TIA’s Adventures in “Photocycling” / Chapter Four (The Fall Edition)

Needless to say, a lot has transpired since publishing Chapter Three of the Photocycling series. It feels like that chapter was shared a year ago instead of exactly a month ago. Time has become so very fluid and relative in 2020. Simultaneously, this fluidity feels interminably surreal while being very much a part of our collective reality as a planet of people.

Alongside all the events of 2020 that continue to occur or coincide, the temperature has dropped significantly in Seattle between mid-October and mid-November, which is actually a transition one would expect at this time. (Alas, some aspects of reality still make sense).

For this particular chapter, please enjoy some images of the colorful, illustrative beauty of Seattle in autumn, the majority of which were captured while cruising around on Melbourne. There are a few others that I have included because they underscore the narrative of this seasonal chapter.

However, I’m going to kick things off with an atypical, albeit entertaining, feature — a timelapse video that I recorded during one of my excursions at the beginning of November! The significance of the video is that it was recorded while I was cycling through the metro area. I have a Brinno TL2000, a very nifty gadget that was created specifically to record timelapse video (among a few other functions). This camera is so compact that it fits comfortably inside the pocket of a pair of jeans or cargo pants. I bought it last year, and while it’s not without its shortcomings, I did not expect it to be so handy to document my bike rides while cycling. Also very unexpected was how easy it was to set up the Brinno.

If you have a Joby GorillaPod, all you have to do is attach the Brinno camera to the GorillaPod, similar to attaching a camera to a tripod. Then, strap the legs of the GorillaPod firmly around your bike’s handlebars, and you’re essentially set. Again, I didn’t think it would be that simple, but life surprises you at times. The legs of the GorillaPod remain very much intact and immobile, so the recording while one is in motion remains fairly steady and stable. The advantage of this discovery is that I now know that I can attach my heavy duty cameras to the GorillaPod. (Hmmm…in retrospect, this is highly unlikely because I can’t fathom how I would react if anything went wrong…so no, I won’t be attaching my dSLR full-frame cameras to Melbourne anytime soon!) As much as I love photography with every ounce of my being, it’s still an extraordinarily expensive profession. Every piece of equipment is valuable, from the camera body to the telephoto lens, from all the batteries (rechargeable or otherwise) to every last memory card.

Without further ado, please enjoy the timelapse video recorded between Fishermen’s Terminal in Seattle and Bellevue Square Mall in Bellevue, then back to Seattle. This was originally a two-hour ride, captured at 30 frames per second (30fps) with three-second intervals. I’ve made several edits to make the resulting three-minute footage more enjoyable and humorous.

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For the rest of this chapter, I will let the photographs I recently captured tell their own narratives. Please click on any image that piques your interest to enlarge it. Each photo has its own caption for further details and context. Enjoy!

“Brand New Day”

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“La Vie en Jaune” (“Life in Yellow”)

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Twilight Waters

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Autumn’s Kaleidoscope

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Thanks for coming along for the Fall edition of Photocycling. Even though the days are getting colder and a lot shorter, there will be a Chapter 5 before the end of the year!

As winter approaches, and we remain without a vaccine for the coronavirus, please continue to be mindful of your own health as well as that of others by taking all the recommended precautions so we may continue to collectively persevere through this difficult — that’s a grand understatement — year.

Stay tuned! (For cyclists, that’s a very innocent double-entendre)!

Thanks for reading this article. If you enjoyed the photographs here, please visit my official website @ www.tia-international-photography.com for an indelible, visual experience.