It’s also a good idea to stay connected with the folks you’ve left behind: they’re excited for your travels, inspired by your courage, and maybe just a little bit nervous for your safety. Plus, the record of your adventure might inspire someone to try bicycle touring for themselves.

Blogging

Many cyclists keep a blog or webpage so their friends and family can follow along on their adventures. Blog posts can be done as often or infrequently as you like and usually include both written stories and photographs. There are seemingly innumerable websites where you can start a blog for free.

Journaling

Bicycle travel offers opportunities for thinking deeply about our lives. There is time to reflect on the past as well as dream about the future. Journaling helps us remember physical experiences as well as our thoughts and emotions while touring.

Some studies have shown that writing in a journal also decreases stress and promotes better sleep — two things we can all benefit from while traveling.

Besides, travel journals and photos are some of the best ways to commemorate your trip.

Photography

Not all of us are gifted photographers, but with enough patience and practice, we can capture beautiful images that will last a lifetime. The best camera is the one you have; just be sure to keep it somewhere protected yet handy, like in a waterproof handlebar bag. You’ll want quick access in order to snap a photo of that distant buffalo or dreamy sunset. With time, you can play with different angles, lighting, and image filters. There’s no shortage of beauty on a bicycle tour.

How to Photograph Your Tour

Videography or Vlogging

If you’d like to take your documentation to the next level, you can take videos as well as photos. Short videos can be uploaded to your blog, webpage, or social media. You can also create your own Youtube channel to post all your videos in one place. 

How to Make an Amazing Bike Touring Film

Share on Social

You may already have a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account, all of which are excellent places to share photos and short stories about your bicycle tour. You can even create your own touring hashtag.

To connect and share with a community who will really appreciate your ride, find Adventure Cycling on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Tag us @adventurecycling or use #adventurecycling in your posts so we can travel along with you!

The post How to Record the Best Parts of Your Bike Tour appeared first on Adventure Cycling Association.

To start, you’ll need a camera. If you’re at all serious about your photos, get the best one you can afford. There is a big difference in the quality of images taken by cheap cameras and high-end ones. When you’re looking back at your pictures 20 years from now, you’ll be glad you invested in the good camera.

You also want your camera readily accessible at all times. Nothing is worse than having that once-in-a-trip photo opportunity go by with your camera buried deep in your pannier. Keep it in your handlebar bag, in your pocket, or in a case attached to your backpack’s shoulder strap — just keep it handy. A few other things to keep in mind: if you want crisp photographs (and who doesn’t?) hold your camera as still as you can, especially in the low light of dawn or dusk. If possible, rest it on a fencepost, your bike, or anything stationary to keep it still while the picture is taken.

Whenever possible, have your riding companions coming towards you, not away. You want to see faces, not butts. Experiment as much as possible. Don’t settle for blasé snapshots — get low, get high, shoot from every angle you can think of, photograph yourself while riding, and take pictures of everything that you find interesting, bizarre, and pretty.

Lastly, never forget that while photographs can capture precious moments from your trip, you don’t want taking them to get in the way of appreciating the moment itself. So go ahead and take a few pictures, make them as good as you can, but then put the camera away. Your images can help you relive your trip when it’s over, but they’re no replacement for drinking deep of the journey itself while it’s happening.

In the pages that follow, you’ll find more photography tips and images from five of our favorite photographers. If you follow their advice, you’ll come home with pictures that will wow your friends and capture the beauty and inspiration that keeps us heading back for more. 

Dennis Coello: The Look of the Landscape

Here’s one of the easiest ways of all to make your bike-tour snapshots more interesting, no matter what kind of camera you take along — put some landscape in the foreground. 

It’s only natural to hop off the bike and shoot a tour mate riding past some lovely view. We back away from our rider a few steps, put the camera to our eye, focus, level out the horizon, ask for a smile, and snap. 

We’ve all taken these kinds of pictures. There’s not a thing wrong with them. Not unless we take too many, or include too much uninteresting pavement in the foreground, or if what’s interesting behind our fellow tourer looks too far away. We get home and download our pics and we’re reminded of the scenes we’ve pedaled past — but we don’t feel them. 

