Leapfrog Photo and Video Ride 6-4-16

[klaviator]

A while back I proposed doing this ride and posted it in Lets Ride and then moved it to Planned rides.  The link to that thread is here: http://bamarides.com/ride/index.php?topic=1049.0

Several people expressed interest in this ride but by ride day we were down to 2 riders, Jrobinson and me.  That worked out OK since it gave us a chance to try out the route and get some ideas on how to make this work with a larger group.  We ended up meeting at Huddle House in Guntersville where we a a good breakfast and had a chance to talk a bit.  We came up with a rough plan.  We would leapfrog on 227 and 67 and try to get some scenic shots with water in the background.  Then we would hit the twisties on Crow Mountain and check them out for good spots. 

Time to ride.  I got this pic as we were getting ready to leave.



Johnny rode ahead to set up for the first pic/video spot while I stopped by McDs to see if anyone had showed up there.  Then I headed out.  When I got on 227 headed across the water I stopped to make sure Johnny had time to set up and I snapped this pic.

[jrobinson]

A ride like this has been on my ToDO list for a while. Like Win said, this turned into a recon ride.

Full bellies and ready to head out.


The plan was to use the water as a backdrop, but the signs said, No Parking on Bridge. This was the first pull off.


The first flyby.

[klaviator]

I continued down the road to the next photo spot. 



And then the close up of Johnny with a scenic background.



Oops.  Well I never claimed to be killboy.  There were a couple of problem with this shot.  First was that Johnny was following some cars too closely.  Second, I'm not sure I picked a good spot.  There was a car parked right behind me so I'm not sure what I should have done.  Maybe I could have stood on the guardrail?  Another issue was that this kind of shot works better If you can get back away from the road a bit.  The other side of the road would have been better but the background wasn't as good. 

One last pic from that spot.




Edit:  after looking at the pics I took at this spot again I found one that I liked after I cropped and enlarged it.  It makes the hill in the background look really steep.

[jrobinson]

Went through the park area and found a nice place to catch Win rolling down the road.

[klaviator]

Nice pics Johnny.  I'll try to redeem myself after the last ones. 

I continued on hoping to find a spot with a nice background before we got away from the lake.  I finally found someone's driveway.



Not exactly what I was hoping for.  Let's see what a little cropping can do.

[jrobinson]

My camera started acting up, so I had to depend on video for the remainder of the ride.

Here we have Win photobombing a poor jogger.

[klaviator]

I continued down 67.  I have always thought that this was a very scenic road, especially at the north end where it runs along the water.  I have always tried to capture that scenery in my pics.  This was a chance to do it.  The problem is that it was hard to find good  spots to set up and get the shots. 



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I think this last pic would have been better if I took it a second or so earlier.  A sunny day would have helped too.

[jrobinson]

The next bridge I tried to get back to get you with the water in the background. You were too quick for me. I almost didn't get the camera on in time.

[klaviator]

The next spot was still on 67.



That was the last stop on 67.  I caught up to Johnny on 35 and we headed into Scottsboro where we stopped for gas and discussed what to do next.  My thought was that 39 up Crow mountain was a fantastic ride but 33 had better picture spots.  We decided to do both.  We rode up 39 and quickly found a good spot.  We decided Johnny would set up for video and I would ride down the road, turn around and ride by.

[Nice Goat]

Nice job, guys.  It's not easy find a spot on the fly.  When I ride ahead looking for a spot, I'm thinking to myself about several things:

- Lighting: On sunny days, you want the sun behind you whenever possible.

- Parking: Farther off the road is better for safety and staying out of the shot.

- Camera placement: I like to be about 15-20 feet off the road.

- Background: Less clutter is better, so that viewers focus on the subject.  Busy backgrounds can be simplified by blurring them a little (larger aperture, i.e., smaller "f" numbers, give smaller depth of field)

- Action: Curves are more interesting than straightaways, but you can add other action like rider waving, standing, smiling, swerving, etc.  Less subject action means that your background has to be more appealing.

- Framing: Try to take the photo with the subject slightly off-center, but moving or facing the center of the frame (see "rules of thirds").

- Zoom: Never use digital zoom, only optical.  Zoom in to the point where you think the subject is perfectly framed, and then zoom out just a little.  You can always crop the photo later on your computer to get the best frame layout.

- Shutter speed:  You need a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 or 1/500 of a second for moving vehicles.  Otherwise the subject will be blurry.  This makes action photography harder on cloudy days because not enough light is getting into the camera at fast shutter speeds.

- Camera angle: Most people spend their whole lives with their eyes between 5-6 feet off the ground.  Make your photos more interesting by getting low to the ground.

These are the most important considerations to me.

[jrobinson]

Next we hit Hwy 35 and into Scottsboro. There we stopped for fuel and go over our game plan again. We decided to head toward CR 39 going up Crow Mountain.

Helmet cam heading up Crow Mt.

[klaviator]

That first video was done from a great spot.  The helmet cam was a perfect lead in to the next spot as it showed me set up at the side of the road.  Not as good of a spot as the last one but I got you coming and going.



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Like Glenn posted, it's best to use a wider field of view and then crop on the computer. 



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[jrobinson]

Glenn was spot on with the "rules", bet as with most things, there are times when you can make a great shot while breaking the rules.

Here's a double of Win.

[klaviator]

After that last video we hung out a bit and it started raining on us.  We decided to go check out some spots on 33 anyway. We soon rode out of the rain and down 33.  As I thought, 33 has a lot more spots where you can park a bike off the side of the road.  We went to the bottom of the hill and talked it over.  Then Johnny headed back up to set up at what we both agreed was the best spot.  That video should be coming up.

[jrobinson]

Here's a nice wide place with plenty of room to pull off and park.

This is the last video from the day. It started raining and we almost had a traffic jam.