"The theorem about the infinite number of monkeys says that the monkey randomly pressing the keys of the typewriter for an infinitely long time will almost certainly write any chosen text, such as the complete achievements of William Shakespeare"

~ Wikipedia

Of course, the chances for it are small. More specifically, ignoring spaces and punctuation and assuming that the entire Hamlet has a total of 20 letters (and from what I remember from his attempts to beat him, he has a little more) the probability of success is 1 on 19928148895209409152340197376 trials (seriously, this is a real number) . As you can guess, it drops quite drastically (I do not know if "enough drastically" is dramatic enough) with each subsequent letter. What am I going to do?

If you take a lot of pictures, sooner or later you'll be able to do this one, wonderful. The more you do, the greater the chance. The side effect is that you will bring them thousands from each trip, which generates at least one wasted afternoon. Something for something.

I will not tell you how to take great pictures because I do not know. I am not a professional photographer, so I will not delve into the construction of a proper composition or technical details. I did, however, so many of them that some of them went to bicycle magazines, and others to bicycle store websites and posters. Some of you are on the Internet (90% without a signature:>) I also wasted many opportunities that would surely provide internet praise for ever. I am happy to share experiences that will help you capture the moment better.

Get the best

At the beginning, it is always worth to look at the best works. Most of the best inventions of humanity were based on something that already exists. There are several photogafes who take pictures more than good ones. Reviewing their work, not only that we will catch some ideas and inspiration, we will also get to know the places and races worth visiting. If you know other interesting -> I invite you to comment.

Jared and Ashley Gruber - http://www.gruberimages.pro/ ; http://gruberimages.tumblr.com/ ; https://www.instagram.com/jeredgruber/

Kristof Ramon - http://kramon.photoshelter.com/ ; https://twitter.com/kristoframon ; https://www.instagram.com/kramon_velophoto/

Annton Miettinen - https://antton.exposure.co/

Szymon Gruchalski - http://szymongruchalski.blogspot.com/

Łukasz Szrubkowski - http://szrubkowski.net/

and pages like:

Cycling Tips - http://cyclingtips.com/

Strava - http://stories.strava.com/

Rapha - http://pages.rapha.cc/de/category/photography-de

And accept that you will not take such photos

Because such pictures are either deeply thought out, or the people who made them had access to places where you probably will not be. For this they used equipment that does not fit in the pockets (reflex cameras + often additional lamps, blends, etc.). But that does not matter - ideas can be caught, and hundreds of pages from rankings of the best photos from phones, confirm that at a certain basic level, technology plays a secondary role.

Equipment

The most frequently asked question in tourist cycling: what to take pictures? Carry a camera with you? All you need is a sports webcam hidden in your pocket? Let's look at the three options available at the moment (soon the fourth will appear on the market, DJI Mavic - if my employer does not give me a nasty surprise, I hope to join her here)

Phone

The basic tool for everyone. You must always have a telephone with you. It is more important than pampers and credit card put together. Everyone, sooner or later, will be looking for someone on their contact list who has just a free afternoon and can save us: a defect, because the bomb is still impossible, because we fell out of the railing at the exit and we can not climb on way. The phone is not the most convenient tool for taking photos, but it is the most versatile and, appropriately configured, handles tripping over the heels of sports cameras. What is the guiding principle when choosing?

The speed of its operation is more important than the quality of the camera. Any older "androids" unfortunately do not give advice. While taking pictures at stops can be successful, it is important to drive one-on-one while you start the camera, press 5 times, take 5 pictures, put the phone in your pocket. Without thinking whether everything has already run. It is also better to take 5 photos in a second and then remove 4 than one and pray for it to be sharp and unmoved. Memorable situation when someone is lying on the ground after falling over, and you run to take a picture, shouting "Leeee yes!". For sure it will be grateful if it takes us 1 second instead of 8.

The camera MUST be triggered from a locked device. In the iPhone it's easy: on the bottom right we have an icon that you just need to drag. On devices with green folk, we usually have to add a widget to the main screen (Settings -> Lock Screen -> Lock Screen Options) or install additional applications such as Start for Androidthat allow you to personalize the screen. Those more ambitious technologically can look for cool applications like QuickCamerathat trigger the camera by double shaking the phone.

