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From the photography department:

A young man rides his bicycle across the land, capturing moments in time.

Wait, that doesn’t sound very accurate.

A not-quite middle-aged man in poor shape wheezes along on his bike, stopping once in awhile to catch his breath and maybe snap a photo or two of some random stuff.

There, that’s it! To press!

Spring has sprung, and the time for cyclophotography has begun!

Or something like that.

NEW LENS
I bought a new lens for my camera last week. Well, OK, new to me. I found it in the buy/sell/trade forum on a photography site I hang out on. I took it out with me yesterday on a cyclophotography trip.

I love this lens. In my arsenal of lenses are:

14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 (Oly)

Came with camera.

18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 (Sigma)

Cheap but good. Close focusing makes this a good macro lens. True manual focus as well, which is handy for macro work. The Oly lenses can be focused manually, but it’s done via an electronic ring which steps the focus motor. It’s a little slower and more awkward to use.

55-200mm f/4-5.6 (Sigma)

Cheap but good telephoto zoom lens. Also true MF.

400mm f/5.6 (Sigma OM)

Manual everything super-telephoto lens. I found it on the web, a German second-hand store. Had to use Babelfish to help me fill in the online order forms. Also had to beg for free OM->fourthirds adapter ring, which Oly only gave out free on the second Thursday after a full moon on a cloudy night. I don’t think it’s free at all anymore.

25mm extension tube (Oly)

Turns many lenses into macro lenses. Found used on the same b/s/t forum as my new lens…

11-22mm f/2.8-3.5 (Oly)

High quality wide zoom lens. Where my kit lens or the normal Sigma would show barrel distortion at wider zoom, this lens shows none. This lens lives on the camera.

NEW BAG
… and speaking of new gear, the new lens means that all my gear no longer fits in my already crammed kit bag.

Time for a new bag.

Check this baby out:

Have a look at the manufacturer’s webpage for all the nifty features and stuff: [lowepro.com] Slingshot camera bag. The major feature with this baby is its two positions: backpack mode and access mode. I took this with me on the bike ride yesterday and it turns out to be perfect for cyclophotography.

Now that I think about it, I don’t really need to carry the kit lens around. With new lens and the two Sigmas, I’m covered for all the zoom range I need (equivalent to an 18x zoom, 22-400mm EFL). So I could probably go back to cramming all the crap in my old bag. On the other hand, now that I know how convenient and awesome this new bag is, I’m never going back.

CAMERA GEAR
Now for the fun part: here’s all the stuff I’ve got jammed in there.

What is all this crap? Outer row — clockwise, starting with the first lens in the upper-left corner:

Sigma 55-200mm f/4-5.6 telephoto zoom lens

Lives in one of the two inner lens pockets.

Olympus 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 normal zoom lens

For now, lives in the other inner lens pocket.

Olympus EX-25 tube for macro shots

Lives in the add-on lens pouch.

Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 normal/macro zoom lens

Also lives in the add-on lens pouch.

Crappy Canon mini-tripod

It’s nice to have a small tripod handy. I have a big proper one at home, but sometimes you just wanna do a group shot, your big tripod’s at home and you need a place to stand and aim your camera. I found this tripod in a bin of used $5 camera stuff. It was built so that it had “stops” of elevation, so I hacked it by putting a plastic washer between the little teeth. Now it can be locked at ANY angle. Lives in the inner pocket with the Sigma telephoto zoom lens.

Olympus FL-36 Flash, plus case

Not as fancy or expensive as the FL-50, not as crappy or as cheap as the FL-20. Pretty popular, too. I had to wait 3 months for it to ship; by the time it finally did I’d left SiteBrand to work at Roaring Penguin and the thing was delivered to the wrong place! I keep it in its case so it doesn’t get scratched from the other stuff it lives with in the topmost pocket.

Extra 512MB CF

This is the card I’d started out with. When I went to my sister’s wedding I discovered how quickly it gets full, I bought a 1GB card. Lives in a set of pockets on the inner flap of the main chamber.

