bikephilly2008

Originally uploaded by ratsinis

Got back from Bike Philly on Sunday. It’s an awfully enjoyable ride, highly recommended even if it does require a bit of a drive.

Photos are available.

Oh, and on the way home, I picked up Rock Band 2. There goes my week.

I rarely do maintenance on my hosted web space since my provider just keeps increasing my quotas, but something made me look inside the old FITHlan folders today.

And out popped a whole buncha photos.

Ha, no, that’s not what it’s really called. But admit it, that’d be a fantastic title for an adult film.

No, what I really wanted to do was bring your attention to some absolutely stunning photographs of the Large Hadron Collider @ CERN. There aren’t many calendars I would buy, but this one? You betcha.

REINDEER FLOTILLA

I’ve complained in the past about a certain photo contest for a certain bike ride in a certain city of brotherly love.

Well, found out. I won.

Now we just need to figure out how Fuji is going to get a Shangri-La LX cruiser to me.

A while back, Gareth and I were in the CDT … somewhere between the legs of a circus elephant.

Well, today, I was in the CDT myself.  Or at least the two front wheels and the flag of my trike were.  I’m on the right, hidden behind Joe.

Believe me, I’m not angry.  The ride wasn’t about me.  I just thought it funny to once again almost be in the paper.

There’s nothing quite as shocking for a nobody like myself than to visit a site looking for information and unexpectedly find one of my photos used as a product shot.

I’ve been trying to find a AAA battery clip for my Magellan eXplorist 500. Why? Because I was reading about portable solar power and thought, “If I could take portable panels with me to charge my GPS, I’d be able to track a multi-day tour.” Not that I have the time to do a multi-day tour. Trust me when I say that such details are often lost on me.

My search took me to a page hosted by HighSpeedSat which has the 500 listed among its product reviews. Scroll, scroll, scroll… looking to see if they sell the battery clip… and then WHAM!

Holy hell, my pale legs are on a GPS website! Kinda cool, as long as they link back to my Flickr site, since that’s where they got it. But no, clicking on the image brings up a photo of the eXplorist box contents. And there’s no photo attribute, meaning I don’t even get credit for the shot.

My first instinct was the grab a shot of the page, record the date/time, and jot down the URL so I could write them to have my image removed.

And then I remembered I have this blog. This blog that has, as early as yesterday, relied upon using the images of others to supplement the writing. It’s hard to get my moral superiority in order when I am guilty of the same actions. “Fair use”, you might cry. “You’re not making any money from the images.” This is true, I’m not making a dime, but it still feels weird to feel as though my copyright has been violated when I do the same thing to others so easily.

It’s easy for me to ignore this infringement of my “work” since this isn’t really my source of income. I don’t make money from my photos. I never plan to do so. The long term impact to my livelihood is null. So why should I care?

I’ll tell you why… Because while I’m no photographer, I am egotistical. I’m actually okay with somebody using my stuff as long as I’m credited. However, I do maintain full rights so that there’s no misinterpreting who can use what and to what level.

Having said that, I’m probably not going to do anything about HighSpeedSat. If showing off my legs helps them sell a GPS, so be it.

Last September, I submitted three photos to the Bike Philly photo contest.  They’ve never announced the winners (first prize was a Fuji bike).

But that doesn’t mean they haven’t used the photos.

One of my submissions first showed up in an official Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia document.  Then it showed up on their blog.  And now?  Now it’s the header graphic of their registration page for Bike Philly 2008.

So did I win the contest?  No clue.  They’ve also never said when they would be announcing the winners.  There was some mention that they would reveal the winners at a volunteer meeting, but I didn’t have time to drive to Philly to attend just that meeting.

Sort of.

If you look between the front two legs of the lead elephant, you’ll see my and Gare’s legs and part of his green jacket. WE’RE FAMOUS!!!

I once again find myself in a position in which I have a sum of money at my disposal and no immediate need to apply it to something practical. It is therefore time to enter my annual post in which I contemplate which unnecessary purchase most appeals to me! Weeee!

Here are the possibilities:

1. A new kayak - this is probably a poor choice since I’m not entirely sure I spent any time in my kayak last year. My rationalization is that if I had a new, more capable boat, I’d spend more time in it. This, however, conflicts with the desire to get…
2. A new bike - No, there’s nothing wrong with my trike. Nothing at all. But I would very much like to also have a recumbent of the two wheeled variety, preferably one that folds so I can transport it even when I have to take Gareth and his wheelchair to school. Though, my transport issues could be solved simply by purchasing outdoor storage for my trike since the reason I don’t take it with me regardless is that I have to store it in my basement which has only an indoor entrance.
3. A bike rack expansion - The company that makes my current bike rack has recently started selling an accessory for it that allows one to hang a trike off the back of the rack, which would mean no more bug splatter all over the front of my trike from being on the roof. It would also mean no more lifting the trike to the roof of my element and having to secure it from both sides of the vehicle.
4. A PS3 - Now that Blu-Ray is the de facto winner of the HD media war (for now), I feel as though I can justify a PS3 purchase. But the games, oh the games. Are they really there just yet? Does that even matter? If my goal is to have a Blu-Ray player, then no, the games don’t matter. I like to think, however, that I would one day like to play games on a game console.
5. A new camera - While I’m not a fan of carrying around a bag of lenses (been there, done that), I am a fan of higher image fidelity, RAW mode, larger image sensors, and hot shoes. My DSC-H2 has done well by me, but I’m tired of filtering out purple fringe or of being limited to 16×24 prints.
6. A new PC - This is the least likely option as I’ve simply abandoned PC gaming. Perhaps I’d get back into it were I to have a capable machine, but Brandy and I are trying to set ourselves up to spend more time with each other while one of us is computing, not less. A gaming PC wouldn’t aid that in any way. A gaming laptop might help, but I hold gaming laptops in low regard (high price, low shelf life) and will actively avoid such a solution.

So yeah, it’s a rough life, I know. No matter what, I’m going to be doing about a month of research before I can make a decision. Bikes and cameras in particular are not purchases to be entered into lightly (at least, not if you’re really picky).

UPDATE: Two days after writing this, I picked up a PS3 and a widescreen monitor.  So much for patience.  Still, though, I’ve got enough left over for a camera upgrade and am looking forward to judging the performance of the Olympus 570UZ when it comes out.   I’m just not ready yet to go back to carrying a bag of lenses around with me.

I never realized just how dangerous digital cameras can be. Up until the beginning of 2006, I was of the mindset that film ruled all and that digital just didn’t cut it.

Then something snapped.

Since purchasing my H2 in May ‘06, I’ve managed to shoot 3700+ photos. 990 of those have been posted to Flickr. Two have been blown up into posters. One has appeared in a newspaper.

I haven’t touched my 35mm camera in a long time, even though my H2 has obscene levels of purple fringing.

Oh well, it was the 990 Flickr photos that set me off on this reflection.

In other news, looks like I’ll be buying a Honda Element soon. I’m not crazy about the MPG ratings (21/26), but we needed a second vehicle that was wheelchair capable and that would accommodate the biking and kayaking hobbies. Oh, and something that was 4WD since I grew tired of sliding around in my Ford Focus this past winter.

One of these days, we’ll have to move closer to Minitab or at least to an area with a good bike path extension so I can just bike to work. There’s no way I’d want to do that from Pleasant Gap.