A dedicated button has to be taken to take the picture - the volume control buttons are usually responsible for this. If you have an antedilope camera, you can install an application that adds such functionality. An example is one with a quite intuitive name: Volume Key Camera Shutter. It also adds the ability to capture the moment by touching anywhere on the screen - good if we do not have any physical button. Whoever has ever tried to take a picture of a horizontally positioned phone with one hand will understand why this point is so important. I skip here, of course, winter and clicking in gloves. Then there is a 20% chance that it will work, 40% that we will click for 2 minutes and 40% for slipping and painful fall. We speak buttons so firmly.

Because unfortunately, the phone will fall to you when maneuvering while driving. It's nice if it has a unbreakable glass, but let's make a deal: unbreakable fast ones do not break only in laboratories. Your fault display will hit the 3th fall with a perfectly flat asphalt. Replacing the fast is not very expensive outside the authorized sites, you have to accept it. The phone is like with expensive wheels: there is a price level, after which you become so careful that you slow down, because it's a pity. If you spent 3 payouts (yours or your parents) on the phone, you certainly will not make as many cool pictures as a person who is not afraid to take it out on the pavement or in the rain.

Exactly, if the phone is resistant to water and dust, this is a definite plus. If it is not good, it should not be plastic with gaps to which water will get in the first rain. Particularly because carrying him on his back, we expose him to a waterfall flying from the rear wheel. In the case of rainfall, I recommend a watertight case or simply a small bag of the right size - only then can we forget about the pictures.

My choice: iPhone 5. I had 5, now I have 5S - I can not see the difference beyond the price. The five can now be bought in really reasonable money, and the photos are very decent, and most importantly - done quickly and without stress. Disadvantages? With a high level of sweating of the hands and back, the screen can have problems with detecting the touch. Regularly every six months, I get some crap for the lens, which then can be seen in the pictures. Sometimes it falls out, sometimes it stays there forever. There are probably 17 other, better choices, but bad luck wants that for unknown reasons, the producers have insisted that good phones must be large. Smaller and lighter on the bike = better.

Classic camera

The camera is heavy and uncomfortable. Not only that, the compact compact currently does not get much better (if any) photos than the phone. There are few situations in which I would recommend the purchase of a dedicated device for taking pictures in a format similar to phones. Especially at a time when they can also write RAWs. Because:

Before we decide to buy a suitable camera, let's think first of all whether it will fit into your pocket on any trip we would potentially use it on. Not only that, sharing the pouch between the camera and anything else usually results in scratching it at least. There is more scratches on the display of my Haymaker than on the display. There are, of course, hypertension and other inventions, but you know how it is ... "wait a moment, I have to stand, take the camera, take a picture, hide it and we can go on!".

The lens must be automatically closed. All caps fall away in the runways ... literally: the lid always falls. If you have blown in and bought a different one, you can always buy something called an "automatic cover". Speaking of the lens: it is known that it is great to have a zoom, but much more important to have a wide angle on the other side. The wider, the better. We will definitely do landscapes more often than cranes flying in the distance. The long focal length (large zoom) is useful when you want to bring the rider closer to the panorama behind him, for example:

Most of the photos will be made on automatic settings, and basically all during the ride. Both on the Sony RX100 III and my previous cameras, like the Olympus XZ-1, there were shift knobs at the top of the case. The knobs have that they always twist when they are removed from the pocket. If you blow your photos blindly, it turns out that you have done half of them in manual mode and you can not see anything. Manual is always set to the worst possible parameters.

Water resistance and dustproofness, as in the case of a telephone, is always a plus. All waterproof cameras ... I drowned in the sea. The sand + water connection never works.

The speed of operation is important - as with everything in life: the more expensive the equipment, the faster it works. It is worth rethinking whether we always have to take pictures in maximum resolution and in RAW mode (especially if we do not process them afterwards). Dozens of megabytes written to the memory card takes a while. Changing the card at a faster rate often allows you to achieve many times better time results, with a small financial outlay. The camera is probably the only device to which I do not pack the cheapest SD memory straight from Tesco ..

To sum up: the camera is cool, but the bigger it is, the more likely it is that we will leave it at home. On the other hand, the smaller it is, the better its quality will be similar to the cell. Only comparatives are at stake, in addition expensive ... which will fall to earth on a beautiful day (or on the frame, as for my brand new CANYON). If we care about the best quality of photos, we travel far with panniers, we run social profiles, we like to play in the processing of photos and we can devote some comfort to additional equipment - then as much as possible. Only without saving and cutting the budget!

