman is approaching. She's giving me this look that says she thinks I'm strange. I mean strange to the ultimate degree. It's ok. Like I say, I'm secure about it. I'm willing to look strange for the sake of the art. As she gets closer it's apparent that she wants to pick out some bananas, so I step aside. It does little to put her mind at ease. The woman reminds me of holding a treat out towards somebody else's dog. The dog wants the treat but doesn't quite have the courage for a frontal approach. It approaches at an angle, ready to bolt at the first sign of aggression.

This woman obviously wanted to shop for bananas. She came around, careful to keep the display between us. I stepped farther back. Slowly she inched forward, keeping a wary eye on me the whole time. Finally, she got up the nerve to say something to me.

"That's a new one", she says. "I've never seen anyone taking pictures of fruit before."

It sounds like a reasonable statement. However, you didn't see her face. There was this dubious and slightly frightened look. Imagine her saying that she'd heard there were people who wore their underwear on their head. Until now, though, she'd never seen anybody actually doing it. Now that she'd seen it, in the produce department, no less, there was a mix of pity, revulsion, and fear in her expression. Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

I should have just wandered off to find Katie. Instead, I open my mouth and start expounding on the beauty of the colors, the repeating patterns, the way the stickers make these little contrasting spots all over at random intervals, and so on. She's shrinking back more and more. The woman glances to each side as if searching for possible weapons. You'd think, from looking at her, that I had actually taken underwear off my head and shaken them at her. The poor woman quickly walked away, deciding, apparently, that her appetite for bananas had been spoiled. I shrugged and went to find Katie.

Telling Katie the story, I expected us to have a laugh together. The corners of her mouth were lifted, but her eyes looked a lot like the other woman's. I guess that's why us photographers are such an elite and lonely lot. People just don't understand true artists.

The story would have ended there except for the fact that I've never learned to be shy.

Once we finally finished loading our basket ( I thought it would never end ) we went to find a check-out line. Whom do you think we happen to see right off as we start looking for a short line? You guessed it. The woman from the produce department. Now there's a stocky man with her. In her basket I spy a small box of tangerines. They looked nothing like bananas. The smalll orange globes were quite pretty. Lacy netting adorned the top of the sweet looking tangerines, gently holding them nicely in place. I make eye contact with the woman. Despite her previous suspicion of my character, she can't break the gaze between us. I smile as charmingly as I can. Then I did it. I opened my mouth while waving my Canon at her.

"Hi, again! Could I photograph your tangerines?"

It's probably a good thing that she wasn't wearing her underwear on her head because I think she might have soiled them.

You know, there's some things you just shouldn't ask out loud in a grocery store. Even if you're me.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Conchscooter made me do it!

Conchscooter left a comment on my last post that he wanted me to go out and take more photos. I think it was because he didn't want me writing such long posts. More pictures, less text. Ok, here's a post with mostly photos. Just to set the record straight, Conch told me to do something I already wanted to do so I'm not doing it because of him!

Spent an afternoon last Saturday with the kids and the new baby. I couldn't pry Ryan away from Katie so I had to content myself with practicing with the Nikon. That, and cooking for everybody to make up for them putting up with us. Here's some candid shots.

I took advantage of the light from a small table lamp. No flash. I used an f/5.6 aperature and cranked the ISO up to 200. Ryan's asleep against Katie. He spent a couple of hours like this. The golden light casts a sort of "angelic" glow to Ryan's face. I thought it was pretty cool, even if we are looking up his nostrils!

They say when you are taking a photo of someone you should try to keep them from doing the obviously posed thing. Experts tell you to share a joke, make the subject laugh, and so on. So I asked Katie to let me hold the baby. Here's her reaction. At least it's truly a candid shot! For this one I bounced a flash off the ceiling.

This was a totally spontaneous moment. This is Russ, Ryan's daddy. Our son in law. Katie finally gave up the baby. Even new grandmothers have to eventually use the room down the hall. By now everybody's used to me with a camera around. Funny how quickly the family comes to accept an eccentric member. As a matter of fact, Russ was telling a professional photographer at the hospital that their services wouldn't be needed. That we already have a photographer in the family. I wonder who that could be? Anyway, I saw this expression and was able to quietly capture it. I bounced a flash, again, but had turned down the intensity.

