In 2002 I was pretty excited about my newly purchased BMW motorcycle.  I had wanted a BMW for some time and after my Yamaha died the previous year I eagerly awaited the opportunity.

This photo was taken while on a ride through the Marin headlands in the middle of a beautiful summer day.

Since it was the middle of the day, the overall lighting wasn’t fantastic (in the background) so it was an easy decision to keep the focus pretty limited.  As for what to focus on?  What other than the most identifying aspect of the BMW twins – the boxer engine.

With those decisions made, it was just a matter of framing up the shot.  I still wanted the bike (while out of focus) to be recognizable so I kept the overall focal length wide enough so as to not render the bike a complete blur.  I also wanted to clip the BMW logo, so that it would appear in frame, but not fully (this being the other key identifying aspect of the bike).

I was pretty happy with this shot which, like my last post was shot with a Nikon film camera, developed and printed at Photoworks where I got the full borders on the image.

This shot makes me think that I need to get out and ride more.

This photo is from a trip to Thailand in 2007.  Meghan and I spent a few days in Bangkok and then went up North for a bit of an adventure through the hills of Northern Thailand.  We rented some motorbikes (OK.. scooters) in Chiang Mai and then spent the next 4 or 5 days circling around the ‘Golden Triangle.’

One day in particular was memborable for the scenery and roads.  On this day we drove through small villages and on these small roads that twisted through the steep hillsides.  We saw some amazing sights and beautiful scenery.

I had a few cameras with me on this trip (which I usually do).  In addition to my SLR, I packed a smaller point and shoot camera which was handy for walking around at night or quick movies or action shots.

In this case however, I had my SLR (a Nikon D70) slung around my neck.  I snapped away happily while driving along.  During stops I’d look at the exposures and decide what to change for the next stretch of road.  In this series of photos I opened the aperture a bit so that I’d get a bit of leeway on the focal range and also to slow the shutter speed so that I could include a little blur.  In doing so, I was able to capture the feeling of motion as we wind our way through the narrow roads.

I love the way that the road blurs, the lean of the motorbike (granted, Meghan’s not scraping any knees here*), and even the over-exposed section of the road out there in the distance – it’s like we’re driving into the unknown – which of course we were.  We were driving along pretty small roads here, and we never knew what would be around the corner – a village, a truck, a pig or a chicken?

This was definitely a highlight of our trip and both of us are looking forward to our opportunity to do it again.

* as an aside, Meghan did do some knee-scraping earlier on the trip.. (though not the good kind)