2013 Review

Seems funny to be doing a year in review post, but I've enjoyed reading a couple other cyclist and photographer posts like this so here is an abbreviated one for myself.  A signpost for me to measure the coming years by.  Metrics (a few)

Miles Biked - 3,129 (up from 976 in 2012)
Photographs taken - 5,046

First the bike... bike commuting started in February and I can honestly remember only 6 work days that I drove or took a ride from someone.  I do travel for work both locally and out of the area, so that is not to say that every other day was a bike commute.  But the bike commuting absolutely made up the bulk of my mileage.  In 2014 I may try to keep track of commuting miles differently in order to keep pushing myself.  I'm proud of my record here, riding in all kinds of weather and truly loving the whole experience.  I pushed my continuous mileage total from 40 to 55 to 100 over the course of this year as well, though since that Oct Century outing my longest is probably in the 20's... I want to keep exploring this endurance riding, more in the goals section.  I've learned a tremendous amount about maintenance and bike building, in one year I've gone from novice to 'dangerous intermmediate'.  I took a spectacular 8 week Park Tool School that gave me the booster shot of knowledge, and between personal wrenching and volunteering at Velocity Co-Op since March I've continued this.

Second the photography... definitely took a backseat to both the biking and house projects this year.  I had started to taper in 2012 and I don't really see this as a problem. I'm still making good images, and between 2010-2012 I really pushed both my technical, creative and business skills in photography.  While I'm positive that I didn't grow much photographically this year, I didn't regress either.

2014 Goals

1. Complete a 200K Brevet (preferably for score w/ the DC Randonneur's)
2. Ride a 50 miler with my wife on the Tandem
3. Do a multi-day mini-tour by bike (planning in the works for a GAPCO!)
4. Do a S24O
5. Visit 3 Bike Builder's - (targets; Waterford, Boulder, Rivendell, Bruce Gordon, Bilenky, Bishop)
6. Re-open my darkroom (at least for bw negatives)
7. Shoot all the film I have in storage as of 1/1/14 (plenty!)
8. Consolidate/Rationalize the Camera Collection
9. Consolidate/Rationalize the Bike Collection
10. Get down to 210lbs..... 35-45lbs less than now

Ten is enough, we'll see how I do.  Speaking of 10, here are 10 of my favorite photo's of the year.

New Year's day 2013, celebrated with friend's at a resort in Jamaica

View from Mount Vernon Trail last winter, I took and liked alot of early morning shot's this year with a similar color palette to this one.

My best friend's daughter at 6 months... I just loved the moment of play frozen and juxtaposed with the Capitol... colder morning than it looks here.

My favorite sunrise shot of the year, I found out later this day that my Grandmother had passed away in the night.

At the BicycleSpace Full Moon ride... I visualized this shot instantly and made it happen w/ my Nikon 1V1

I didn't shoot any film this year, and did very little b/w conversions. This one is to drab still, lacking punch... but I liked the lines and reflection.

Ocean City, MD... cycling content, I gave my wife a day at the beach so that I could pick up my XO-3 I'd bought on ebay in OC :)

My niece and brother-in-law, lots of memorable pictures of this little cutie but this is my favorite.

Another visualized, then realized image... ISO 6400, moving car, late at night coming into Chicago.  I was really happy with the resultant 'selfie'.

Two selfie's to finish up the list... yikes what does that say!  Well, the Chicago 'Bean' is as cool as anyone describes and photographically I could come back again and again.