Try this instead. Get off the road or trail and walk or climb into the landscape — the field of flowers, a forest, a rock outcropping, acre after acre of corn or cotton — then turn around. Now raise your camera and compose your shot, including however much of the landscape it takes to give a real visual taste of the place. 

Use tree branches to frame the cyclist, kneel down to let corn tassels or cotton balls fill the sky, and make your buddy the size of a boll weevil. Try a vertical format (holding your camera “on end”) to give a sense of the height of trees, or shoot horizontally to include the expanse of sagebrush before you, with your riding partner and the long thin road barely visible along the top of the frame. 

Experiment. Have fun. And remember there’s no right or wrong way to take a picture. It’s as personal as how we choose to tour.

See more: www.denniscoello.com

Russ Roca: How to Shoot People … and Get Away With It!

When your tour is over and you’re in the comfort of home, all you’ll have are memories and your photos. Though we all love great scenery, it’s often the people we meet that we remember most when the tour is over. Be sure to take shots of them along the way — the landscape will still be there when you pass through next time but the people won’t be. Here are some simple tips for photographing them while on tour. 

1) Get close. 
Most people stand way too far away from their subjects. Remember, you want to capture their face, not the 20 feet of pavement separating you, so zoom in or take a few steps forward. 

2) Shoot fast. 
Unless you’re photographing a professional model, chances are they’ll feel a little uncomfortable around the camera. Most people will give you a good smile for a few seconds before their expression becomes stale and awkward. When you feel the opportunity for a good photo happening, turn on your camera and put it around your neck so you’re ready to shoot when the moment comes. 

3) See the light. 
Light is the single most important factor in taking a photo. If you put the sun behind your subjects, they will be too dark. If you set up your shot with the light directly on your subjects, they will probably be squinting and the image will look flat. Instead, put the light (i.e. the sun) to the side of your subject, which will illuminate without blinding them. 

Another good trick is to use the even lighting found in the shade — if the sun is out, look on the side of a building, under a tree, or under an awning. This light doesn’t have the harshness of direct sun and is much more flattering. 

See more: www.pathlesspedaled.com

Chuck Haney: The Right Light

Professional photographers often refer to the first and last hour of the day as the “magic hour,” when the light turns golden. Remember, the camera is essentially a simple tool for capturing light. I’ve often said that even a mailbox will look great if photographed in wonderful light. 

Shooting at the beginning and the end of the day when the light is most beautiful can lead to capturing amazing clouds and skies. The wind is also often still, calming fields of wildflowers and bodies of water for great reflections that can only be acquired during the magic hour. 

Here are a few tips to bring back those special moments at the day’s edge during your next bike tour. 

Get up early! This is especially important during summer months, when it doesn’t take long for the light to become harsh and much less photo-friendly. Even in just 30 minutes, the light quality will change substantially. 

(If you’re serious about getting great early-morning shots, carry a lightweight tripod if possible — while early light is warm and inviting, there is not much of it, which can cause blurry pictures if the camera is not held steady.) 

You can also shoot great silhouette images near sunrise and sunset. Simply find an interesting shape or subject and take an exposure from the sky (but not directly at the sun). 

Most of all, enjoy the peaceful and inspiring light that comes from each sunrise and sunset and your images will reflect that feeling for many years to come. 

See more: www.chuckhaney.com

Cass Gilbert: Capturing the Ride

As touring cyclists, we often choose to travel in places with dramatic landscapes but taking images of our cycling companions that convey that grandeur can be tricky. Here are my favorite techniques for capturing both the rider and the stunning landscape. 

Rather than getting close to the rider and shooting from a wide-angle perspective, position yourself far away and zoom in on them. This conveys a better sense of scale by compressing the image — a lone cyclist beneath a towering wall of mountains or lost in the infinity of a desert. 

Plus, if you want to keep the flow of the ride, these kinds of shots allow you to stop, frame, take your picture — and then catch up! 

Using the rule of thirds, position the rider to one side, but keep an eye on what else is in the frame. Which parts of the topography are interesting? Is there a winding road leading into your picture that can help tell a story? Or perhaps there’s a lake or forest that will help give a sense of distance. 

If not, step to the side of the road and try dropping down lower in your framing to add layers of texture — a crumbling wall, fluttering prayer flags, the outline of cacti, even the stripes on a road. 

