Bicycle Rides - Aboard the Bike

[hoopdriver]

A touch of Edward Hopper on a pre-dawn ride along the stretch of Cambridge Road, Hastings

 

[hoopdriver]

Cycling the lanes on a cold bright December morning, near Boreham, East Sussex

 

[footloose crow]

Interesting light. Too cold for me that early in the morning though. I have been thinking about how you get these photos....are you using a radio remote?

 

[hoopdriver]

Interesting light. Too cold for me that early in the morning though. I have been thinking about how you get these photos....are you using a radio remote?

I go out with a DSLR, a couple of lenses, a tripod and an intervalometer - a device that looks a bit like a cable release but is actually a programmable timer. The hard part is visualising the image in your mind’s eye and then getting yourself in precisely the right spot, with the right body language, right lighting, and working around the million distractions and interferences that crop up. It takes a lot if work, imagination and a whole new photographic skill set.

 

[EltonFrog]

I for one appreciate the effort, I really enjoy seeing your photos.

 

[hoopdriver]

Thank you! I’m so glad you like them

 

[hoopdriver]

A frosty morning on the lanes. I had to ride by cold starlight more than an hour and a half to reach this picturesque little stretch of hedgerow and gnarled oak by sunrise, and several times along the way, with my hands and feet numb and my ears freezing, I wondered if it was worth it - but in the end I was glad I came, and perhaps gladder still to get home again mid-morning to hot black coffee and a steaming bow of porridge! My cycling stuff is on Instagram, by the way @roffsmith

 

[hoopdriver]

There's a storybook quality to riding these old English lanes by lamplight that appeals to me, makes me feel as though I've pedalled into an illustration to an Enid Blyton Famous Five mystery or the Boy's Own Annual...

 

[hoopdriver]

Trying out my new tweed cycling cap and looking decidedly old school in this image from my morning ride through the coastal marshes near the hamlet of Rickney, in East Sussex

 

[hoopdriver]

Sunrise with Seagulls - along the promenade at Hastings, East Sussex

 

[footloose crow]

Amazing composition Hoopdriver. I dot know how many images you took to get this one but it was worth it. Iconic image. And its not in the middle of the night and frosty!

 

[hoopdriver]

Amazing composition Hoopdriver. I dot know how many images you took to get this one but it was worth it. Iconic image. And its not in the middle of the night and frosty!

Variety is the spice of life! There were a lot of gulls around that morning and so I set up, hoping they might cooperate. I took quite a few images but this was the most pleasing composition. I’m glad you like it. To me it conveys the breezy aerial freedom of pedalling along the seafront on a bright, fine morning

 

[hoopdriver]

There are some days.... This was an image I had wanted to get of St Clements Church in Hastings Old Town but had to wait for the right time of year when the sun had shifted in the sky so that a shaft of early morning sunshine would come down this little lane. No sooner did I set up and do a trial run, however, the a tag-team of motorists came a parked squarely in the picture, despite the double yellow lines and the sheer inadvisability of parking like that on a narrow blind curve. By the time the road was clear again the sun had moved on - and so did I. This image from my one trial run at the start...

 

[hoopdriver]

An early morning mid- winter ride along an old lane not far from Rye

 

[hoopdriver]

A fresh start to the year - on the beach at Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex