I have a new website, please come visit.

So this is just a quick post in regards to my new website cruisncanada.com

JustGoShoot has been a great place for me to play with my blogging, but my interests are moving over to my new site.  This site will deal with some of the things that this site dealt with including a lot of photography and videography topics.  The biggest thing though will be the inclusion of motorcycle gear, reviews, rides and whatever else that is or has anything to do with my motorcycle riding.

So I hope you come join me over there.  I look forward to hearing from you all.

http://www.cruisncanada.com

Emerson Action Cam

So my wife bought the Emerson Action Cam for me as a gift.  It was cheap, and to be honest my expectations were not very high for a $40 action camera that I was going to mount on my motorcycle while riding.

So  lets be quick and to the point.  Is that worth the $40?  To be honest thats a much harder question to answer.  Take a look at the footage below.  The camera when mounted to a motorcycle has a very strong and dominant wobble.  And that may be somewhat due to the fact the the camera isn’t all that “wide” in what it captures.  Or maybe its just because  its a cheap camera.  If the footage below is good enough for you then its $40 well spent.  On an 8 gig card you can record up to 40 minutes and to be honest I don’t know how much more then that you could record as the internal battery seems to only be able to hold a charge for maybe a little bit longer.

Other then mounting on a motorcycle I really don’t know it would hold up to using it on lets say a bicycle, or surfing or whatever else you would throw at it.  The case seems strong and the unit itself is nice and light.  If you can find this camera at a store that has a return policy then that would be good so that you can test it out for whatever purpose you have in mind for this device.

As for me … Well I intend to use this camera to record whats happening behind me and to save up and by a GoPro for the front.

So there you have it.  The Emerson Action Cam.  My recommendation is to Try before you Buy.

(camera mounted to front handlebars on Hyosung GV250 Motorcycle)

(camera mounted on rear signal light of Hyosung GV250 Motorcycle)

 

Our Trip out West …

So unlike our usual trips, which take us down south and to somewhere tropical, my family and I headed out west.  We are originally from Edmonton, Alberta and have lived in Ottawa, Ontario now for just over 8 years and it was a good time for us to head back out west for a vacation and to visit with friends and family.

So our trip started as we flew to Edmonton, not a bad flight in that it was only 5 hours in length and direct, but knowing that we would be arriving in Edmonton late and leaving early the following day was already tiring and we had yet to start.  So anyways we officially start our ‘road trip’ good and early.  Knowing that our first stop would be in Jasper.  One of my favourite places.  But just before i talk about Jasper there is one thing I must say.  For any of you that ride motorcycles, the ride from Edmonton to Jasper is not overly exciting (at least not until you actually get to Jasper National Park).  But from that point on the ride would be fantastic.  I kept thinking how great it would have been to actually be riding my bike instead of in our car.  One day.

So anyways we roll into Jasper, which again is one of my favourite places, but only stay there long enough to refuel and carry on.  For any of you that have never been to the Canadian Rockies, please visit Jasper.  It has continued to retain its small town feel and kept a lot of the commercialization to a minimum, which in my opinion is very nice and one of the main reasons that I like it so much.

So we left the Jasper and continued on our way to Vernon, which was our final destination.  This leg of the trip was going to be about 5-6 hours (Edmonton to Jasper was about 4 hours).  Now we were traveling with family and myself being the only photographer I was sure that the rest of the car did not want to stop every 30 minutes for me to take pictures.  Even though I did get a few opportunities to leave the car for some pics, the majority of my photos were taken from within the car traveling at 100km/hr.

For any of you that want to do the trip from Edmonton to Vernon/Kelowna I highly recommend it.  But maybe not with small children.  Or if you do have kids make sure to bring a lot of things to entertain them or split the driving into a couple of day.  Without talking to much about the actual driving we made it to Vernon, BC and I must say it is an absolutely gorgeous part of the world.  We spent our time in Vernon visiting family and just relaxing.  We stayed at a resort/golf club called Predator Ridge.  And it gets my highest recommendation.  Even though I don’t play golf it was a lovely place to just sit and relax.

 

Now after our awesome relaxing time in Vernon we started our trek back to Edmonton.  This time though we headed to Banff.  This time though we would actually spend a day there to do some sight seeing…  So we did a few of the big ones that most should do while in Banff.  We went of course to Lake Louis which is one of the most beautiful places you will ever see and probably one of the most photographed.  Then we head to the Banff Gondola which give you an amazing view of Banff and the mountains that surround it.  Lastly we headed over to Bow Falls.  This was a fantastic but short trip to Banff that we all enjoyed.

 

So again we began our drive, this time to the location that we began at, Edmonton.  We were going to again visit family and go for a little outing.  We wanted somewhere that the kids would like so we chose Fort Edmonton Park.  Its a tad on the pricey side but a great way to spend the day.  We were a little worried about the weather but we lucked out and the weather for the most part stayed pretty nice for us.