Time your shot with the rider’s movements to add more dynamism; out of the saddle climbing shots set to a dramatic background can look great, just as a puff of dust on a dirt track will convey speed. 

On a DSLR, use a fast shutter speed for sharpness. Most point and shoots have an action setting, which effectively does the same thing, freezing the image. Most of the time, I simply focus on the rider, then quickly reframe the picture before pressing the shutter. Take several shots and pick the best. 

Lastly, ask your riding buddy to wear bright colors – it will really help make him stand out, drawing the eye to a splash of color amidst your panorama. 

See more: www.whileoutriding.com

Gregg Bleakney: Work the angles

I think of making a picture like writing a sentence — if I’m not satisfied with my first pass, I’ll start over and reconstruct the words until I’m pleased with the result. When I’m in the field, every shadow, road sign, cloud, or smiling face is part of a photographic dictionary of words that can be arranged into an interesting composition. 

If I sense that a scene is starting to take shape, I’ll trust my first instinct, make a picture, and then try to reconstruct the image in as many different ways as possible. I often break traditional rules and employ unusual angles to spice up the photo’s visual vocabulary. 

To give it a shot, try lying on the tarmac to capture low-angle action as your riding buddy screams downhill. Or climb on top of a guardrail and shoot a sweeping landscape from an elevated perspective. But most importantly, get off your bike and always stay curious and attentive. 

See more: www.wherenext.com

This story was originally published in the April 2010 issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine.

The post How to Photograph Your Tour appeared first on Adventure Cycling Association.

Don’t be fooled, though — it still ain’t easy. “Golden Hour” and “dinner” are often vying for the same reservation, photos of making coffee mean that you haven’t yet consumed the coffee, and waiting for the light to get right means just that — waiting. Not to mention you can only ask someone to ride up a hill while you fiddle with camera settings so many times before you find yourself riding alone.

Whether intended or not, a solo cyclist faces unique challenges when it comes to getting good images. There’s nothing wrong with the occasional selfie, but elevating your images to self-portraits takes planning, time, creativity, and patience. With the right gear and the right approach, your next shot can be your best shot. Just ask these folks.

Steph Ridenour

Who: A young world traveler who hit the road after college and hasn’t looked back.

Credentials: February 2016 and August/September 2018 Adventure Cyclist cover photos, envy-inducing Instagram feed

See more: @stephgoesglobal

I graduated from university in Canada in April 2015. The rush of freedom was so sudden that I couldn’t even wait for my degree to arrive in the mail before setting off. My bike was in a box on its way to Iceland before my grades had come back. For the next four months, I retraced and extended a route through Western Europe that my parents had taken me on when I was nine years old. As a kid, I viewed the six weeks spent on my own small bike as punishment. I felt that I was being forced to waste my summer vacation. Something must have stayed with me though, because I spent the next 13 years on bikes, knowing that I could get anywhere I wanted.

When I left Canada in May, my goal was to capture the realities of a cycling journey: the solo cyclist amid amazing landscapes, a lonesome tent in the wilderness, the hardship and joy of the French Alps, and the freedom that comes with having your own wheels. What I learned is that taking self-portraits on a bicycle requires patience, experimentation, and trial and error.

New angles are usually found by accident or by purposeful exploration — a walk up the hill for a snack might unveil a view of a road that winds into the distance. I avoided cycling’s “tunnel vision” by imagining what a shot might look like taken from all angles, and I chased the ones I thought would make good photos. I tried to stop for my water, bathroom, and food breaks in places I could explore in search of interesting perspectives. I put in a little extra work to haul my camera up road banks to see the scene through my lens and decide whether it was worth setting up for a shot. 

The camera should be put on something sturdy — preferably a tripod, although a concrete road barrier will also suffice — and be set on interval timer or self-timer. Interval timer tells the camera to take a photo at predetermined intervals, such as two seconds (the setting used to take time lapses), which is an advantage over a self-timer because it gives you more than one try to get a shot just right.  

Framing a photo when I couldn’t tell where my subject (myself) would be was difficult. I used references to frame the shot, such as recognizable groups of flowers or rocks, so that when I jogged back to my bike 60 feet away I knew I should be a few feet to the right of those rocks for the picture I wanted. If the photo was of my camp, my reference was my tent location. After I’d moved through the frame a few times with my bike, I checked the photos and then adjusted my location if I needed to. 

