{"id":453,"date":"2009-08-20T10:36:19","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T18:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=453"},"modified":"2009-08-20T20:56:19","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T04:56:19","slug":"pre-sdmba-meeting-la-costa-playtime-and-photo-geekage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=453","title":{"rendered":"Pre-SDMBA meeting La Costa Playtime and Photo Geekage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night was the monthly San Diego Mountain Biking Association<\/a>meeting that was held at REI in Encinitas.\u00a0 Before the meeting a handful of decided to get in a quick spin at the Rancho La Costa Preserve<\/a>.\u00a0 I got there quite a bit early so I tinkered with a new camera gadget that I have modified for use with a mountain bike.\u00a0 It is a RF remote shutter release that has a range of over 100 feet.\u00a0\u00a0 The remote is a bit on the bulky side for using while you are riding as it could not be mounted on the handlebar in an easy to reach spot.\u00a0\u00a0 After some geekage, soldering and a bit of trial and error I made a remote micro-switch for the remote.\u00a0 This “remote remote” allows me to\u00a0put the camera on\u00a0a tripod and then take pictures by just barely moving my thumb on the handlebar.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Here is one of the first test shots.\u00a0 I’m snapping the shot using my left thumb.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a good test as pressing the button did not detract from the riding.<\/p>\n

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During the second test shoot, I wanted to test out the range of the system.\u00a0 The camera is at least 100 feet away when I snapped this first shot of the sequence.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am going to do another test later at a further distance to see just how far you can push the range.\u00a0\u00a0 I also had the autofocus set to servo mode to it refocused as I moved along the trail\u00a0getting closer to the\u00a0camera.\u00a0\u00a0 Continuous shooting mode also works with this setup.\u00a0\u00a0The main\u00a0intended use\u00a0for this setup is when I traveling and riding solo.\u00a0 While I like taking trail photos, so of them\u00a0would be so much nicer with a rider\u00a0in the shot.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Now\u00a0at least can use myself as photo\u00a0fodder.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I may have a couple of tweaks left to do with the setup, I’ll put up some additional details on the gadget mods when everything is dialed.<\/p>\n

After the photo tinkering, I zipped back down to the trailhead and hooked with the folks for the ride.\u00a0 It was good ride, but I took next to nothing for pictures as I was doing a lot of chasing.<\/p>\n

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Here is Gardner Grady, aka SDMBA Vice President and member of the National Mountain Bike Patrol showing how is done on a section know as “Meet Your Maker”.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you think you might me interesting in becoming a member of the SDMBA chapter of the National Mountain Bike Patrol,\u00a0touch bases with Gyan Penrose-Kafka<\/a> who can give you\u00a0all the 411 on the program.<\/p>\n

We finished up the ride with\u00a0enough time to chill for a bit before heading off to\u00a0meeting.\u00a0 There was a really good turn out and there\u00a0are lots of stuff happening around the county and particularly in North County.\u00a0 It was well worth a few hours of my time to see what is going on in person without having to sift through all of the talking head chatterbox BS that seems to be so prevalent on the various online forums.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you can out about upcomign\u00a0SDMBA events by\u00a0signing up for thier Trailnews<\/a>\u00a0mailing list.<\/p>\n

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