Personal Project: A Tuesday Motorcycle Photo-Diary

As most of you might know, I like to ride my bicycle, I like to ride my bike... :)

My Honda Wave 125

Well, motorcycle anyway. I love the freedom that the meeting of two wheels and a road provides. It offers me an economical mode of transportation and a rush at the same time. For weeks now I've been trying to think of a way to marry this passion for riding with the passion for photography that this blog is dedicated to (come to think of it, much like Clay Enos does when he's on the road with his Vespa).

I've been toying around with the idea of taking my days off and going on the road to places I've never been to or at least been to rarely, or maybe even haven't been to in a long time, and taking photos there. Anything and anywhere really, just to get my on the road to some place.

Lately though, such an undertaking has been impeded by the many errands I am periodically tasked to perform, not to mention the heat that this summer is gifting the world with. Yesterday however, I decided that, even though half the day was gone and the summer sun was pounding the afternoon with near unbearable heat, I would still go out on two wheels and see how far I could go and what pictures I would take.

Initially, I wasn't going to go very far. My first stop was at a cousin's gym to pop in and say hello. Sadly he wasn't there, and no photos were taken. I hope to remedy this soon.

My 2nd stop was for a massage (I thought I deserved one after all). You betcha by golly no photos were taken there.

I tried to catch the sunset at the Mall of Asia but I had so much fun trying to find the right spot to stop at, I missed it when I finally parked. Here are a couple of the photos I snapped anyway when I got there.

the fountain by the baywalk

a super pan shot of the pier

two of the essentials for the ride

Not a bad showing when you think about it, but since I was keen on taking sunset photos, it still doesn't meet my expectations for myself.

A couple of key learnings though:

1.) pack the right lens. -- I actually didn't have any real plans as to where I was going so I decided to just pack light, and brought the E410 and the 28mm manual OM lens. Could've brought the 50mm though. Will do so next time.

2.) plan ahead. -- this always helps.

3.) bring more water. -- one bottle isn't quite enough.

4.) keep shooting. -- just like Clay says (and he's fast becoming a more influential inspiration for my photo-blogging life) "Make pictures, don't get hung up on how nice they are."

So there you are folks. I am committing to yet another personal project. I've a feeling though that this will have more mileage than any of the others (pun intended). I might just use this as an excuse to visit the many (?) national parks that we have that I once thought I might do for a personal photo project.