Author: Bob Harrison

I just received a ‘new’ Leica M3 the other day. I didn’t really need it, but to be honest, I had a lens around that was just crying to be used and…well you probably know the rest of the story.
I love photography and wish I were better at it. I’ve made a few good images and I have some idea of what I like in an image but it really takes practice. That’s one reason I like cameras that let you adjust everything manually. Mind you, I make a ton of images, perhaps in this case I should say take pictures, with cameras set on auto. But it’s when I actually have to think about what I’m doing that I’m more likely to make something I like.
A Leica M3 is about as manual a camera as you can get. There’s no meter. There no ‘mode.’ There’s just the aperture, the shutter speed, the film, and a lens. It helps to have a light meter, but one can really estimate the light and make an okay image, at least with print film.
So…how am I doing?
Let’s see. Today I loaded the camera up and immediately messed up at least a half of roll of film by not locking the lens in place. Sigh. I loaded another roll and gave things a try.

Not anything to write home about, but I’m still impressed…not with the images, but with the camera and lens combo.
I was using the Sunny 16 Rule and more or less took these shots unmetered. Focusing the old Leica was easy and accurate. The film is cheap Fuji 200 consumer print film. It’s not great, it’s not bad. It’s what I had.
Here’s the deal. The camera was focused on what I wanted it focused on. I got the exposure more or less where I expected it to be. In short I wasn’t surprised by what I got. That’s a great start in my book. Now I just had to practice, practice, practice. It does get easier with time.
Aloha!

At one point my Fujiyama as going to receive a hand built wheel up front with a dynamo hub. It still may one of these days, but I think I’ve found even a better solution. Now when I say better, I don’t mean better. What I mean is “more retro.” Better in style points as it were.
What’s the solution? A Sanyo Dynapower! As the fella who is selling me says, “This is the classic state of the art up to the mid 80s.” Since I was sort of state of the art in the mid 80s (maybe not good art), it’s fitting.
At least I hope it’s fitting. I’m going to have to lose the kickstand for now. That’s not the worst thing in the world as the one I have, a good one, doesn’t really work with the current geometry of the bike.
This picture isn’t mine, it’s from the fella selling it to me…

I’m still waiting to hear about the wheels…fingers crossed.
Here’s the rest of the bits and pieces…

Last night I stayed up past my bedtime as my new Schwalbe Big Apples (26×2.35) had arrived. Naturally when I came home at 10pm they were sitting at my door just begging to be put on.

And yes, I did. Then I rode to work today and realized that the rear fender, Planet Bike model, really was too small (still is), but more importantly, because the plastic brace holding it to the stays, the tire would rub from time to time. Not good.

After work I went one of the LBS’s in my area and looked at new fenders. They didn’t have anything I considered really useable (more of the same model I have, or some in the wrong color). Then I got creative and used a zip tie. Works great, you can hardly tell.

Of course I still bought something…a new Wald basket. I didn’t need all the bits and pieces to make it slip on and off my handlebars, which is a neat idea but…too much stuff to deal with. So basically it’s just zip tied to my little rack (also recent from a different LBS – actually McCully where this bike was born – sort of).

The tires are great. With only about 40-45psi they eat up pretty much all the bumps in the road.

In any case the bike is coming along. I still have to build a rear wheel and get a new front one, but that stuff should be along soon.

The bike isn’t really my size, though with all the adjustments I’ve made it’s very comfortable. There’s a lot of stem showing and I’ve had to raise the heck out of the handlebars to get ’em even with the Brooks saddle (yes, under that plastic rain cover is a black B-17), but on the whole it’s a lot of fun.

I’ve also adjusted the brakes and really like these Shimanos. Expensive? Yes, but I got a discount and heck, they look good, almost as good as they work.

Aloha!

Via Flickr:
Bits and pieces are coming together!

Rain was on and off today. I was lucky in that I missed it while commuting on my bike for a change (got soaked last night).

I always enjoy looking up into the valleys when it’s raining, it tends to look a bit other-worldly.

Good deal.

This what was…

And now…

As you can see my Fujiyama is back from the powder coaters. I haven’t built my new rear wheel yet, but it’s back together for the most part. I’ve got new, really nice, cantilever brakes, sweet Tektro levers, and some badly applied Resurrectio decals. Darn it all.
It also appears that I’m not going to be able to put that Nitto rack on the front of the bike, but I haven’t given up looking for some that will work. Cheap is good at this point.
Aloha!

I used to make images, now I seem to take snapshots. Photography takes practice and I’ve been rusting for a while. Mind you, I enjoy snapshots and they definitely have their place, but it’s good to spend time practicing too…
To that end I’ve acquired a Fujifilm X100. It’s a bit of a throwback to a lot of the old Japanese fixed lens rangefinders I’m so fond of, though it is not a rangefinder (has the look though). It does have a fixed lens though so composition is everything. It can make spectacular images when the brain behind the lens is up to it…me? Not so much.
It arrived today in time for me to run off to the Punahou Carnival and spend some time playing. Here’s one…

