Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 2.5 sec, f/9, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Warmer
compared to this shot

In “Snowy Frigid Ohio Morning” a few days ago, I posted a photo of the back of the house that I grew up in and that my folks have lived in for 49½ years. I captioned it “Warm”, but commented that I had hoped for more orange spill from the incandescent lighting inside.

I hadn't gotten what I wanted because I was too late in the morning, where ambient light from the pre-dawn sky was already bright enough to overpower the house lights.

So I tried again this morning. We had quite a bit of snow last night, and I happened to get up early enough (and as a bonus it was much warmer than the previous time). The result above is more what I was looking for.

The earlier time also benefited the result with a deeper blue light filtering in through the clouds, providing more contrast to the orange of the incandescent lights.

This same technique applies to photographing buildings or Christmas lights (or cherry-blossom lightups or campfires or airplanes, etc.) in the morning or evening... photos taken at dawn or dusk can be much more compelling than those taken when the sky is completely dark or bright.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 160mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos

This should be my final post about having watched my first cyclocross bicycle races recently.

There was a lot of mud.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 140mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos

Most photos in previous posts (the intro, “Practice at the Mud Baths”, “The First Two Races”, and “Falling in the Mud”) concentrated on areas I called “the Mud Bath” and “Mud Hill”. I finally got far enough through my photos to find some that show them in context a bit... here's a wider view showing folks going through and away from the Mud Bath....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 78mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos

A reverse-angle shot from the overpass in the distance...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos

Some other random shots from the day...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Zig-Zag Up and Down

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pain
perhaps a muscle cramp

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dangling Chain
can't ride, but not giving up

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 105mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Vibrant
I really like this color scheme

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
All Shapes and Sizes

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 80mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Monochromatic

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wheel Dangling by the Chain
he spent considerable time trying to get his wheel reattached, but gave up

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 160mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Unlikely Competitor
showing none of us has an excuse not to try

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Zig-Zagging at Speed

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 175mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 180 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inspiring
these not-sporty-looking folks make me feel weak
for showing up with a camera instead of a bike

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 90mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Winner
She won the CL2 (fairly advanced women's category) by more than a minute

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 135mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 180 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steep Uphill

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
Start'um Young

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 160mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nap Time

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 170mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Weary Competitors
just before the final turn toward the finish

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 110 — map & image data — nearby photos
Back Stretch

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 110 — map & image data — nearby photos
All in the Family?
they seemed to ride together

The young girl in the photo above is not riding in any of the kids' categories... she's in “Ladies Category 3”, which means she's good enough to have earned the right to move on from the any-female-can-enter “Ladies 4”. The winner of the next step up, “Ladies 2”, seen above in “Winner”, has the same family name and team affiliation... perhaps a sister or a cousin.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fighting Spirit
Noriko Okabe, an acquaintance seen in my last post of 2015
She went on to place 4th in her “Ladies 3” race

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Inspiration

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 190mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.2, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Noriko Okabe

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 170mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.2, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Weary Moment's Rest

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 140mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Kids 2” Start
one boy jumps off to a quick lead

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Form
the bike seems a bit big at first glance,
but he won by almost a minute, so I guess he's doing something right

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 140mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Warmup
for a later race

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Vincent Arrives

Vincent Flanagan, seen on my blog in my writeup of his PedalForth Fitting bike-fitting service and in various ride reports, such as this fall group ride, is a former Australian National Mountain Bike Champion (1991), and a two-time All-Japan National Mountain Bike Champion (1996, 1997), so he's no stranger to racing. His “Masters 1” race (highest-tier race for men 40 and over) wasn't until long after I had to leave, so I've no photos, but I can report that he finished in the top third, which is all the more impressive since he's got a decade or two on some of the competitors.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — ¹/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sunrise at 5°F
-15°C   —   Rootstown, Ohio, USA

It's pretty chilly this morning here in Ohio, about 5°F (−15°C), with about 8" (20cm) of recent snow. It's not all that bad by Ohio standards, but it's been 30 years since I lived here, and Kyoto rarely gets much below freezing. Then again, it was only two years ago that I visited Ohio when it was -10°F (-23°C), so I guess today isn't so bad.

I woke up with the light, and it looked so pretty and calm outside that I had to run out with the camera. I only have one lens with me on this trip, a Nikkor 24-70/2.8.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Risky
taking a shot from under the snow-laden branches

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Warm
Though I was hoping for more orange spill from the incandescent lighting inside.
( Update: I got the shot I wanted a few days later )

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nasty Roads
the reason I have time this morning, instead of heading in to the hospital to visit Mom

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
49½ Years
how long that sign has been up

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Downy Woodpecker

I fed the birds outside — they've trained us well, as seen here and here — and tried a few pictures. Lack of lenses, warmth, and skill limited the results.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bluebirds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 180 — map & image data — nearby photos

There were goldfinches, bluebirds, chickadees, red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, doves, bluejays, and I think some other kind of finches and birds I wasn't sure about.

