A couple of months ago I committed myself to shooting a year in black and white film. This is photo journal exercise started because a friend of mine had talked about doing something similar, and it piqued interest. My friend had never shot film before and ask me to try her camera to make sure it works properly. I loaded a roll of expired Agfa film and set out to shoot some images one day on my weekend bike ride. The images below are the product of the Russian Fed5 camera that was loaned to me. Future black and white images posted by me will be shot with my Nikon F5.
SURLY LONG HAUL TRUCKER
The bike I ride is a Surly Long Haul Trucker. I use this bike as a commuter, for market runs, and fun rides. I started cycling about 3 years ago and have owned a few bikes. None of the bikes that I had owned really fit me well and negatively impacted my enjoyment of cycling. Last year I made the decision to build my own bike after talking with several friends who all cycle. The bike I built greatly increased my enjoyment of cycling, and caused me to incorporate riding a bike as a daily part of my life. Since moving to Oregon I have commuted regularly to work , and use a bike as my primary means of in town transportation . Parking is expensive here thanks to a shortage of parking lots in the downtown area . Bicycling has saved me a lot of money !
MINTO BROWN ISLAND
This is a shot I made of the Minto Brown Island on the Willamette from the new bridge that connects the Island to the main Riverfront Park . The island has sever miles of walking and cycling paths. That make for beautiful and relaxing bicycle rides . You almost get the feeling that you are in the country despite being in the middle of town.
MINTO BROWN BRIDGE
This the new bridge that connects the island to Riverfront park. The bridge opened this summer and it is my understanding it actually ran behind schedule by at least a year. When it was finally opened there were huge crowds of people trying to use it that effectively made it not possible for me to ride because there was a line of people at least a mile long trying to traverse the bridge for many weeks. Only in the last couple of months has the novelty of the new bridge worn off to the point that you can ride it without having to stop for crowds of people walking.
CYCLING PATH
This is one of the cycling paths on the island, there are about 6 or so miles of paths like that that go around the island including a number of unpaved paths as well. I can spend hours riding on the Island and never really get bored with it.
TILL NEXT TIME ..
Please enjoy these black and white film images; I could have easily shot all of these with my digital camera and converted them to monochrome, but honestly we need to shoot film and try to preserve it as an art form. It has a unique quality and conveys a different message that digital photography cannot. Hopefully very soon I will be posting images from the covered bridges tour I plan on taking by bike.