Bicycle Beat

Crazy Fairbanks weather continues. That didn’t deter some friends and I from doing an art-show bike on Friday, May 3.

Such an important part of photography is taking pictures of everything. I find it an important way to sharpen the eye and make sure my camera’s settings will give me a well-rendered file. The green fence caught my eye, and the complementary color of the red for-sale sign was enough reason for a quick stop.

Green Fence with for-sale sign, May 3, 2013.

Wind and cold soon swept in snow, which fell in large, heavy clumps. Truly spring with a twist.

Snow falls May 3, 2013 in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Spring is also a chance to see what winter left behind. This is most evident in the trash that manifests on roadsides after being forgotten under a blanket of snow all winter. Fairbanks has a community clean-up day, when scores of volunteers take to the streets with bright yellow trash bags helping make the Golden Heart of Alaska clean again. Not uncommon, clean-up day 2013 had to be postponed, and is now scheduled for May 11.

I don’t know what happened for this bike beside the path to become utterly destroyed, but it must not have been enjoyable for the rider.

A beat-up, rusty bike lays along side a bike path in Fairbanks, Alaska.

“Bicycle Beat” is an idea I have wanted to start for some time. And until recently was hindered by winter. Bicycle Beat is my reporting from a bicycle. I have often felt bike riding is the ultimate way to capture great photos. Unlike driving, stopping and turning around is almost instantaneous, and it’s much easier to spot interesting subjects traveling 10 mph rather then 50. Consequently, also much faster then walking, greatly expanding the range of your photographic canvas. Also important is inconspicuous. You draw a lot more attention stopping a car then a bicycle.

I went for a very brief 3-mile bike ride last night and in the short time happened upon two photo-worthy subjects. It’s been a very testy spring in Fairbanks, with multiple inches of snow the last week of May. Greenhouses are opening despite unavailable exterior space. One of them is Plant Kingdom.

Mayday! A sundog is visible on May Day. A sundog is an atmospheric reaction when light deflects off ice crystals in the air, producing a halo effect. They are common to cold weather.

The snow and cold on May 1, producing a sundog, mixed with the open Plant Kingdom sign, is a significant juxtaposition.

A sundog is frames the Plant Kingdom sign on May 1, 2013. It has been one of the coldest springs on record in Interior Alaska.

I slung my camera around my neck and hopped on my bike, only to travel another half-mile before finding another photo.

While I may have stopped a car to take the sundog picture, I never would have seen this young moose right off the bike path. Maybe 15 yards away, it would have been a great opportunity to get a wide-angle shot of a moose. Having a zoom lens however, my first instinct was to zoom in as close as possible. Probably 2 or 3 years old, I did make sure no mother moose was visible before shooting.