Like most everyone today, I take a lot of pictures. Not selfies. Not food dishes. Just interesting shapes, shadows, colours, and textures discovered on my rides.
Who would have thought I would even want a camera on a phone. I certainly didn’t. After all, I was used to SLR’s, with a variety of lens. That’s what I needed. Right?
Wrong.
All I need is a smartphone.
The technology has improved so much, that excellent pictures are taken with them, and their real power is that they are ubiquitous. Always with us. Especially out on the bike.
Each Friday I will post a smartphone picture taken on one of my rides.
iPhriday posts celebrate the iPhone camera, and in my case, cycling. Each Friday I post an image taken with my iPhone while cycling. Feel free to join me with an iPhriday post of your own.
Every Wednesday I post an image without words. Sometimes, words are not necessary. These are not necessarily recent images but rather ones I like and have saved, and in some cases, hung on my walls. I have ~ 8,500 images stored on my hard drive, and don’t know what else to do with them
iPhriday posts celebrate the iPhone camera, and in my case, cycling. Each Friday I post an image taken with my iPhone while cycling. Feel free to join me with an iPhriday post of your own.
It was a birthday gift from my son several years ago. We hung it in the bike shop. That was appropriate. Right? Well, I don’t spend that much time there, particularly this time of year. What a shame. So, I moved it into the house, and hung it on the wall I face mostly while relaxing in the den.
I love this clock. You see, my son made it using chainrings – Suntour 52/42 – from one of my first road bikes. Back in the 80’s, Suntour was a popular brand used on mid-priced bikes. The company no longer exists, but in it’s prime produced quality derailleurs, and chainrings 😂at a reasonable price.
The clock got me thinking … 🤔
I have a lot of left over bike parts. Handlebars. Chains. Derailleurs. Wheels. Inner tubes. Tires. Cranks. What do I do with it all? Apparently, I can recycle the tires. That’s a good idea. I’ve seen sculptures made from chains, coat hangers from handlebars, and chairs from inner tubes. And, I see all of these components listed on eBay being offered up for someone else to enjoy.
At the moment, I have 3 SLK stems and Dura-Ace cranks with racing chainrings sitting on my TV stand. I’m trying to decide what to do with them. What better way than to have them in constant view. A constant reminder to do something with them. The stems are too long, and I no longer use them. And the Dura-Ace chainrings are too large for these parts. I have converted my road bikes to compact setups.
I could hang them on the wall as art. I love looking at them. Or, I could sell them. They are worth a lot of money. Then again, I could build another bike … 😂
iPhriday posts celebrate the iPhone camera, and in my case, cycling. Each Friday I post an image taken with my iPhone while cycling. Feel free to join me with an iPhriday post of your own.
GoToob is the civilized, smart, squeezable tube for outdoor activities. The award-winning and patented GoToob is made from soft yet rugged silicone, so it’s easy to squeeze out all of the contents. A large opening makes it easy to fill and clean. And it’s airplane carry-on approved, food-safe (FDA), and 100% BPA and PC-free.
Well, it’s that. A civilized, squeezable tube.
It’s also a signal that I am back outdoors cycling. You see, I make my own gels for cycling. I prefer all natural ingredients, and over the years, have refined a recipe for rides lasting longer than an hour that looks something like this –
Juice of 1 medium Lemon
Juice of 1 Lime
4 larges Dates
Large handful of Raisons
A tablespoon of Peanut Butter
A tablespoon of Salt
1 cup of Water (the water used to soak the dates and raisons)
1/4 cup of filtered, black Coffee
The recipe fills 3 GoToob 89 ml tubes. Depending on effort expended, I try to consume 1 tube each hour. I only have 2 tubes right now, so cannot cycle longer than 2 hours 😂 I lost 2 tubes last year when I had that high-speed crash, and have been meaning to replace them. Now that I’m outside more frequently, I had better make a trip to MEC to purchase a few more tubes.
I’ve tried a variety of other packaged gels and bars but they upset my stomach, particularly on long, hot rides. I sometimes use Cliff Bars but find them too sweet, difficult to open when cycling, difficult to chew, and subsequently difficult to swallow. On the other hand, my homemade gels are easy to access, easy to swallow, easy to digest, and considerably less expensive than pre-packaged alternatives.
If you have a recipe you like, please let me know. I’m always interested in finding a better solution ☕️🍋🍓🍇🍚
Did you know that in 2013, Oxford Dictionaries declared the word selfie as The International Word of the Year, describing it as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”?
Of course you did.
Well, selfies have been around for a long time, long before smartphones, and I have always been fascinated with them. They tell a different, more intimate story. And, now that they can be shared more easily, they have become an indispensable part of our lives.
Selfies are an art form. If you doubt this, watch this video.
They empower the artist to chose what, when, and where to shoot. I’m not suggesting my selfies are art. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But my smartphone empowers me to shoot frequently. That’s the difference. It’s ubiquitous. Always with me. Even when I’m on the bikes. And, surprisingly, it boasts a lot of technology, comparable to my old SLRs that are collecting dust in the cupboard. Features that can result in good, even excellent, photographs.
I used to think selfies were an age thing. Something only millennials did. Narcissistic in a way. The American Psychiatric Association even consider taking selfies is a mental disorder.
The disorder is called selfitis, and is defined as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem, and to fill a gap in intimacy.
Borderline selfitis : Taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day but not posting it on social media
Acute selfitis: Taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day and posting each of the photos on social media
Chronic selfitis: Uncontrollable urge to take photos of one’s self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day.
Really?
I don’t fall into any of these categories. That’s a good thing. Right? I only take selfies when cycling, and seldom share them in any way, except perhaps on this post.
Let’s face it. Selfies, as we know them, are a recent phenomenon. People of all ages, sexes, religions, and political stripes take them. It seems, at least to me, there is a universal need to document, and as we grow older, validate our lives. We always have. The prehistoric cave drawings are no different than the digital images of today, a record of life at the time.
I take selfies when cycling. Not while moving, although I suppose I could do that as well. No, I take them when stopped, perhaps at the summit of a climb, during bathroom breaks, or when relaxing afterward. Why do I do this? And, why don’t I take them at other times? Well, I’m a cyclist. And, I suppose that’s how I think of myself, and want to be remembered.
These images picture me enjoying rides.
I have included a random collection of selfies taken over the past several years. They are always a head shot, sometimes with an interesting backdrop, always with natural lighting. I don’t take myself too seriously, and usually have a smile on my face, even during a 20 km climb up one of the local mountains in the rain.
That’s what cycling does. It puts a smile on my face 😀
Oh yeah. Did you notice that I cycle all year in the cold, rain, and hot sun 👏
PedalWORKS 