Bird photography is difficult and I'm no good at it, though I have gotten some lucky shots before:

• Freezing Bird Movement with a Fast Shutter (and Arctic Temperatures)
• Goldfinches in a Light Snow
• Impromptu Chickadee Portraiture
• My Morning: Birds, Flowers, Coffee, and my Camera
• Can’t Get Any Work Done With Birds on my Laptop

The most recent “What the Duck”, Aaron Johnson's photography-centric comic, is perfectly appropriate:

The sun eventually came out, with a beautiful blue sky (that gets washed out in these pics)...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Risky

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 36mm — ¹/160 sec, f/11, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Finishing a Lap

In the past we've seen “Jogging with Grandpa” (7½ years ago) and “Jogging with Grandpa, 2010 Edition” (5½ years ago), and my 85-year-old dad still runs almost every day.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Laughing
at the thought I'd want to take his photo

With the sun out, I tried a few more bird pictures...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stacked Bluebirds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Worm Acquisition

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Absconding with the Loot

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Déjà Vu
織田 智陽さん

Last week's “Watching My First Cyclocross Bike Race” opened with the photo above. Today I'll share the whole fun sequence of photos that followed.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
T + 0.2 seconds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 90mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
T + 0.6 seconds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
T + 1.1 seconds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
T + 2.4 seconds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
T + 5.0 seconds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
T + 9.9 seconds

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 180 — map & image data — nearby photos
T + 12.2 seconds

As I write this I'm dealing with a family medical emergency in America, and as I sit in a hospital waiting room, these photos from a cyclocross bicycle race last week in Kyoto Japan strike me as a perfect metaphor for life: if you suffer a setback, just shake it off, put on a smile, and continue forward.

(PS: I just made up the “Cyclocratic” seen in the title; there's probably a more grammatically-appropriate word I could have made up.)

Continued here...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Skill and Concentration
Taijo Hino (日野 泰静)

This post, brought to you at 4am by jetlag, is a continuation from “Cyclocross Races: Practice at the Mud Bath”. Above we have the very first rider of the first race to make it to where I was at the Mud Bath.

The first race actually was three separate races run in parallel: “Category 3” (men who had earned the right to advance from the anyone-can-enter Category 4), “Masters 2” (men 40 and over who have done well enough to progress from Masters 3 and Masters 4), and “U17”, children 17 and under who, presumably, are too old or too skilled for “U15”.

The boy above, presumably 16 or 17 years old, so totally dominated the course that the next finisher, from any of the three races, didn't come in until a minute and a half later. My friend Andy, who ran a strong race coming in 8th of 54 in Category 3, didn't finish until more than three minutes after the boy above.

The boy had won bronze in the Japanese National Road Race Championships last year, so I guess this short cyclocross race isn't such a challenge. 🙂

It's cute to see his twitter page, which has been inactive since 2012. The tweets then, presumably as a middle-school kid, include things like “School starts tomorrow! Winter break tooooooo short” and “Crepes were tasty today”, but also stuff like “Today's mountain-bike practice was tough, but I do it for myself”.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/13, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Andy's Second Trip Through the Mud Bath

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reverse Angle
the mud trail at left leads away from the Mud Bath

As I described in the initial post, the course progresses away from the Mud Bath, then does a 180 and returns back (along the line of cars seen in the background of the picture above), then another 180 away, and finally another 180 to return towards the area next to the Mud Bath. That's where the four riders are in the shot above.

As they pass beside the Mud Bath, they have to climb a somewhat-less-muddy, but decidedly-more-hilly section. I'll call it the “Mud Hill”.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Antti Approaching the Mud Hill

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bogged Down on Mud Hill

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Andy's Third Trip Through the Mud Bath
for the final lap, Andy tried riding through, and succeeded

The second race of the day involved two categories running in parallel, “C4” (Category 4, open to any man with the entry fee) and “CM3” (Masters 3, men 40 and above who earned promotion from “CM4”). German friend Christoph Millotat was racing in C4.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 75mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Christoph

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not Christoph

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Christoph

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 125mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
At One of the Aforementioned 180° Turns

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/14, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mud Hill Again

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/14, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Straddling Into No-Man's Land
between mud hill on the left and the mud bath on the right

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/10, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
The “Not Christoph” Guy From Above
approaching the mud bath for the 2nd time

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/10, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nope

The guy's aggression did pay off, though; he came in 4th in his race.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/10, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Christoph Approaching Mud Hill

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 130mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
“The Competitor”
The guy seen here moves slowly but surely through the mud bath.
He did not stop or fall.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Christoph's Final Trip
through the mud bath

Continued here...