One of the benefits of subscribing to variety of cycling group mailing lists, two of mine are the Rivendell Owners Bunch and Bike Friday’s The Yak, is that from time to time folks come a visiting. Of course an even bigger benefit, if you travel like I do, is that sometimes you go a visiting.
As fate would have a buddy of mine and I will both be a visiting each others neighborhoods, though oddly enough we’ll be doing it at the same time and miss each other! As he puts it,”I guess it’s part of some cosmic balance!” It’s something all right. He’ll be here on Oahu at the same time I’ll be visiting the Bay Area. Cosmic balance indeed!
Because of his upcoming trip he’d asked on a couple of lists about Honolulu rides. Indeed I saw his request on both the lists I mentioned as he subscribes to both as he, like myself, owns both brands (and these are small boutique brands mind you). Even odder we both ordered the same camera (Fujifilm X100 – more on that in a few days), his arriving last Friday, mine this coming Friday. Long lost twin or what?
Now Honolulu tourist rides are something I actually know a little bit about. My friend Erich was here recently and I got to show him around a bit as documented here. Before a relative Lynette Chiang, whom I’d met through her Bike Friday connection, came through and we’d done a bit of cycling together. Add to the mix the fact that I get everywhere by bike and Honolulu just isn’t hat big and it seemed to me to be a good idea to document those ‘tourist rides.’
By that I mean rides taken to see the city, not rides that folks might want to do to maintain triathlon standard fitness while here.
Of course the problem for most folks visiting is that some of the ways to get around aren’t immediately obvious. For instance there’s a wee stretch near the eastern entrance to the Pearl Harbor bike path that I get to by crossing the road and riding on the empty sidewalk (generally very empty) for about two blocks. It beats trying to cross what can be a very busy stretch of road. I’ve done it both ways and much prefer the sidewalk even though I’m pretty firm about not riding on sidewalks.
Basically there are shortcuts and tips we residents know about that might escape the average visitor. Indeed I was looking at bit I’d mapped from the Hilton Hawaiian Village to downtown and back, taking in the waterfront, Chinatown, the capitol district and so on, and realized that there are bits, even though it’s on a map where one could get confused…am I supposed to ride down the road or the sidewalk (one short bit on Ala Moana Blvd).


So I’ve decided that as time allows I’m going to photograph and catalog some of the rides I do around town. Mostly I guess I’ll include a simple map, a few words, and some photos not just of what I consider the highlights, but also of the tricks – where to turn to get through a gate (up at UH comes to mind), and things like that.
 
We’ll seem, but it seems I have a new project!

I was out playing with my S100 again today. This time I thought I’d head up to the back of Manoa and check out the Manoa Chinese Cemetery. I pass by it all the time on my Manoa loop but have never stopped and made images there. Today that changed.

I did a bit over an hour of a riding this morning and think I’ll head back out this afternoon for a bit more.

First, however, I wanted to charge up the S100’s battery. It was doing fine, even using the GPS when it was on, until I turned on the GPS Logging function. It seemed to drop the battery indicator to half full within minutes. Not good. That’s the first real problem I’ve seen with the S100 (other than my lack of ability which isn’t, technically, a problem with the S100 – I have it with all cameras).

Anyway the battery is charged and it’s time to start thinking about heading out again.

Aloha!

I bought a new camera today…it’d been a while. It’s a Canon PowerShot S100. It’s the best P&S I’ve ever owned, bar none.

The real reason for the purchase can be boiled down to GPS. On my long bike trips I have a hard time remembering exactly where I made this image or that. In Iowa, for instance, one cornfield looks much like the next. Unless I’m actually in a town or can find a sign it’s hard to know; was I 10 miles from X or only 9?

So here you have it, a new camera.

The S100 feels like a professional camera. It’s solid and feels nothing like a cheap plastic P&S. You can tweak pretty much every setting you want. It’ll shoot RAW, it’ll geotag the shots, it’ll…well you get the point.

I also decided to upgrade my Lightroom and Photoshop software today so it ended up being a rather expensive day. Sigh.

Still I love photography (whether or not I’m any good), so it’s money well spent.

More photos to come of course.

Aloha!

In the last couple of weeks I’ve had a bunch of stuff arrive from Rivendell Bicycle Works not, sadly, including a new bike. That is, of course, not their fault; I haven’t ordered one…yet.
No, mostly these have been bits and pieces I ordered either during their first ever sale or shortly thereafter. Much of the stuff is destined for my soon to be orange Fujiyama, other bits seem to have found their way to my Quickbeam.
Some things my end up pulling double duty however. I’d ordered one of Riv’s big shopping sacks which was really designed to go with a large Wald basket. That, of course, required ordering the basket.
When it came in it seemed a shame to wait till my Fujiyama was back together to see how I liked it all. And thus it was that my Quickbeam ended up with a basket.

Mine is 18x13x6 which is pretty darn big. In fact, it may be too big for the Fujiyama which has a much smaller frame than my QB. I may end up getting the smaller basket for that or another large one…hmmm…
In any case I was worried that it might detract from the look of my QB (which needs a good cleaning), but in fact it looks pretty good. You can see the whole bike with it mounted right here…

It hasn’t affected the ride much at all as I’ve already got a large rack up front and am used to carrying a pretty good load there. It’s really just easier now.
I’ve been giving some thought to taking the QB back down to basics and having lean and fun city bike…but ya know, it’s not like I’m going anywhere fast in town and town is exactly when I need to be able to carry stuff so…
I guess I’m back to thinking about n+1 bikes again…I need a lean bike to ride out of town…one that mean and lean…and, oh yeah, carry a bunch of stuff for camping…him…n+1+1 methinks.
Aloha!