Sporting camera

This is probably the most convenient and the most reliable way of taking pictures. The problem arises when you have to decide which one to choose. The Chinese have already released probably from 10,000 different models, which differ mainly from the inscription on the housing. For my part, I suggest you pay a minimum and buy a proven solution. There is nothing worse than a webcam getting out when we need it the most. The companies that we can trust and make comfortable equipment are: GoPro (o, but a surprise), Xiaomi and SJCAM. The latter is probably the most common counterfeit - we limit ourselves to the SJ4000 and SJ5000 models and carefully look at whether the housing is the SJCAM sign.

Which one to choose? Well, it all depends on what we need and where we take pictures. I do not want to do an exact comparison of products from the price range PLN 300-1900, because prices change and new products come out every six months. A comparison of all possibilities would probably take 10 pages, so I will simply describe your criteria.

The quality of photos.

Here we have to think about where we will be doing it. If we only want to snap from the handle, during road trips, it's basically everything we take - any solution more expensive than ~ 300 PLN will give advice and the results will be similar. The trouble is when you move into more demanding conditions: forest, semi-darkness, high speeds - if we want to see something more than streaks it is worth adding to better solutions.

Recommended cameras (for photo) are:

in the expensive category: GoPro 4 silver and Xiaomi Yi 4K
in moderate categories: SJCAM SJ5000 Plus
in budget categories: Xioami Yi and SJCAM SJ5000

of course you can experiment with others and often it will be a good shot ... but sometimes not. Very large grain, quality, speed, sharpness, amount of x-rays and under-blinds through a bad matrix - these are all key parameters that we risk getting worse.

Let's also remember that not everyone needs very good technical photos. The first stage should be able to take a picture over its quality. So if we know that the pockets in the pockets are always very limited, the GoPro Session and even the Polaroid Cube will be a better solution than not having anything at hand.

Important parameters when choosing a sports webcam (serving as a camera)

display - frame preview is useful almost never. If we take a picture while driving, in any case we will not be able to see anything interesting on such a small display. When taking a "posed" photo, we do not have to worry about the frame, because with the lens catching the view from well over 100 degrees, we will always take everything we need (unless we keep it with our back to the front). The display is useful when changing settings. If you plan to often rummage in the settings (in which I doubt), this gadget is definitely more convenient than changing the parameters by phone. For me - unnecessary.

Resolution - one of the points by which I rejected GoPro Hero. It is known that in the case of compact cameras, resolution is one of the most advertised paramaters, and at the same time the least important, because quality counts not quantity. When taking pictures with a fish eye, it is worth having a large clipping area, because more often in our team there will be too many things than not enough.

wifi - allows you to connect to the phone to change settings, and more importantly: quickly transfer photos from the device to the phone, where after quick processing they fly straight to Strava / Fejsa. For me: necessary. The whole process of flipping and coloring takes about 3-4 minutes, and my Strava it looks much more interesting thanks to it. I'm sure I would not like to flip them over to my computer every day.

Battery - most of the webcams have similar and sufficient performance. For me it was important that the battery was replaceable (GoPro Hero again with integrated housing). The blanket weighs as much as nothing, it also costs as much as nothing and helps a lot. Not only in a situation when we are unloading on the road, but for example when it turns out that by accident the device has been turned on all night, and we have to move. An additional plus are backpack-style accessories, extending life by more than half - I have, I have never used it. Weight and size are growing enough that it is not comfortable.

compatibility with additional accessories - here the matter is simple, original and "almost original, which work similarly" accessories for GoPro is mass and we will get them in any photo / video store. Some of the Far-Easts are compatible with them, others like YI have a standard thread for tripods - a great thing.

