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Photographing a Bicycling Tour with an iPhone
Julio Ojeda-Zapata
About four years ago, at the pinnacle of my bicycling prowess, I
embarked on the longest ride of my life'a 4-day, 253-mile tour of
central Minnesota with my pal Chris and 300 other riders.
Painstakingly mapped out over the preceding months by [1]Bicycling
Around Minnesota (BAM), the 2019 trek was an exhilaratingly eccentric
tour of rural and small-town America. Attractions along the route
included [2]Sinclair Lewis' boyhood home, the [3]MaxBat baseball bat
factory, the [4]Hemker Park & Zoo, the 1800s-vintage [5]Forest City
Stockade, the [6]Darwin Twine Ball Museum, and, adjacent to the [7]Lake
Wobegon Trail in Collegeville, my St. John's University alma mater with
its Brutalist-style, visible-for-miles [8]Abbey Church.
I took hundreds of photos with my [9]iPhone Xs Max, repeatedly whipping
it out of my jersey pocket to [10]capture the sights. As an iPhone
photographer, I border on the obsessive, and these were priceless
opportunities.
But the BAM ride left me unsatisfied in another sense. I had wanted to
capture the cycling action too, but I couldn't do that safely while in
motion, and I had limited time on rest breaks. Chris and I had a
schedule to keep; I was a rider first and a photographer second.
A lot has happened to me since that ride: a blood infection soon after
BAM that nearly did me in, COVID-19 restrictions that took BAM and
other cycling events off my calendar, and a cycling-related concussion
a year ago that triggered all manner of horrific symptoms and has
prompted me to set my riding aside for now (see '[11]Using Smart
Speakers While Temporarily Blind,' 10 April 2023). As a result, I have
recently felt unmoored and in need of excitement and purpose.
BAM came to my rescue last month. Chris had proposed I join the group's
first post-COVID ride in a non-cyclist capacity, so I volunteered to be
the event's semi-official photographer. Here, at last, was my chance to
capture every facet of a BAM ride. And I would do it all with an
iPhone'I haven't owned an interchangeable-lens camera since the days of
35mm film.
I have snapped hundreds of thousands of iPhone shots since the device's
2007 launch, but never in a role approximating that of a professional.
I am no such pro, but impersonating one for a few days was a gas'and I
got some pretty nice shots. I'll let you decide whether they approach
pro quality.
From the iPhone perspective, BAM is inconveniently timed, with current
models on the verge of being displaced. Shortly after BAM 2023, Apple
announced its '[12]Wonderlust' media event for 12 September 2023, and
the Internet is awash with rumors of new camera features like a
'periscope lens' with a 5x, 6x, or even 10x optical zoom for the larger
of the Pro models.
On this trip, I wasn't exactly slumming it with my iPhone 14 Pro,
though. And I had other tech along, including the recently released
15-inch MacBook Air. More on its utility in a bit, along with the tale
of a road mishap just miles from BAM's finish line that added some
final excitement.
Zoom, Zoom
As we had done in 2019, in August, Chris and I journeyed in his beloved
Mini Cooper to the BAM starting point. This year, the ride began and
ended in Lanesboro with overnights in Rushford, La Crescent, and
Houston, which are part of Minnesota's gorgeous [13]bluff country.
Chris turned the Mini Cooper over to me for use on my photo rounds
while he went on the ride. I would spend the next four days excitedly
manual-shifting through the hilly land while glancing at the [14]Ride
with GPS bicycling app to keep pace with the pack of riders.
I kept my photo routine simple. Given the desire to shoot, edit, and
post to BAM's Facebook page quickly while on the move, I decided I
would focus on still images. Perhaps I'll dabble with slo-mo video next
year.
I became a fixture by the side of roads, awkwardly crouching on the
pavement or adjacent gravel or grass while aiming my iPhone at the
oncoming riders. I wanted to get them at a slightly upward-pointing
angle with an occasional bit of tilt.
The 3x optical zoom quickly became my new best friend, though it's
typically my least-used of the three iPhone Pro lenses. It just wasn't
possible to get close enough to fill the frame with riders without the
zoom, and I wouldn't turn up my nose at a 6x zoom if Apple were to add
such a lens to the next iPhone.
Over and over, I'd channel [15]Wayne Gretzky and aim my iPhone at the
empty road just ahead of where cyclists would soon be, so they'd slide
into my iPhone display. Sarah and Abhi enhanced the scene below by
playfully pausing their pedaling and holding their poses.
One foggy morning, I pointed my iPhone across the road with the sun on
the opposite side so riders would zoom in and out of view. I sought
silhouettes and caught some good ones.
Another morning, I played up the weird clouds.
Camping at the overnight locations is half the BAM fun. Here's that fog
and the weird sky again.
Attractions along the way included [16]Amish crafts and baked goods,
fine wine at [17]a vineyard on the Mississippi, a [18]water-generated
flour mill, and [19]trailside sinkholes in Fountain, which bills itself
as the [20]Sinkhole Capital of the US (I can't imagine there's much
competition). My favorite attraction photos are of Chris clowning
around at [21]a state-run fishery in Peterson and of young royals at a
[22]Spring Grove Soda Pop open house.
See [23]more of my BAM 2023 photos.
Essential Tech for the Roving iPhone Photographer
I'm notorious in my family for packing far more tech gear on a trip
than I need, and this one was no exception'but it is better to be
over-equipped than at a loss in a pinch, am I right? Here's a rundown
of my critical kit.