As you can see, Katie reclaimed Ryan. Katie's mother and father called then stopped by. This was their first look at Ryan. The baby's not quite three days old. I like the photo because both of them are looking at Ryan. Their gaze pulls your eyes to the baby, who is the main subject. Studying composition has been interesting. I'm finally starting to understand the specifics of what makes a picture draw your eye or not. Barely.

This is Katie's mother taking her own photos. There's too much space between the person on the right and Katie with Ryan on the left. However, the bright blue of greatgrandma's top draws your eye, then the camera lense angle draws your eye to the left where the baby is. Not a great photo but at least I know why! Besides, I had to give both of Katie's parents equal time here.

There were already two dogs and two cats in the kids' family. I wanted to include the dogs, at least. Okay, they weren't be ignored, so I had no choice but to give in and take their pictures. I like the advice I read to get in close and focus on the eyes. You can even see the two little light spots in the Pom's eyes from the bounced flash. That's my daughter behind the Pom. I could have taken her out with photoshop but it seemed wrong to do to my firstborn.

I think this one's missing the attention the most. The subdued flash went with her look. Just enough light bounced back to make her coat look alive and glowing without washing it out. Sometimes you get lucky. How do I know she's pouting and not just looking like all golden retrievers? This might be a clue.

Yep, she's pouting! The part of her you can't see is hanging out, but she's got her head stuck under the end of the coffee table. She's right at my feet. I'm sitting next to Katie and Ryan. Yes, Katie still has Ryan. It might sound like I'm upset about that. I know Katie's going to look at this so I'm just ribbing her a bit.

I saved my favorite photo for last. While sitting beside Katie, who was holding Ryan, something startled Ryan as he was waking up. Fortunately, I was able to quickly capture the look.

Who would have thought you could see a look like this from a baby not even three days old? He must have finally gotten a good look at his grandfather! Hey, kid, we're both new at this thing.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Brake time!

Time to shake off the new baby euphoria and get back to work.

I had a meeting in Portland. Afterwards I cruised by Lloyd Center Mall. I like to park the bike inside the parking structure. Seems more protected that way, for some reason. There's a place near Barnes and Noble that's not really motorcycle parking but where Security never bothers a motorcycle that happens to land there. Riding up Halsey Street, I was greeted by this.

Seriously. True story. What's the military term? NSTIW, I believe. "No s**t, there I was!"

Not only did I avoid trouble, but my skill level was so high I saw it early enough to get stopped and take a photo while it was happening.

All right, so I admit to coming back and taking a photo of a different car. Despite my jesting, this was a real life situation. The kind riders encounter all the time. It seemed a great illustration of what we had talked about earlier.

What's the difference between one year's experience repeated several times over and having several years' progressive experience?

Let's use this scenario to break it down a bit more. We'll look at other situations down the road as I see things that are applicable. Remember how I said we would look at the three levels in situations? This is a good case to use as an illustration.

The worst of the winter weather is past. A rider deems it safe, or comfortable enough, to pull the bike out of hibernation. What a rider also needs to be aware of is that their skills have been in hibernation as well. We humans are interesting creatures. There are two kinds of storage space available in our brains. Most of the space is dedicated to what you might call deep storage. This is where things go that aren't needed too often. Think of this space as the back of a filing cabinet drawer.

Some space is dedicated to storing things that are needed often and quickly. This is like the front of the top drawer. Unfortunately, the space available here is much smaller, and thus more limited, than the deep storage space. If something in this space ends up not being used for a while, it's moved elsewhere to make room for new things. Motor skills, or what you might call "mind-muscle connections" are examples of things that get shuffled between these file drawers. Often used connections are kept readily accessible while less frequently used ones get filed deeper. Which means it takes the brain a bit longer to find and put them on the table. That can be a bad thing if we need them RIGHT NOW!

It's a good thing for a rider to go out and encourage the brain to move important motor skills back to the quickly accessible storage space. In this case, to go out and re-establish the mind-muscle connections involved in smooth braking. Simply put, to practice in a parking lot or someplace where it's safe to do so. It's important to be smooth when braking. It's also important to be able to stop quickly.

I've talked to many riders who practice quick stops. Once or twice. They get up a little speed, pick a braking marker, then do the squeeze and press thing. Since their skills are a bit rusty to start with, and might not have been at a high level in the first place, the first couple of attempts are pretty rough.