Modding the software

In the era of universal access to the Internet, making sharing information easier than ever, anyone can improve things that are good to be very good. The most wonderful thing is that she can then share this way with others. Just like thousands of mods for android phones, some webcams have the opportunity to improve their achievements using modified software. For example, add Xiaomi Yi to save photos in RAW format, control parameters (eg ISO) or change the resolution to 2304 × 1296 at 30fps. The sample list of softwares for GoPro is:

• Long exposure for HERO3 / HERO3 +
• More intervals for timelapse
• Filters such as BW or sepia for HERO3 / HERO3 +
• Temperature logging for HERO4
• Hyperlapse stabilization for HERO4
• Share videos and photos thru WLAN in HERO4

It sounds impressive, but as usual, it is fun for the brave with a hint of madness and boredom. Those willing can try their hand at writing their own scripts, it is not difficult. On this page we will find such an example as: after clicking turn on the webcam, take a picture (or a few, or a movie), turn off the webcam or delete old photos from the card when we exceed, say, 70% of the card's capacity.

Accessories

In my short career as an amateur photographer I have already broken down a lot of cameras, telephones, mobile phones, handles, security devices, covers and everything related. I broke my poles at the worst possible moments, the cameras were melting, the handles were dropping and I lost GoPro at the races ... there is some experience. I gathered a list of elements that I can definitely recommend. As an endless source of inspiration I recommend, of course Far Easterners.

If we want to take pictures back, we buy a saddle mount:

If we fasten it to the front, the steering wheel is turned down (possibly in version with integrated garmin holder)

Of course, you do not have to buy original ones from K-Edge, as 90% of fakes will do just as well. The only question is how to know that we have one that does not catch the remaining 10%. The helmet mount is also very good, but there are two problems in his case:

1. with the camera protruding on the top of the head it looks like a sperm
2. On a route longer than 60-90 minutes, these few hundred grams cause the neck to fall off (so only GoPro Session)

However, very good stabilization compensates for inconvenience. A bit like in chicken casejust a little worse.

By pilot we can control the webcam via Bluetooth. The possibility is very cool ... until I got a pilot, which I used several times, although I still hope that I can use it wisely. The problem is that for the remote control to work, the camera must be on the standbay, which is slow, because it is slow, but it discharges it. Gadget cool, but only if we are sure that it will be useful.

Battery backpack, another bajer that makes life much easier ... in theory. I used it several times. Larger weight and size of the webcam generate more problems than profits. Only for people who plan to record a movie or take photos for several hours. Only if you have time to look at it later? Contrary to what I wrote at the beginning, It's better to have 15 medium sized photos nicely colored, than 3000, where there are some excellent ones, but we will never get to them.

stick, called a selfiestic, is the most important thing for me. It allows not so much for taking pictures of yourself (which of course is also important), but for capturing frames for which there would normally be no chance. Pulling the camera on the stick and hiding it in the pocket is not much harder, and that the stick looks like a pump anyway, then nobody will laugh at us? Which one to choose? I use two: the cheapest possiblewhich costs PLN 20 for Chinese and three times more expensive from Powerbee. The first one is exceptionally crappy and falls apart after a month or so, but it has the main advantage - it spreads from 22cm to 110cm. The spreading works simply by pressing and requires some strength. Analogously unfolding. It causes that during some unfolding, the stick is divided into two separate ones, losing some functionality. The other one is 30-95cm and it seems to me that 30cm is absolutely the maximum size that you can put in your pocket in a stress-free way, and 90cm is the minimum sensible to fulfill your function. The problem is that all decent and company poles are either too short after unfolding or too long after folding. The stick allows you to pretend that we have a drone, put the camera on the fence, expose it to the crowd, take photos on the ground while driving and generate a threat in the crowd by waving it at the spokes of colleagues.

How do you snap a photo when the webcam is far away from us? Very simply: we start the shooting mode every second (or half if we are impatient). In GoPro you can use the "One Button Mode" to which we assign a continuous mode and when you hold the pike for a few seconds, the camera starts taking pictures until the moment when you stop it and start panting.

If we want a stick, but we do not have anyone to take pictures of, we always have accessories for lonely people:

If we want to be like a known and well-liked blogger, take pictures of our manager and the hands on it, without increasing the probability of suffocation with a camera, the following gadget may be useful. It will also be useful if our girlfriend likes to talk a lot. After assigning her an ultra-important task, which is filming our backs with this device, we will have a moment of peace:

As a big opponent of all kinds of casings (by which I am a regular customer of the "telephones" section on the Allegro), for the webcam in the pocket, the UV lens filter provides excellent protection. Of course, the plastic will continue to draw, but the most important element, which is the lens, will remain intact. In addition, the picture quality will improve slightly in extreme conditions, such as very strong sun.

