"First" Bike Ride

This last Saturday, I went for my first bike ride into the mountains north of Beijing. I had been waiting for it to be warm enough for a longer bike ride. Funny, I stopped by the side of the road before the climb up a hill and was told by some older Chinese men that I had too much clothes on. They kept telling me a I was going to be too hot and that I shouldn’t have dressed so warm. I laugh because I remember getting told in an old neighborhood that I wasn’t wearing enough clothes during the winter by older Chinese women. 

Whenever I go out for bike rides or photo walks, I like to snap photos with Hipstamatic on my phone. I really like playing around in this app and getting different results that I don’t really have too much control over. It almost frees me from editing the shots. Though, Hipstamatic also includes an unedited shot as well in your photo library. I have used some of the looks I get in the app to influence the edit of a shot from my “real” camera. 

A photograph of a Chinese gate.

I came across this old “frame” and was taking some photos of it cause I liked the rubble. Then some rude person drove through my shot. Then the light went on! I may have stayed here for a bit. I then took some photos with the Lightroom mobile app cause it lets me shoot in RAW format. Looking forward to trying to recreate some of these looks in Lightroom. 

Lastly, I could not have a better podcast to listen to on this bike ride that the “Fall of Civilizations” podcast. The quality of the podcast and the narration are incredible. I had been saving this podcast for a long bike ride or a photo walk. Worth the wait! I also am happy to hear that the host has a new history book on a subject that I love! Can’t wait to dig into that! 

I would like to know what you think of these "quick hit" posts vs the more long form posts I've done before. If you'd like to read more of these, please let me know. Thank you!

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