I’m trying to get into great shape this summer, and among other things have taken up riding my bike again. I’m not an avid biker, so I haven’t spent any time learning about bicycle design and engineering, but the more I ride the more I discover about the intelligent decisions bicycle designers make. My bike is a Specialized Rockhopper, circa 2005 or so, but these are general observations certainly not specific to my ride.

Most interesting is how the shifters work to help you find your way efficiently around 24 different gear ratios. My rear cog has eight gears ranging from 11 to 30 teeth, the front chainring has three gears of 22, 32 and 42 teeth. Rather than think of it as 24 “speeds,” it’s much easier to think of it as three overlapping ranges, as mapped out below.

What works so beautifully is that the shifter levers on the handlebars work together seamlessly to move you between ranges. Using your thumb on both shifters moves the chainring higher and the cog gear lower, and your right thumb can downshift the cog gear by one, two or three speeds depending on how far you push. By downshifting two or three gears on the cog and upshifting one on the chainrail you effectively change to a higher range without significantly changing the gear ratio (and vice-versa with up/down shifting with your forefingers).

So what’s all that mumbo jumbo mean? It means that you can keep the same pedaling pace and power while a simple press of both thumbs or tug on both forefingers will set you up for better gear ratios as you approach a climb or descent.

Elegant.

We just returned from a 10 day trip in England. I shot a bit over 1,000 pictures and put 61 of them on Flickr and in the travelog – a 6% rate which seems pretty typical. The full travelog is at www.anirama.com/england and the Flickr set is here. Here are six of my favorites.

Kevin and Sarah at Windsor Castle. I like that the background is blown out - it gives them a sense of space without competing with their faces. I don't even mind the fence.

Taken during a tour of Oxford in a light rain, giving a softness to the light. Kevin struck the pose, but it works really well.

London City Hall. Lots of processing in Lightroom to bring out the dramatic sky without the building descending into darkness. The beauty of shooting RAW is that you have a few extra stops of latitude to play with in post production. It's much easier than trying to do this with HDR.

The lake in St. James Park with the London Eye and Horse Guards in the background. The soft sky flattens the light and gives the scene a painterly feeling. View it bigger and over black here.

Napping in front of Salisbury Cathedral. I like this one because you get a sense of the scale of the Cathedral without showing the whole building. Plus it has my kids napping in it.

Beer.

Eric and I went to the Marin Car Show on Sunday. I used it as an opportunity to challenge myself with a photo assignment. i decided to only shoot with my 100mm Macro at f2.8, and to only shoot people. Plus, since it was a car show with shiny parts, everything had to be shot in a reflection. These are my top 10 picks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Book vs. Droid

I have been reading Sherlock Holmes in a book and on a borrowed iPad. I’ve never read a book on an electronic device before and I have to say that overall I liked the iPad experience of reading, though the resolution of the iPad did bother me a bit as the anti-aliasing on the type is clearly visible. Out of curiosity I downloaded the Aldiko eBook app for my Droid to see what reading looks like on a small screen.

I was shocked – it actually works really well. I tweaked the font size so that it’s about the same size as the type in the book (17pt on the Droid), and with the higher resolution of the Droid screen the type is crystal clear. The Aldiko app allows you to flick the page to turn it (like the iPad), and also lets you use the volume rocker (conveniently under my right thumb when reading) to turn pages forward and back.

I was skeptical of the small number of words that would fit on a page, but the flow felt very natural and easy.

Overall, I have to admit I enjoyed the experience. And I don’t have to carry any more devices than I already do. Wow, what a surprise!

EA Lunch

I’m continually impressed with the cafeteria at Electronic Arts. Thursday’s lunch was this incredible leg of duck over spring vegetables, drizzled with a pomegranate Balsamic vinaigrette sauce. Yummy.

Shot on my Droid.