So, I wrapped up a pretty good day of work, and it was time for a bicycle ride. This evening’s destination, the University of Arizona campus. Community open house on the university’s proposed bicycle and pedestrian plan. Okay, so Martha’s on her bike, pedaling toward campus, and what’s this? It’s the Incredible Disappearing Bike Lane!…
Well, here we are at the start of Bike to Work Week here in Tucson. And what’s a work-at-home bike-tographer to do? The answer is: Set the alarm for oh-dark-hundred, gather up the photo gear, then head over to the University of Arizona campus. Sounds a lot like the seven years that I spent employed…
Last month, I received word that my recently published bike-tography book had won an ADDY Award from the Tucson Advertising Federation. What kind of ADDY? A Gold, Silver, or Bronze? The notification e-mail didn’t say. But, since bike-tography is the act of combining bicycling with photography, I embarked on a bike-tographic expedition to the Fox…
I’ll admit to feeling sad while at a bicycling event. Why? Because we may have seen the last UA Criterium on Saturday. The closed-course race around the University of Arizona never attracted huge numbers of spectators. But if you were into cycling, you just had to be there. No way could you miss it. Several…
Being the owner of a middle-aged house that I’m slowly fixing up, I’ve had the need for more than a few tradesmen and women. Many of them have arrived in huge pickup trucks. Imagine my surprise when I heard about a local arborist who plies his trade by bicycle. Time to do something about that…
This past Saturday was one of those gray, windy days that offered more than a hint of rain. By Tucson standards, it has been a wet month — almost an inch of rain so far — so looking for more wasn’t out of the question. Fortunately, the rain held off until after the weekend. And…
When I was in my early twenties, I set the goal of bicycling through all 50 of the United States. I accomplished this over a twelve-year period, traveling more than 15,000 miles in the United States, plus a bit of Mexico and Canada. Traveling without the protective bubble of a vehicle provides a wonderful opportunity…
Bike-tography is one of those words I made up to describe two of my favorite activities, bicycling and photography. Bike-tography is the act of combining the two. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a highly opinionated selection of my best bike-tography images.
Yesterday was one of those “can’t miss” days for bicycling in Tucson. Not just for the warm, sunny weather, but for two wonderful events. The morning started with a Tucson classic, the Bike Swap Meet, which has been around since the 1980s. Matter of fact, I can remember attending the spring 1988 edition, which was…
What happens when you throw a streets-closed-to-cars, human-powered mobile party and 10,000 people show up? You get Cyclovia Tucson, that’s what! The second annual Cyclovia drew bicyclists, bladers, skateboarders, runners, walkers, and wheelchair users to the streets of Tucson and South Tucson yesterday. Cyclovia Tucson was truly an event for everyone — didn’t matter if…
My previous post described this past Saturday’s UA Criterium bicycle race on the University of Arizona campus. This post is about the logistics of getting one’s photo gear to and from such an event. As mentioned before, I get around by bicycle. Which means that all of the photo gear goes with me on the…
Saturday was a great day for indulging my passion for bike-tography. I pedaled my bicycle and camera over to the east side of the University of Arizona campus, which was blocked off for the UA Criterium. This closed-course event drew bicycle racing enthusiasts from hither and yon, but there were plenty of good spots to…
Thirty years ago, I was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and growing ever more restless. Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan, and the place fit like a glove during my college student days. But two years after graduation, I was longing for a place I reverently called The Road. I’d gotten to…
One of the great joys of bike-tography is catching cyclists in motion. And when you’re shooting a bicycle race, that motion can turn into a blur. Which raises one of the great photographic questions: Should you freeze the action or embrace the blur? In this shot of El Tour de Tucson 2010 finishers, I chose…
This past Saturday was a bike-tography extravaganza for Yours Truly. The 28th annual El Tour de Tucson drew me and my camera to the Downtown finish line for some photographic fun. First, the anticipation. The top finishers hadn’t arrived yet. But Tucson’s tifosi were waiting for them… The 109-mile race was won by Eric Marcotte,…
The diversity of Tucson’s cycling scene never ceases to amaze me. In addition to the wide variety of bicyclists, our two-wheelers are used for a lot more than just riding along the terra firma. Take, for example, the riders from Southern Arizona Freestyle Entertainment. They treat their bikes like aircraft… This gravity-defying demo was part…
This past Saturday, hundreds of bicycle racers and fans converged on the University of Arizona. The draw was the all-day UA Criterium, which wound its way around the campus. This one’s from a men’s race that took place during the afternoon…
My previous post on Dillinger Days was mostly about cars. Well, I’m here to tell you that a lot of people rode their bikes to Dillinger Days, so it’s time to give some equal time to the two-wheelers. Like this one, which casts an interesting shadow on the Toole Avenue sidewalk …
Was riding across the Snake Bridge, which is just east of Downtown Tucson. This is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge over Broadway Boulevard, and the outside skin has a snake pattern. The southern entrance has a rattler that goes off whenever someone approaches. The juxtaposition of the Snake Bridge, the traffic below, and my venerable…
Last month, I was walking along Congress Street in Downtown Tucson. It was a Monday night, not much happening, and I spotted this lone bike outside the Rialto Theatre. No acts performing at the Rialto, so that didn’t explain why the bike was there. It almost seemed as if it was forgotten, but it was…
If you’re a bike-tographer like I am, El Tour de Tucson draws you like a magnet. This annual event goes around the perimeter of Tucson and attracts cyclists from all over the world. I didn’t ride in this year’s El Tour, but I went Downtown to photograph the finishers. And to indulge in some artsiness……