There is no wrong way to take a self-portrait; the more I experimented, the faster I learned what I liked and what didn’t. The only mistake I made was not bothering to stop and take the shot. I never knew if something was going to work out until I tried it.

Roff Smith

Who: The guy most of us want to trade lives with. Author, bicycle adventurer, certified bike mechanic and wheel builder, and regular contributor to National Geographic.

Credentials: National Geographic, need we say more?

See more: roffsmithphotography.com

We’ve all been there — pedaling across a dramatic landscape or spinning along a particularly lyrical stretch of country road, seeing the scene in your mind’s eye and wishing there was some way you could capture the beauty and freedom of that moment. Preferably something a little more meaningful and evocative than a static picture of your bicycle propped against a tree, fence post, or guardrail. 

Happily, photographing yourself while pedaling — whether on a tour of a lifetime or your early morning ride — really isn’t difficult. Better still, it doesn’t require much in the way of costly (or weighty) gear. A simple point-and-shoot camera and a lightweight tripod are all you need. 

To be sure, a DSLR offers more versatility in lenses and capabilities but at the cost of weight — not only in the camera body and the lenses, but also in the weight of the tripod necessary to hold it steady while you ride through the scene. The quality of images produced by point and shoot cameras these days is incredible. I shoot for National Geographic’s image collection, and my self-shot images, created on my morning rides with my compact camera, are regularly accepted for use.

Because I typically ride in low light — at dawn or even before — I shoot in RAW so I have the ability to fine-tune my exposures later. This is one of the reasons I prefer to use a compact camera rather than a smartphone. Many compact cameras, such as the Canon G1X I use, have reticulated screens, which make it easy to compose if your camera is at an angle, as well as features that allow you to adjust the delay on your self-timer and the number of frames it will fire once it triggers the shutter — up to 10 images on rapid fire. With one pass through the frame, you can get several bites at the cherry.

Obviously, you will need something to support the camera, preferably something that packs down small and is lightweight. Carbon fiber is wonderful, but it is also very expensive. I have done much shooting with various aluminum Manfrotto travel tripods, some of them quite inexpensive, as well as tripods from MeFoto, Benbo, and flexible wrap-around Joby Gorilla tripods, and I’ve enjoyed success with all of them. Four feet of height is more than ample for most circumstances.

I carry my camera in my handlebar bag or pannier rather than in a backpack for the simple reason that if I should take a tumble, the camera will be safer. Ditto the tripod, only here the safety concerns are for me — I don’t care to hit the pavement with an aluminum bar across my spine!

Once you have arrived at a scene, you need to figure out where and how you want to place you and your bicycle in the frame. Don’t rush this! Set up your camera and tripod, look at the screen carefully, and see the image in your mind’s eye. Use your imagination. Decide precisely where you want you and your bicycle to be in that image. Think artistically. Take a note of where the shadows are falling and the angle of the sun and how it is illuminating the scene, or the streetlights for that matter. Be on the lookout for bits of litter or any jarring note that might spoil your picture. Is your tripod’s shadow going to mar an otherwise nice shot? Consider the sky. Is it interesting?  If not, reframe and include less of it. Again, slow down. Compose your shot.

As you gain experience, composing and imagining yourself in the frame will become more intuitive, but here are a few hard-won tips.

Cyclists rarely look good when shot from directly behind, at least not up close. Even Tour de France riders look porky from this angle, and as for the rest of us … well, it’s not a pretty sight. Instead, try pedaling through the scene at an oblique angle or head-on toward the camera. If you do want a from-behind shot, try to put a little more distance between your bottom and the camera lens.

Early morning and evening usually offer the best light for shooting. To add a bit of visual interest to your bicycle and create a nice effect, consider turning on your rear light.

Take note of precisely where on the road you want to be when the camera starts firing. Count the seconds in your head as you ride into the frame so you know when things are going to start happening and you can be in position. Pedal s-l-o-w-l-y when the camera is firing. If you are after a pin-sharp image, try a shutter speed of 1/250 second if you have enough light. If not, go as sedately as possible through the scene, keeping leg motion to a minimum. If you want a bit of blur, 1/8 to 1/13 second will do the trick. Pedal slowly — speeding up will not enhance the blur, you’ll just vanish completely. 

