Welcome to The second Edition of the series - Scenes from a bike
The concept is simple, I've bought an electric bike, on this bike I explore my hometown, Melbourne Australia and take photos, Priority 1 - Finding new places in Melbourne, Priority 2 - taking better photos, Bonus - Earn back the cost of the bike by creating content and getting paid for it on HIVE.
This Edition facts:
Location: I'm in Docklands again - this once was a true working docklands and industrial area just to the West of downtown Melbourne, it is now in the process of gentrification, now a mix of brand new apartments, offices but you do get a strange mix of brand new million dollar apartments next to run down warehouses - Tonight I almost ran over a fox, which is a sign of how weird this place can be. Also should mention the header photo is not technically docklands, it's south wharf looking towards Southbank which is just around the corner from docklands and on my way home.
Date & Weather: Saturday the 28th of May, The important bit is that it's night time - hence why I'm in the Docklands again, I know it well so it's a bit easier to try things out there. And yeah it's cold - I'm told 8 degrees Celsius - so not perfect riding weather.
Equipment: My Fujifilm X-T3, which I've mated with the much under-rated 16-80mm Fujinon Zoom lens (24-120mm Eqv..) It probably wasn't wide enough for a few things, probably should have taken the 10-24 with me as well. The big test though was can you take a tripod with you, easily, which I sort of could. I rode my Vyron Cumulus 3.0 electric bike. (Pictured below looking moody)
Finances: The bike cost $1,100 USD. So far I've earned $12.39 from the Intro and Part 1 meaning I have $1,088 to go.
Other stuff: This was really just a test about night riding, and it worked sort of - the lights are fine for on road riding, but I did spend some time out of the wharves with not street lights and that was a bit tough, in fact that's where I almost killed that fox, but then again I can't imagine I'll be out there often.
Anyway, shut up with the words and post some pictures.....
4f, 500ISO, 1/4sec, 16mm
This is the only hand held photo of the night - it's a nice piece of new art - I really needed a wider lens though
9f, 250ISO, 25 secs, 25mm
I've always liked this building, it feels more gold coast than Melbourne though. This building probably only makes sense for about 6 weeks a year in Melbourne.
9f, 320ISO, 1/4, 25mm
At this point I had parked up the bike and was walking around tripod in hand, there was something about the peacefulness of this apartment building that got to me.
9f, 320ISO, 6.5 secs, 41mm
This is the Bolte bridge which is a road bridge linking two freeways in Melbourne. I'm right down on one of the jetties at this point hence the reflection, Also notice the dark tower just to the left of the red pillions we will see more of that soon.
10f, 400ISO, 8 secs, 29mm
Whilst I was in a reflections on the water phase I knocked out this. Docklands by the way has sides to it with rows of buildings so you are often shooting across expanses of water and in terms of riding you are going back and forth along what were wharves at some point. As for this shot, well the aperture is wrong meaning that along the boat is in focus the building really aren't - it should have been at F22.
11f, 400ISO, 6.5 secs, 24mm
This shot was the revelation of the night, not because it's great, cause it isn't, way too much black water, but because there is no tripod involved - the camera is sitting on the back rack of my bike, it's making me think that if I attached one of those flexible tripod to the bike then I could truly take 'scenes from a bike' Also the building from shot three in this series is the second from the left in this shot as we are now on the other side of the harbour.
9f, 400ISO, 1 sec, 24mm
Told you we would see this again, I'm now right under it - in an 'Authorized persons only' area. There is me, A guy fishing and a fox.
9f, 200ISO, 13 secs, 24mm
An finally the promise to re-visit this tower - This was like the air-traffic control tower for the harbour, but it's long abandoned now, it is a great looking building though.
So that was it a successful night ride around Melbourne, this is going to open up possibilities when it's much warmer.
You have still a long ride till the 1100 USD payout, but step by step the final target will be surely reached. Melbourne looks very nice at nighttime with some very artistic and designers’ buildings! Good luck with your future posts!
Yeah I did some calculations and realised this could be a couple of years - I'm going to see a lot of Melbourne
Look it from the other side! Now you have a lot of stimulus to go around Melbourne and take great photos, at least for the following years. 😁
I’ll keep my best to upvote all your posts and try not to miss any of them. That’s a guaranteed profit of 3 or 4 cents per post with my massive HP! 🤣
Good luck, fellow!
Melbourne is a beautiful city. And it's great that you want to capture the best moment so you can make money. It is great to be able to go anywhere by bike and take beautiful photos with peace of mind.