Taking photos whilst climbing

Frankly I would climb some hills near where you live and try to take photos. Even if you can't at first, I bet you'd get the hang of it. I'd also make sure you have some sort of safety strap so that it doesn't hit the pavement and shatter if you lose grip of it.

- Ojuice

Walrus said:

I'll be riding in the French Alps next year 😄 and I want to know whether anyone has had any success in taking photos whilst you're climbing? Is it easy to pull a slimline digital camera out of your pocket and take a snap...even if I'm climbing the Galibier or Croix de Fer? I don't want to be stopping all the time (apart from the summits) but I'd love to have some images to take home.

Any other tips for this sort of thing? For example, would it be worth setting the focus to "long distance" so that it's an immediate shot and I can shove it back in my rear pocket?

Yeah practice. I've taken several minutes of video while mountain biking on an undulating course (at a reduced pace) and it turned out reasonably watchable (not too many shakes).

Fast shutter speed should reduce blurring. Set you camera to action.

You've got nothing to lose by trying.

Don't know what shape you plan on being in next year, but I rarely have the energy to do much beyond stare at my handlebars when I am climbing the Alps! :o

Walrus said:

I'll be riding in the French Alps next year 😄 and I want to know whether anyone has had any success in taking photos whilst you're climbing? Is it easy to pull a slimline digital camera out of your pocket and take a snap...even if I'm climbing the Galibier or Croix de Fer? I don't want to be stopping all the time (apart from the summits) but I'd love to have some images to take home.

Any other tips for this sort of thing? For example, would it be worth setting the focus to "long distance" so that it's an immediate shot and I can shove it back in my rear pocket?

If you can take a bottle out of its cage and drink from it and put it back, you can take a pic with a point and shoot, especially with a viewscreen on the back. I managed to take a few going up the Joux PLane this year, and once over the top, went back down a few hundred yards, set it to video mode and shot a few minutes of climbing up through the crowds to the top. As someone said, best to practice first though.

Are you serious...

Honestly I cant tell if this is a legitimate question or if you're trying to poke fun at us for being slow and out of shape.

Assuming its a serious question. Then the answer is NO. There really isn't any good way to get a good photo while riding on your bike. You can take some snapshots that people will think are interesting, but there is way to much vibration and bumping around to get a decently focused or blur free image while on the bike.

jamesdemien said:

Are you serious...

Honestly I cant tell if this is a legitimate question or if you're trying to poke fun at us for being slow and out of shape.

Assuming its a serious question. Then the answer is NO. There really isn't any good way to get a good photo while riding on your bike. You can take some snapshots that people will think are interesting, but there is way to much vibration and bumping around to get a decently focused or blur free image while on the bike.

He wasn't asking if he could take good photos, just whether he could take any at all...
And the answer is yes, you can - better to have a slightly weirdly-framed, slightly soft-focus momento of your suffering than no momento at all, surely...
And at the kind of speeds most of us will be going up an Alp, vibration and bumping around are simply not an issue, especially with the wide angle lenses of most point and shoot cameras. Unless you're in the last stages of cardiac arrest, you'll get something you'll be happy to look back on later.
And before you ask, yes, I'm slow and out of shape too. :-)

I should also have pointed out that whatever the OP thinks the Galibier and the Croix de Fer are like in advance, he should be prepared for the possibility that the excuse to stop and take a few pictures might be more than welcome on the day... :-)

jamesdemien said:

Are you serious...

Honestly I cant tell if this is a legitimate question or if you're trying to poke fun at us for being slow and out of shape.

Assuming its a serious question. Then the answer is NO. There really isn't any good way to get a good photo while riding on your bike. You can take some snapshots that people will think are interesting, but there is way to much vibration and bumping around to get a decently focused or blur free image while on the bike.

[font=Helv]Of course I'm serious. It's not brain surgery. Eastway82 is right, I don't need shots like Graham Watson, just a quick snap so that when I get home I'll have some visual record of the climb itself.
Clearly if I'm suffering too much, I won't be trying to pull a camera out of my pocket, but on flatter sections (eg 4%), why is this so hard to believe?

My thread is about other people's experience in doing this, and any tips they have.

[/font]

Eastway82 said:

He wasn't asking if he could take good photos, just whether he could take any at all...
And the answer is yes, you can - better to have a slightly weirdly-framed, slightly soft-focus momento of your suffering than no momento at all, surely...
And at the kind of speeds most of us will be going up an Alp, vibration and bumping around are simply not an issue, especially with the wide angle lenses of most point and shoot cameras. Unless you're in the last stages of cardiac arrest, you'll get something you'll be happy to look back on later.
And before you ask, yes, I'm slow and out of shape too. :-)

ps. I'm not poking fun at anyone...we're all at varying levels of ability and fitness...I won't be breaking any records, but I'll certainly have done the training to get me over those babies without my eyeballs popping out 😄 .

jamesdemien said:

Are you serious...

Honestly I cant tell if this is a legitimate question or if you're trying to poke fun at us for being slow and out of shape.

Assuming its a serious question. Then the answer is NO. There really isn't any good way to get a good photo while riding on your bike. You can take some snapshots that people will think are interesting, but there is way to much vibration and bumping around to get a decently focused or blur free image while on the bike.

Not true. Digital point and shoot cameras typically have very deep depth of focus. And if the lighting is decent, shooting off at shutter speeds faster than 1/(2 x focal-length) would more than compensate for any vibration from the bike.

I am thinking of getting one of those credit card sized unit too, I think one can get some spectacular shots!

sogood said:

I am thinking of getting one of those credit card sized unit too, I think one can get some spectacular shots!

Ideally, one of those super slim cameras would be great wouldn't it? Light, thin profile, perfect for this sort of application. Maybe Santa will bring me one?:p

Walrus said:

Ideally, one of those super slim cameras would be great wouldn't it? Light, thin profile, perfect for this sort of application. Maybe Santa will bring me one?:p

Yeah... But in these day and age, you just can't depend on Santa. He knows that I already have too many cameras.

So where's that link to eBay... :p

Walrus said:

I won't be breaking any records, but I'll certainly have done the training to get me over those babies without my eyeballs popping out 😄 .

Yeah, that's what I thought too, until I got there... :-)

I would try mounting the camera on your helmet. 🙂

Last year my solution was to cycle up, then take pics on the way back down, just remember to take pics behind you, then say this was on the way up.

Ok it's not exactly true but only you know, also I do not stop going up for anything (maybe other than serious bouts of death)

Also in reality if you had a realy small digi camera, you can always get it from your back pocket and take a quick snap.

After all as one of the previous mesages said, if you can drink, and you will need to do that, then you can use a camera, pics could be a little dodgy.

There are even photographers on the Alpe d'huez, they take the picture, give you a card, then you can buy a copy from there website (sad but I did it, they were very good quality)