Before you pack up and move on, review your images with a critical eye. Is there a lamppost sticking out of your head? Did you just miss that patch of sunlight? Or would the picture simply have been more aesthetically pleasing if you’d only been a little farther to the left or right? Be willing to do it over. It doesn’t take long and digital is free. The payoff in interesting and evocative images is worth it, and learning to ride with an artistic eye adds a whole new dimension to touring and really seeing a landscape.  

Taking Your Camera Off The Beaten Path 

By Claire Haughey

My one basic principal for taking your camera into the backcountry is this: develop your system! Safety, weatherproofing, and accessibility are all important considerations, but none of them will happen without a system you can stick to. When you’re wet and cold or a little bit lost, you inevitably cut out things not related to your basic needs. Without a good system, your camera will stay buried in your panniers until you come home and find it next to the hardened clementine peel from Day One of your trip.

The first thing I do is figure out how to keep my camera unpacked. If your camera is not readily accessible, you’re less likely to bring it out when the moment calls — or if you make the effort there’s a chance you will miss the moment entirely. 

There are many bags (Mountain Hardwear, mountainhardwear.com) and camera clips (Peak Design, peakdesign.com) that allow you to wear your camera on your person rather than keeping it tucked away with the rest of your gear. My personal favorite is the Mountain Hardware Lure, a fanny pack that I wear on my front. Find the bag or clip that works for your body and is comfortable enough that you’ll actually use it.

If you’re serious about photography, it’s worth investing in weather-sealed camera bodies and lenses. While they do quite a bit of damage to your wallet, your equipment can remain accessible in spite of light rain or splashes off a wet road.  

No matter your equipment, there comes a time when your camera simply needs to be put away and protected. I use a dry bag and pad it with my vampire outfit, the clothes I only bring out at night when I’m cozied up in my tent. The outfit consists of long underwear, a micro-down jacket, and wool socks. When I get completely caught out in horrible weather, I know I will always be warm and dry at night and so will my camera.

The key to a good system is remembering that when the weather calms down, a camera belongs on you — not packed away with your socks.

Claire Haughey (clairehaughey.com) is an outdoor photographer and graduate of the Rocky Mountain School of Photography.

This story originally appeared in the May 2017 issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine. 

The post From Selfie to Self Portrait appeared first on Adventure Cycling Association.

Here are five tips for making a festival-worthy, bicycle travel film, helping you avoid creating something reminiscent of the stereotypical, post-vacation slideshows of the 20th century.

The 90-second rule

If I don’t know some basic facts really quickly, your film is not going to hold my interest … unless you are Danny MacAskill. For bike travel films, in that first minute and a half, I should know who you are, where you are, and why you are there. It sounds crazy but I’ve gone back to our favorite films over the years, and it’s uncanny how the best films never hit 90 seconds without this information.

From Selfie to Self Portrait

Keep it short

We occasionally have a winning film clock in over 30 minutes, but the vast majority of our films are under 10 minutes … even the ones from the pro filmmakers! 

It’s not a music video — again, if you are Danny MacAskill, go on bouncing your wheel on improbable obstacles. But if you are a mere mortal, I want to hear your voice — hearing you speak about your adventure in your own words is really powerful. That said …

It’s not a blog either

On the other hand, I get plenty of entries where people go too far with the talking. We don’t need to hear nightly feedback on “today was a really hard day” — this is the video equivalent of posting about your daily lunch choices on Facebook.

Just do it! 

It’s easy to decide that filmmaking is for other people, or for people with fancy equipment. I get a great entry every year from a German guy wandering the world on his bike, and I know his equipment is minimal and he does his editing work in a tent or at Internet cafes.

And one more thing

If I just took the first entries I received, I could easily put on the MEN’S Bike Travel Film Festival, or even the Witty & Quirky Thirtysomething British Men’s Bike Travel Film Festival. But I like to see a wider range of adventures, and so does my audience, so I work hard to represent women’s voices, older people’s voices, immigrant voices, the disabled community’s voices, children’s voices, and international voices. So help me out, make the world a better place, and share your story!

The post How to Make an Amazing Bike Touring Film appeared first on Adventure Cycling Association.