Empty case for 1GB CF

I dunno why I keep this in the case. Just ’cause, I guess. Lives beside the above.

Video out cable

You know, just in case I wanna do a slideshow from the camera on somebody’s TV. Lives in a set of pockets on the outer flap of the main chamber.

USB cable

This comes in handy a lot and not just for the camera, lemme tell you. Lives with the above.

Lens pen

In addition to the brush, there’s a cap covering a little thing that rubs gunk on your lens. Also lives in the outer flap pocket.

55-58mm adapter ring

So I can put the circular polarizer (or haze filter) on the Sigma 55-200mm lens. Lives in the pocket with the Sigma telephoto zoom, underneath the tripod.

Extra lens cap

You know, for when you misplace your normal one. Lives with above.

Body cap / rear lens cap

The Oly 11-22mm f/2.8-3.5 lens is on the camera now, hence these two. Lives with above.

OK, now for the inner bunch of stuff. We’ll do these in rows, left to right, starting again at upper-left:

Oly battery charger plus cable

It’s surprising how often I *don’t* charge my battery at home. Both live with the flash in the topmost pocket.

Two silica gel packs

I stick these in various places within the camera bag ’cause moisture sucks (and they suck moisture, ha ha)

58mm haze filter plus case

’cause the circular polarizer’s on the Oly 14-45mm right now. Lives in outer flap pocket.

Lens paper and business cards

Lens paper comes in handy all the time. The (out-of-date) business cards are for handing to people whose photographs I’ve taken. “Thanks for letting me take your photo. Send me an email and I’ll send you a copy of your picture!” Shows people you’re friendly and not a crazy stalker creep at the same time (what crazy stalker would hand you his contact info?) Biz cards live in outer flap pocket, lens paper is jammed in with the all-weather cover which has its own special pocket on the back.

Oly remote control

Stick your camera on a tripod, gather your friends together, smile, and click. Also good for controlling the camera in slideshow mode. Lives in inner flap pocket with the memory cards.

Extra battery

Another “it would be nice to have…” I discovered at my sister’s wedding. Yet another b/s/t purchase from the forum. Lives in outer flap pocket.

Viewfinder cover

If your eye isn’t blocking the viewfinder, light can get in there and mess with your picture a little, so if your camera’s on a tripod and you and your friends are lined up with the sun shining on you, you’d better have this little gizmo blocking the viewfinder or the sun’s gonna creep in and mess up your shot a little. Outer flap pocket.

Other stuff not pictured:

Olympus E300 dSLR camera

I love this camera ever since I got it a year or so ago. I usually carry it to work and back every day. It actually makes a pretty good scanner-substitute, too. I take pictures of documents and email instead of scanning or faxing.

11-22mm f/2.8-3.5 lens

The new wider, faster, better lens I just acquired lives on the camera.

White card

In the extra lens pouch, there’s a little hidden pocket with a plastic card in it. Maybe the card is there to make the pouch more sturdy, but (a) it’s pretty sturdy without it, and (b) it just happens to be a neutral white/gray shade

Air bulb (a.k.a. the one thing that doesn’t fit in the bag)

Usually a couple of shots of air is enough to clean a lens, and then you don’t have to waste time and lens paper. Also good for getting junk out of the camera body if some happens to get in there. Unfortunately, there’s no room left in the bag for it.

Laptop and other gear

On an extended visit or a distance journey I’ll bring along my laptop bag, which is pretty packed with stuff, too, like a paperback book, MP3 player and headphones, network and phone cables, maybe extra batteries and charger, etc.

NEXT POST
Stay tuned for lots of pictures. Tomorrow I want to clean my car and do more cyclophotography, so pictures will ensue, along with yesterday’s cyclophotography pictures.

Boy, ‘cyclophotography’ is a mouthful. Or a handful, when you’re typing incredibly slowly on an AlphaGrip. It’d be way more fun to use a TLA. How ’bout CPY? Or an ETLA, CPGY? Chicken, pasta, garlic, yummy?

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