I was stoked to hear that the Wilkinson bros. over at the Good Spark Garage posted a review of the Motojournalism photography ebooks.
There are many good blogs these days featuring the latest motorcycle builds, but the Wilkinson brothers dig deeper than most into the history, the people and the beauty of motorcycling.
They are bike builders themselves, and through the Good Spark Garage they interview motorcycle racers, builders, artists, and riders.
“Men do not quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Fifty Years of Kicks is a 20 minute video documentary featuring Paul Rodden (right) and Larry Murray (left); two experienced motorcycle riders who continue to do what they love despite age and health issues.
Fifty Years of Kicks, is a collaboration between Motojournalism.com and Traction off-road e-rag.
We've seen too many videos with teenagers doing double backflips, so with Fifty Years of Kicks, we wanted to show older adults pushing their bodies to the limit. We were tired of saying, “I wish I could have tried that when I was young”, we wanted to say, “I want to be like them when I grow up!”
We would like to continue to produce episodes profiling other interesting characters in motorcycling and are looking for sponsors to make that possible. We want to tell the stories of the people who participate, the reasons why these people engage in a sport with inherent risks and dangers, and why they can’t live without these two wheeled machines.
Any overland traveller worth their salt loves a map. The excitement of a fresh paper map spread out on the floor, every mountain pass and izthmus, terra incognita promising adventure.
It's just as rewarding to revisit torn and battered maps on your return. The map looks different now, the terrain, roads and towns infused with memory of struggles and good times.
I feel the same way about electronic maps. Less romantic, surely. But everything has it's place and the flexibility of GPS software and Google Earth can really be an asset for sharing your adventure.
I'm not the type of traveller who enjoys pre-planning my route, road by road. I prefer spontaneity and flexibility, so I generally use my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx as a way of leaving "breadcrumbs, keeping the tracks as a record of where I've been.
That Chicken Bus came out of nowhere on my way to fly over the Darien, so I had to drag a bag on that apex... Say, are those Pelican cases?
Bill Dwyer of AtlasRider.com and Matthew Scott Johnston of Magic Rabbit Productions absolutely nail it. Whether you're a cruiser, a sport rider or an ADV rider this really is, Shit Bikers Say
Another quick update! I've been running around Ontario filming the missing pieces of the motorcycle documentary.
My producer, Dallas Shannon of Traction E-Rag has been pulling strings and calling-in favours to arrange the specific scenes that needed to be shot. Everybody from the vintage collectors to the motorcycle dealerships have been super accommodating scrambling to get the old and new motorcycles we need.
We've also shot three short interviews of people who know the two main characters of the documentary.
Riding season is winding down - it's gorgeous now but won't be long before the last leaf has fallen and the deep freeze begins. I'll get in as many rides as I can before I have to dig out the battery tender and fogging oil.
Working on the documentary has been fascinating. There are so many elements that come together to make it work. I've been working out the documentary with my producer and we've found that the audio beats the video in importance. We're putting together the story like a radio show - the spoken word is the the structure, the frame, and the video will be placed on top of that frame.
We found that the old fashioned method of shuffling around index cards on a table helped us best in working out the plot. Each index card was a bit of dialogue that our subjects talked about and having them spread out before us really made a logical flow of ideas visible.
Documentary seems to be similar to travel photography; you go out having a rough idea of what you will find, but you really don't know what the story will be until you come back and see what you've shot.
In the meantime, I'm getting deep into learning video editing. I'm taking what I've learned about processing my photos and applying that knowledge to the similar tools in the video editor.
It's all the same things, a bit of contrast, adjusting the white-balance and saturation, a subtle vignette.
Here's a short video made with a bit of the extra footage we shot - just made to teach myself the tools, and give a hint of what's coming. I had fun recording the miniature soundtrack too.
It's all pretty pictures with no story - just the sort of video I was lambasting in the last post!
All for now, I'm off to ride to Ontario for the weekend, see you on the road!
Motorcycle Travel Photography.
Motojournalism book one is about taking better photos of your adventures with the camera you have now. Written from a motorcycle travel perspective, but applicable to all overlanders, Book One teaches the foundational photographic techniques you'll need to come home with great photos of your travels.
Book One 41 pages - Just $10!
Motojournalism book Two is about how to choose camera equipment for your overland travel, how to pack it, and how to operate it. Manual mode, aperture, shutter-speed, ISO, exposure compensation, histogram, and heaps more.
Book Two 49 pages $15.
Read about the trip
Read about the last trip - Montreal to Panama - with plenty of words and photos.
as a way of leaving "breadcrumbs, keeping the tracks as a record of where I've been.