 

Well there you go.  That was our summer 2013 trip.  We had a great time and I hope to be able to head out that way again.

Ottawa 2013 Ride For Dad

So I had the opportunity to join up and participate in the Ottawa Ride for Dad.  And what a fantastic day it was.  I’m still very new to motorcycle riding but this is and was something that I have wanted to participate in ever since I heard about this event.

(Me at the Ride For Dad starting point – Canadian Aviation Museum)

The Ride for Dad (if you are unaware) is a fund raising event to raise money in support of prostate cancer.  It is held in many cities all over the country.  This year there was a guess that somewhere between 1500 and 2500 motorcycles would be attending the ride.  I must say that as of 6am on June 1st I was unsure as to how many motorcycles would show up as we got hit by a pretty hard rain that came in nice and fast and pretty much soaked me on my way to meet some of my motorcycle club members for a pre ride breakfast.

Luckily for us as we finished breakfast the rain had pretty much stopped and our day of riding was soon to begin.

(Bike parked at the end of the parade – Getting ready for the poker run)

By about 7:30 am we had arrived at the starting point (which was the Ottawa Aviation Museum) and there was a good number of bikes that were there already, but not as much as I had expected.  That quickly changed.  Within the next 30 minutes the bikes arrived.  Individuals, groups, clubs all began to show up and I knew that this was going to be a great day.

(sitting at a gas station (after a needed refuel) just after the first check in point for the Poker Run)

I encourage any and all that have a motorcycle to consider looking in your area to see if there is a Ride for Day, and join in the fun.  The parade of motorcycles lasts for about 90 minutes.  After that if you feel like it, there is a poker run.  For us, that part took about 4-5 hours with all the breaks and stops for gas and lunch.  But what a great day, and its all for a fantastic cause.

(Ottawa Carleton Raceway – End of the Line)

 

(Picture taken with my group of riders)

I was also riding with a GoPro attached to my helmet for the actual parade.  Have a watch.  Hope to see some of you next year!!

Long exposure Lighting

So I had a friend of mine show me some photos that were done with a very small constant light (actually an old iPod classic) and because of the long exposure they were able to light the scene very professionally and creatively.  So I wanted to experiment and try some long exposure shots myself.  So with my new toy (motorcycle) I gathered my trusty Canon 7D, Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens and tripod and headed to the garage where my bike was sitting.

So I needed to find a source of light as I was going to be shooting in complete darkness.  So I headed to the store looking for something that I could use to “paint” light over the sections of my bike that I wanted to expose.

 

I ended up finding the above Energizer keychain LED flashlight. So this light doesn’t put out a lot of light, but it could be very precise as well as very broad depending on how far I held the light from its target.  So for $5 I figured it was worth the investment (picked it up from Home Depot).

So now I had a subject (bike) had my gear and finally had a small light.  I was ready.

With the lights on in the garage I setup the camera on the tripod and framed the shot accordingly.  Set the camera to manual focus (as it wouldn’t be able to auto focus in the dark) and then set my camera for 30 second exposure, f11, ISO 100, and lastly set the timer for 2 seconds.  I was ready.

I then turned off the lights, fired the shutter, and painted the bike with my little flashlight.

The following pictures were my 2 favourite shots form the 8 photos that I took.  I kinda wish that I had given the bike a little bit of a wash, but all in all I was very pleased with the outcome of the photos.

 

If there are any questions as to how these photos were taken please let me know.  I will continue to play with light exposure as well as long exposure.

Picked up a new toy

SO i just picked up my new toy (actually about 2 weeks ago).  No it’s not a new camera (harder for me to get one of those, as I have no reason to purchase a new one – old ones do their job just fine), Anyways I picked up a new Motorcycle!!

This is my very first motorcycle, and i must say that i am just loving it!!  I bought a new 2009 Hyosung Aquila GV250.  I must say that for a “starter” bike, I am very pleased.

I did a lot of looking around at both used and new bikes.  Was considering buying a used bike that had a much bigger engine, but when i contacted my insurance I realized that this was not the way to go.  Since I am a bigger guy I wanted at least a bike that was physically a bit bigger.  Out of all the 250cc bikes that I sat on the Hyosung GV250 was definitely the biggest and the one that I felt the most comfortable on.

I hope to have some more posts come up in regards to my new interest.  Anyone else out there ride a bike?  If so what do you ride?

Here’s a quick video of my daughter and I coming home after I took her for a quick ride around the block.

Harley’s site

So we just put together a little site here on wordpress for my daughter. She wants to try her hand at doing some blogging (mostly video). So take a look and let me and her know what you think. Shes a little nervous, but she is definitely getting better at it.

This Is Harleys Life

So the previous video was the one without the logo in the background.  I like this one much better.

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