"Oooh, that was scary!"

No more attempts are made. A rider figures that's good enough and they will just deal with it when the time comes. After all, they know the basics of brake application in their heads. For far too many riders, that is the extent of the quick stop practice.

This is what I call Level One. It's a well populated level, unfortunately. These riders might be lucky enough to go a whole riding season and not have a close call. The question always remains, though. What if? Some have to answer that question without quite being prepared. Ouch!

Remember that "mind-muscle" connection that's supposed to go into the front of the file drawer? Guess what? This ain't no magical drawer. If we didn't put it there, we aren't going to find it there. Putting it another way, I had a training sergeant who told me,

"You won't rise to the occasion, you'll default to your level of training."

When we face that "moment" the only thing our brains will be able to pull out of the drawer is what we have put in there. Oh sure, we might think we know how to brake on an intellectual level and we'll think of what we need to do in order to stop quickly and correctly when the time comes.

I've studied what happens to humans under stress. Actually been there several times, too! You know the kind of high adrenaline situations I'm talking about. When every orifice in our body wants to pucker. When we will never fall off the bike because we have the seat's fabric tucked tightly up you know where. I'm here to tell you that there's not much intellectual activity going on. That's why our responses are called "reactions".

Another way to look at it is to say we react with whatever our habit is. Which makes the secret easy to figure out. Make sure the habit there to fall back on is the correct thing. You knew it would come back to this, didn't you? The answer is practice. Lot's of it.

What really needs to happen is repeated quick stops. That one went well? Good. Do it again. And again. And again. The muscle actions involved need to literally become second nature. They should happen without too much thinking about it going on. I'm not going to go into the specific actual application of the brakes. This is more about strategy.

I do want to mention one quick thing, though. If we do slide the rear tire, and avoid falling down or a high side, does the sliding tire matter? Definitely. The net result will be longer stopping distance. It might only make a difference of three, four, or five feet. Take a look at the photo above. Notice how Elvira's sidestand is at the 15 foot mark. Now look at this photo.

Look where the leading edge of Elvira's front tire is. It's at the 19 foot mark, just four feet farther forward. Just four feet? No big deal? What if the car's bumper were at the 15 foot mark? Where would that put the front wheel of our bike? On a small car that puts it somewhere in the back seat. Yes, every foot counts. Which is why repeated practice and developing the proper mind-muscle connection is so critical.

The good news is that a lot of riders come to our more advanced classes to practice these kind of skills. At the least, they do it on their own. That's wonderful. That's highly commendable. However, it's still only

Level Two.

The next level adds another component to the physical skills. Our definition of an expert rider is

"A rider who uses excellent judgement to avoid using expert skills."

Expert skills are wonderful and, in fact, necessary. By themselves, however, expert skills aren't really enough to keep riders out of trouble. The really great news is that developing these mental skills is more a matter of effort than the passage of time. Many riders go year after year and don't pick up the proper mental skills. A motorcyclist with a short riding season can still work on and develop great mental skills. The key is to carry them over year to year and build on them as we get more saddle time.

Riders who I would call truly experienced and successful have great mental skills. This is how they reach the highest level.

Level Three.

Here is where the skill of getting critical information early does so much to help a rider take care of themself on the streets. I plan to write much more about this skill in coming posts but this one is getting long already. So let's look at it specifically in the context of our opening scenario.

I stated that a rider should be able to stop a motorcycle in no more than 79 feet at 40 mph on a non-abs bike. So let's say that we're 80 feet from the car that pulled out in front of us. Due to our repeated practice we can stop the bike quickly and safely in 75 feet. Score? Not quite.

There's this little thing called reaction time. At 40 mph we're covering 58.66 feet per second. Let's just call it 60 feet per second. If it takes us a half second to react and start braking, which is actually pretty quick, we've covered an additional 30 feet. Suddenly we find that if we can physically stop the bike in 75 feet, we actually need 105 feet to pull off a successful stop. If it takes us a bit longer to react, if we were distracted, or whatever, that distance will vary considerably. Does your head hurt, yet? Is there a better strategy?

Actually, there is. Take a look at the opening photo again. One measure of our success might be how soon we saw the car pulling out in order to have the quickest reaction time possible and get stopped. What if we were to take another look and see if we could be even more prepared, car or no car? Take a look at this photo.

