Bicycle Touring and Photography

Bicycle touring and photography seem to go hand and hand, and it makes sense. You get to travel to incredible places at a relatively slow pace, there is plenty of time to kill, and after the tour is over you want to be able to share your experiences with others. Just thinking about our own staff here at Adventure Cycling, there have been some incredible photographers within our own walls over the years including Aaron Teasdale, Tom Robertson, John Sieber, and our co-founder, Greg Siple.

I'm by no stretch a great photographer, but I do love shooting photos on bike trips. One thing that I have learned over the years is that it is really easy to start geeking out on camera equipment just as much as you would bike equipment, which is incredibly dangerous. I don't need a fancy DSLR, just like a don't need a custom Co-Motion with a Rohloff hub, but I want them both anyway. Fortunately, common sense gets a hold of me before I dig myself too far into debt and I find a good compromise. For those of you in a similar boat wanting a high quality camera, but not wanting to drop down thousands of dollars, there are some excellent options available.

Four years ago I bought a used Canon G9 for a bike tour and even now I still toss it into my jersey pocket for nearly every ride I go on. The current Canon G12 is capable of taking very high quality photos, in addition to 1280 x 720p HD video. There are a lot of manual control options available so, depending on your skill level, you can really play around with aperture and shutter speed for some unique photos. If the G12 holds up as well as my G9 has been holding up, it's a camera that can make it through a lot of tours making it a pretty good deal for $500.

If you want to be able to swap lenses around, but don't want a heavy or bulky camera, the mirrorless Lumix cameras from Panasonic are looking really attractive. The Panasonic Lumix DMC GX-1 camera body is very low profile like a simple point and shoot, but it accepts a number of zoom lenses to give you a ton of options. Just like the camera body, the Panasonic lenses are also small and light so you would have no problem fitting this camera with two or three extra lenses into a small handlebar bag. You can shoot high resolution photos at 16 mega pixels, and you have the ability to capture 1080 HD video. These run around $800, which includes the 14-42mm kit lens.

Before wrapping up, it should be mentioned that you guys out there appear to be great photographers as well, and the upcoming February issue of Adventure Cyclist will be releasing the results of our annual photo contest. So be on the lookout for it!


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TOURING GEAR AND TIPS is written by Joshua Tack of Adventure Cycling's member services department. It appears weekly, highlighting technical aspects of bicycle touring and advice to help better prepare you for the journey ahead.

Stripped

Do you know that gut-wrenching feeling when your bike has been stolen off the street? You left it there a few minutes ago and, coming back, it's gone, the lock clipped, your heart sinking fast? That's the way I felt yesterday when the transportation committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted by just two votes to keep biking and walking programs out of the next long-term transportation bill. I felt like my trusted transportation option had vanished.

It was stunning to see this important committee eliminate a modest, effective investment in programs that help more kids walk and bike to school, reduce congestion on our roads, decrease energy consumption and carbon emissions, and contribute to a better quality of life in American communities.

Now of course, there is more legislative process to come. The full House has to act (and the current bill is already drawing a lot of opposition from a wide array of interests). Senate committees still need to act and the future of the bill is uncertain in that chamber.

Nevertheless, yesterday's vote delivered the same sharp kick to the gut that you feel when your bike has been taken from you. In the next few weeks, cyclists and anyone who cares about investing in good, clean transportation and recreation will have to convert that pain into an energetic campaign to restore national bike/walk programs for America's future. We'll keep you posted.

P.S. Let me end on a slightly positive note. Huge credit is due to the bipartisan group of Representatives who led the fight in committee to keep bike/walk programs. They are Republican Representatives Tom Petri, Tim Johnson, and Frank LoBiondo, and Democratic Representatives Nick Rahall, Peter DeFazio, and Dan Lipinski. If you know them, please send them a heartfelt thanks.

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JIM SAYER is executive director of Adventure Cycling Association.

A Gallery of Memories

It was late in the evening in a little town in Colombia. We had stopped for an ice cream and were sitting at a street-side table. There was no traffic. The street was deserted except for kids riding bikes.

I loved listening to the combination of spinning bicycle wheels, creaking chains, squeaky seats, and laughter.

The streets were barely lit. No where near enough light to take a photo. But I put the camera on the table and set the aperture as wide as it would go, and clicked off a few shots as the kids wheeled by.

What I got was a grainy, ghost-like image. It looked more like a painting than a photo. I could make out the frame of the bike, part of the back wheel, the girl's sandal, and her skirt. Not much more. But the image still speaks to me.

Some travel memories are sharp and clear. They stick with you. Ten years later you can recall an event or place or personal exchange as if it happened yesterday.

Others blur and fade and mix with other memories of events, places, trips, and people encountered along the way.

I used to get frustrated that I couldn't remember every detail of every trip. Now I embrace the clear, the mixed, and the blurred memories of my bicycle journeys. They all make up an ever-expanding mental art exhibit--one that I visit as often as I can.

Photo: Colombia -- 2009 by Willie Weir

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SIGHTS AND SOUNDS appears on Friday afternoons. Willie Weir is a columnist for Adventure Cyclist magazine. His latest book Travels with Willie: Adventure Cyclist will inspire you to hit the road and just might change the way you approach bicycle travel. He lives in Seattle with his wife Kat. You can read about their local adventures and life without a car at http://YellowTentAdventures.com/.