So what to choose?

The optimal size would be a phone size device (large, but thin, thanks to which it fits perfectly into the rear pocket), with the technical capabilities of an advanced compact and fish eye (or very wide lens), and everything would be resistant. Is there such a thing? I have not found it yet, but if you know something like that, I invite you to comment. It must be admitted that the Olympus Tough camera with an additional lens was quite close to the idea. Unfortunately, for now, he is a half-measure, due to the large bulkyness, after tightening the lens (imagine pulling it out of his pocket) and the quality of the photos as from a very good phone. However, he is going in the right direction.

The worst thing is that my listing becomes more obsolete every day. I'm just editing it to add information about an article from petapixel about the iPhone 7 taking better photos than Leica for $ 9,000. The portal is kind of self-respecting, and the whole text is based on one picture, but nevertheless ....

So far, my remark for people who do not plan monthly trekking in the Himalayas is flying to a sports webcam supported by a good phone. Instead of buying a compact - add it to your phone.

How to take photos?

The riders have it easier. There are very few other sports where there is no problem with taking photos while practicing it. There are also few in which landscapes are so good and so rapidly changing. Pictures do not really have to be technically good, what counts is an interesting place or an interesting cadres. Every picture from Stelvio makes an impression ... unless it presents mainly the head. The so-called "samojebki" are cool, but not if our whole album presents "me and the view" in a composition consisting of 80% of me and 20% of what follows me. Unless you are Haidi Klum, then you can make albums "me and whatever", but the idea of ​​going to cool places to make cool photos loses a bit.

There are a few tricks that will help us a little, like rotating the webcam on the stick always downor putting it in your mouth for stabilization, but it's all down to snapping everywhere, everything and in this way learning which shots are best for us. On youtube we can find hundreds of profiles that share good, but in most cases very obvious information, e.g. MicBergsma. In cycling photography, it is much more important to capture a good place and an interesting frame than the technical aspects of the photograph.

What should I do to make the photos nice?

Just as every child can be capable, and if it is not, then the teacher simply claims to be lazy, so every picture can be good.

It burned or something went wrong with the colors? Make it black and white and say it's an artistic procedure. Blurry? This is a special effect enhancing the impression of speed. Everything is a matter of processing and inventing ideology. At a time when in the App Stora we find thousands of applications that have the same goal: picking up the colors in the picture, it's hard to choose one, the best. Of course, Lightroom is irreplaceable for segregation and editing, but not everyone wants to spend PLN 500. Let me be honest: I did not find anything comparable in quality and ergonomics. Fortunately, there are also phones and tablets. I may surprise you here, but if I have to take only a few photos, not 3000 of the whole trip, it is much better and faster on the mobile device. We connect with the camera, send, process, send. What to use? Well, Instagram is the easiest and most obvious one. Ready filters solve our problems in 5 seconds. To place a photo on the device's disk, just disconnect from the internet for a while while saving. A little more extensive alternatives? VSCO and PS Express. The first one is not very easy to use (for me, people praise) it provides excellent filters (mostly paid, but they cost a few pennies), the latter, despite the hopeless filters, allows you to quickly play the most important sliders and achieve results that competitors can not match .

Here we come to the sliders. In addition to the highlights showing the sky, which was burned and shadowsami, which like Black Vanish Black make it black again, there are a few others, and among them the two most important: the so-called awesome sliders. Sliders that are like Chariots of Fire in music. Sliders that make ordinary photos become extraordinary and the drama level reaches the zenith. Which of each photo will do perfect. Which, like saturation, make it move the centimeter too far, the viewer will go back yesterday's dinner .... Panda says that after opening such a picture, the screen shines, regardless of whether it is on.

Clarity (transparency) and fog removal (dehaze). Both make magic, but they are used too often and intensely destroy photos. Remember, every time you move them too far, somewhere in the world, Parlee or Festka breaks. If you are not sure, it is better to not touch them than to move them. I do not want to link profiles and blogs here, which I stopped reading, because my morning sense of aesthetics (although quite low) could not look at the colored, everyday photos from the training.

If after reading all the above sentences, putting them into practice, putting the best photos on the story, the number of likes does not increase, only one remains. A solution that ensures popularity, hundreds of likes, reshareses and all the best:

throw a funny photo with a cat or with tits.