Bikes

I've been really busy the past couple of weeks. A ton of court during the days and even at night. Night court isn't as funny in real life as the TV show was, mostly its boring standing in lines waiting to see tired-eyed prosecutors with rubber stamps in their hands. Hey, its a living, right?

The other day a couple of motorcycles pulled up right in front of my law office. Had the camera lying around so I hopped out for a minute and took some pics, first of the bikes and then of the riders. The images turned out so-so, kind of bland really, I didn't feel like I really captured the essence I was looking for, so I started messing around with some image manipulation software to see if I could make something noteworthy from them.

This man's bike was wonderfuly old school. "Ape hangar" handlebars, a wire spoke front wheel with a single disk brake, and a matte finish to the fuel tank all make the bike very 1960s, which I really like. I was trying to be dramatic with the angle but I got it wrong, the handlebars don't look as tall as they really are for some reason. Even though I was lying on my back to take the pics (not in my suit, I didn't have court that day) the angle just isn't as dramatic as I thought it would be.



So I took the raw image and started playing with Gimp 2 image manipulation software. Using the "threshold" tool I came up with this version of the image, which I think is more dramatic. The rooftop in the background, which you probably didn't notice before, now becomes a dividing line cutting diagonally across the image. The rider's face is a stark contrast to the black background, his sunglasses and pouting mouth taking on a new attitude. I also love how the front wheel looks. When I think "Harley", I'm thinking something more like this:



The woman rider had a more dressy bike with lots of chrome and a very practical full windscreen. I loved the "Deluxe" emblem on her front mudguard. A little playing around with contrast and saturation levels netted this image, which is full of interesting colors and shapes (for an item which, on the face of it, has no colors but black and silver).



I also did this one by messing with contrast settings and the like. The cooling fins on the twin cylinder engine look like the ribs to a Terminator or something. I just like the stark mechanicality of it (now I'm making up words, look out folks).



As the bikes started up and rode past me I set the camera to shutter speed priority and set my shutter speed very low. If you do this right, you can get a pretty focused image of a moving vehicle with a blurred background, conveying the sense of speed. I've tried it before with some luck, for example on this pickup truck.



Unfortunately I think I overstepped myself a bit and set the shutter speed to a full second of exposure. The resulting images convey motion and a bit of the "wild horses" excitement of riding a motorcycle, but the vehicles themselves aren't very sharp. Props to the woman rider for flashing me a peace sign as she went by--thanks for providing my image with a focal point! I love it!