I took this photo before the car pulled out. I don't see a hazard. Or do I? Remember when I introduced this series I stated that key to success is to think like a motorcyclist? Let's do that and see what we find.

Firstly, I know I'm riding in an area with a lot of congestion. It's a major shopping mall in a city of over half a million people. Cars darting in and out of multiple places. Thinking like a motorcyclist, I know I have less protection than if I were in a car. I know it's trickier to stop the bike quickly than it is in a car. I know quick reactions are essential. So I'm covering the clutch and brake levers.

I know it's critical to get information early so I'm aggressively scanning my surroundings. Once I see something I have it on my radar and can track it. However, I find that there's a place I can't see. To my right is a parking structure. I can see into it when I look that way. Cars have to enter and exit this structure someplace. I see the big box truck coming up on my right. I can't see around the front of it. What I do see, however, gives me an early clue to what's there.

Notice how the truck is parked in a painted box sort of parking place? You can see the white lines on the roadside. Now I see there's no parking space immediately in front of the truck. Looking farther ahead, I see the orange cone at the left rear of the big food service truck. It's a little compressed due to my zoom lense, but there's a long space of plain black roadway between the two trucks. Why do you suppose that is?

Probably because that's a way in and out of the parking structure, I figure. An intersection. Since I can't see for sure, but make an educated guess, I'm taking preventative measures. I slow down and move slightly left in my lane. Which means I can see the driveway sooner and any car coming out can see me sooner. I don't count on them seeing me, but I make sure I see them as early as possible.

Sure enough, a car pulls out but it's not even a close call for me. I made use of all the available clues and prepared accordingly. I call the top skills level three, for simplicity, but I personally want my skills at Warp Factor 9!

Again, a rider can get these skills independent of time in the saddle. Riding time will only help hone these skills by putting them into practice. First and foremost is the mindset to acquire mental strategies.

Success secret #2: Physical skills are necessary. Don't rely on them. Get critical information as early as possible. This includes clues, not just the hazard itself.

I know a lot of you are already a Level 3. I figure it never hurts to review. There might be a new way of looking at things that helps put it all in perspective. Whatever your skill level I hope this is useful information.

More to come later.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Meet Ryan.

I'd like to introduce Ryan Daniel Morris, all 6 pounds and 15 ounces of him. Ryan made his entrance to the outside world at 5:27 PM last evening. Mother and baby are doing fine.

Don't know much about his personality, as yet, but he seems to be fairly mellow and as curious about the world as a guy less than 24 hours old can be. This isn't the "sweetest" baby photo a grandfather could lead off with. For some reason it's the photo that appeals to me the most. It's like Ryan is torn between wanting to go back to sleep and keeping an eye on what I'm doing with the camera.

As babies do, Ryan finally succumbed to the Sandman's persuasion. Nothing like Mama's warm lap and Homer Simpson to conk a baby out!

Anyway, since I mentioned the coming event several times, I figured I'd put a few photos up and do a bit of showing off. There's a photo floating around of me holding Ryan, but I'm sparing you my face. The baby's cuter!

The birthing center room was a hard place to take photographs in. There are some weirdly yellowish colored incandescent lights in the room. Any adjustments I did to the white balance made everything turn towards the cold side of the color spectrum. In other words, it all came out looking blue. I shot in raw so eventually I can go back and do some fancy editing. To complicate the exposure issue, one whole wall of the room is open glass and the sun was streaming in. I ended up spot metering on Ryan while letting the window light overexpose. Like the photo below.

Mostly we were busy fussing over the baby so I was content getting a few decent shots with the G11. I probably could have done a bit more with a bounce flash, but decided to let it go for now. These are enough for memories. I'm hoping for a lot of time to concentrate on baby pictures coming up! My daugher's going back to work in 6 weeks and Katie will be watching Ryan a few days a week. Okay, me, too! How fun.

I know everybody says this, but you do forget how small these things are. Our baby is turning 22 in a few months. It's been a bit since we held a new one. The hands and arms remember what to do without any trouble. What an awesome experience holding Ryan for the first time!

We've already had to make a couple of prints for Katie to show around. That's a sweet advantage of digital photography. No line or waiting on Computer 2!

Miles and smiles,

Dan