15-inch MacBook Air
I debated whether to stay lean and forgo a laptop on the trip. The
iPhone is as powerful as many computers, and it seems to be all the
kids need these days to become social media influencers. Besides, I'd
have a backup phone on the trip'an Android-based Samsung S21'so a
notebook seemed like tech overkill, not to mention a physical burden.
But I happened to have a 15-inch MacBook Air on loan from Apple, and I
couldn't resist. The MacBook Air's portability seduced me. This M2
model, released in June 2023 as the big brother to the 13-inch MacBook
Air, may seem excessively large for a camping trip'but those are just
the X and Y axes. It's crazy thin at 0.44 inches (1.13 cm), the same as
the 13-inch model, and only a bit heavier at 3.3 pounds (1.51 kg).
The Mac ended up going everywhere with me on the trip, tucked into my
backpack, and I barely knew it was there. My iPhone got by far the most
use during the day as I shot and posted batches of pictures to BAM's
Facebook page. But I'd stop the Mini Cooper now and then to unfold my
camping chair and plop down in the shade for a bit of picture triaging.
I also pulled it out in the evenings after a meal and a visit to the
shower trailer. Those were my moments of greatest happiness on the
trip, luxuriating in the MacBook Air's generously sized screen for
powering through tasks that would have taken two or three times as long
on a cramped iPhone display. The Apple silicon-powered machine stayed
cool and quiet.
I would have regretted not packing the MacBook Air.
Backup Cellular Plan
I was wise to worry about cellular connectivity on the trip. US
carriers have come a long way in bathing the hinterlands with
high-speed bandwidth, but I still found myself in numerous dead spots
during my travels.
As a precaution, I set myself up with a backup mobile plan at no cost.
That's a cinch since some cellular providers offer test drives with
varying durations and data allocations. They install effortlessly on an
iPhone via its eSIM capability.
[24]T-Mobile was my first choice because its test drive lasts for a
whopping 3 months or 30 GB of data, whichever comes first, but I could
not get the eSIM installation to work, possibly because I tested
T-Mobile in the past.
I ended up with the Verizon-powered [25]Visible, which provides a
15-day test drive with what it says is unlimited data. I didn't use the
account enough to test that claim, but it did work nicely when my
regular AT&T service didn't provide coverage.
You can install additional eSIM accounts in a dormant state. I loaded
[26]Mint Mobile and [27]Google Fi for double and triple backup but used
neither. The Mint trial is ridiculously stingy at 7 days and 250 MB of
data. Google Fi's 7-day trial is unlimited (though throttled after 10
GB of data use), but its iPhone setup is absurdly fussy, and I never
got around to finishing it.
EGO Nexus Power Station
Chris's eyes bugged out when he saw what I wanted to pack for portable
power. The EGO Nexus Power Station is a massive device requiring two
handles to lug around. It sports four USB-A ports and three AC outlets,
and gets its power from removable battery packs that slide into four
slots on the side when you're not using them to power EGO-branded
lawnmowers, snow blowers, and other tools.
A screen on the Nexus Power Station was supposed to tell me how many
hours of power I had left, but it never displayed the same number
twice, with estimates jumping between 30 and 80 hours. That did not
matter, however, because Chris and I got more than enough juice to
charge our phones, portable battery packs, his bicycle computer, my
Mac, and more multiple times throughout the trip. We could have
recharged the battery packs by plugging the Nexus Power Station into a
wall outlet, but that was never necessary.
I initially intended to haul the Nexus Power Station into my tent at
night instead of leaving it in the Mini Cooper, fearing the device
would get stolen. But it was such a hassle that I abandoned the plan
after the first night.
The four-battery Nexus Power Station costs $1299, but you may find it
overkill, as I did, and EGO seems to be phasing that model out. EGO
also sells [28]a two-pack model for $999. I probably could have gotten
by with one of EGO's smaller, more affordable [29]inverters that work
off a single power pack.
Adobe Photoshop Generative Fill
I never dreamed that the phrase 'artificial intelligence' would appear
in this article, but a kind of AI used for photo editing solved a
thorny problem for me.
Remember the young royals? Here is how the photo of them originally
looked. The woman in the yellow shirt spoils the shot.
Photo-editing tools such as Google's [30]Magic Eraser exist to excise
unwanted elements from images, but all those I tried spoiled the
picture further. Enter my TidBITS colleague Jeff Carlson, a photography
expert who has dabbled with a pro-level tool called [31]Generative Fill
built into recent Photoshop betas.
Based on [32]Firefly AI tech, Generative Fill gets its name from its
scary-smart ability to conjure up imagery that is added to pictures.
That can be as simple as extending a field or a forest beyond the
borders of the original photograph or as wacky as placing a singing
bison onto a Venetian gondola (hat tip to Jeff for the example).
You usually make or adjust images with text prompts describing what
you'd like to see'the cloud-based AI tool generates the image based on
what it has learned about similar scenes.
However, no text prompts were required in this case. Generative Fill
flawlessly removed the pesky woman in two takes'upper torso first, and
then her legs from under the table'and then seamlessly filled in what
it believed the background should look like. Jeff explains:
I grabbed the Lasso tool, drew a round selection around the person
in yellow, clicked the Generative Fill button in the floating
toolbar that appears, then clicked the Generate button without
typing anything into the field that would normally specify what you
want to appear. With nothing in the field, it assumes you just want
to remove whatever is selected.