http://rowanhick.com Application Development, Photography, Adventures rowanhick.com http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/17/qconsf_architecture_talks_review http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/17/qconsf_architecture_talks_review 2011-11-17 14:45:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com I've been awake for the past couple of hours, processing my first day of QCon. So I've heard from SimpleGeo, StubHub, Facebook, ESPN.com, and finally Visa who just launched V.me, Visa's new payment gateway. For me personally yesterday crystallized a lot, and in particular the last hour with Visa. Visa, in 18 months, launched their product V.Me, using an Agile development process, and, sitting down ? JRuby on Rails on the front end with Java on the backend. So lets repeat that back to ourselves, one of what must be amongst the largest IT shops in the world, who are probably the most paranoid in the world for security and process etc have started adopting Agile, and using rails. Cue blowing of mind. I stayed on the architecture track, and the one theme that stood out to me, is the focus on getting things to market as fast as humanly possible to enable business innovation. Robert Johnson, at Facebook said something that resonated with me profoundly (paraphrased - didn't write the exact words!) "if we push to production every day, we get 365 chances to test, vs pushing every week we get only 52 chances a year to test". That's not to test things work (ie QA), it's to test that the theory of this new widget/tweak/whatever is actually going to be adopted by your users. For me, that encapsulates the 'Lean Startup' theory on the largest scale world wide, and there was a reason the audience was engrossed listening to Robert speak. The underlying themes of how to do this was around creating people cultures (allow mistakes to happen and not finger pointing - FB, empowering with sudo access SimpleGeo, going Agile at Visa), systemized continuous delivery (at SimpleGeo, if a commit to 'pending' branch passes tests in CI, then Jenkins merges to master and kicks off a deploy), planning for and helping fast debugging/traceability in production (injecting all HTTP requests with a GUID or 'dye marker', logging everywhere that goes through the system, Stubhub and SimpleGeo), and rolling your own support systems, so that you have the ability to fix things, and not wait on vendors. (SimpleGeo and FB - own monitoring tools) A day full of awesome from impressive mindsets, well worth the price of entry. Bring on Day 2. "if we push to production every day, we get 365 chances to test, vs pushing every week we get only 52 chances a year to test". The presentations : SimpleGeo - Staying Agile at Scale Facebook - Social Computing Lessons Learned Visa - Architecting for Massive Scale and Innovation ESPN - Scalability and Caching at ESPN.com StubHub - Scaling and innovating at the worlds largest ticket marketplace. And the final key note on Product Engineering, that got everyone talking: Mike Lee, Product Engineering - And Appsterdam. All slides are going up on QConSF.com go check them out! http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/16/development_team_trip_to_qcon http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/16/development_team_trip_to_qcon 2011-11-16 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com "Team, get your passports ready you're going to QCon" So, one of the highlights of my career was a month or so ago at the end of a standup announcing to my development team that they were off to the QCon Software Development conference. It's something I'd budgeted at the beginning of forming the team together and being a developer at my core knew would appeal to them. I have got to say, that the instant round of smiles seconds after saying it, spoke volumes. Infact before I'd sat back down after standup, there was already a spreadsheet open of who was going to what tracks, and where the interest lay as a team (not surprisingly mobile is a hot topic!). QCon is one of those conferences that has something for everyone. Even though the team is primarily a Rails team, interest is across the broad from beautiful code, agile, big data you name it. For all those out there building budgets for 2012... I'll let you know how it goes, the smiles did really say it all. Alright, off to find coffee. Apparently Blue Bottle's Mint Plaza is where it's at. And if you find some dude with a kiwi accent in the Architecture sessions today, say hello. Kiwis are a friendly bunch. http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/11/gorgeous_html5_app http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/11/gorgeous_html5_app 2011-11-11 13:30:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Appreciate the UX This app is gorgeous. I don't read the Financial Times, and I think my life is probably much better by not observing the stock markets daily. However, what they have built is abso-frigging-lutely gorgeous. I believe the key driver of this as a reaction to not paying Apple a cut of subscription fees, they went the HTML5 app route. What is produced, is a very slick web app. I've loaded it up on both my iPhone and iPad. The experience is tweaked around based on which device you're on, but the core essence of the app is the same. As someone who's seen the rise of the web from the first of the 'dynamic content' LAMP days, I have a huge appreciation for how polished this bad boy is, and the sheer depth of the content/structure (start going through the menu). Very very impressive. Is this the future of the publishing ecosystem? If it is, I for one am loving it. Better go hire those front end HTML/JS/CSS ninjas.... Go have a look for yourself here app.ft.com http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/10/clik_compact_sport_review_mountain_biking http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/10/clik_compact_sport_review_mountain_biking 2011-11-10 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com If a photographer and a mountain biker mated, they would have produced this This is damn near perfect. This is a hydration pack, mixed with a great camera bag. Designed to protect your gear, whilst giving it in whatever outdoor adventure sport that provides your adrenalin. It's produced by Clik Elite and is known as the Clik Elite Compact Sport I bought this bad boy, after seeing one of these packs, used by a fellow rider on my trip to Peru a couple of months ago. It was an instant "must get when I'm home" thought. So what's the big deal ? It's specifically designed for carrying your costly lenses and camera body in a nicely padded cozy little compartment, while strapped to your back, shredding down a mountain pass, or hiking in the Andes, or trail running a river bed. Basically anywhere where the last place you want to carry expensive lenses and camera bodies is. Which also tends to be the first place you want to take photos.... Shown at left with a Panasonic GH2 Four Thirds camera - so a little smaller than a DSLR for reference, and not one but two extra lenses in the top and bottom pouches. Talk about versatility. How does it compare ? On the right is my venerable old Camelback H.A.W.G (yes really, periods and all). Pretty much the same size. The Clik is obviously designed for camera gear, so I can't really go apples to apples on what I can squeeze into both packs. I did do 7 days riding in Peru with camera gear in the Camelbak. It was a pain in the ass to put it bluntly. The Clik protects camera gear, and takes up a bit of volume doing so, so ultimately for the same size bag - more could be crammed into the Camelbak. However I'd rather take the Clik. A couple of reasons, obviously the protection factor, but the "swing it around and grab your camera out" factor is far superior. Much easier than pulling the pack off, digging to get your camera out after wedging it in with a jacket, then stuffing it back in... And riding ? So, revelation. A pack full the to the brim actually needs to be pretty securely tied to your back. The Clik has a, what I thought was overdone waist strap deal. After going out for a couple of hours on on some local trails I'm fully in love with it - yes it's heavier - but due to the wider waist straps and putting the camera gear at the bottom, it wasn't moving around the same as the CamelBak, it stayed put, even when going nuts on the trails. It's all about the details This is some well put together piece of kit. The features list included a rain cover - I couldn't for the life of me find it initially, until I'd seen the underside of the bag. Hidden away in a little pocket the rain cover was sewn into the bag - brilliant! You won't leave it at home. Oh and did I mention the specially designed tripod little strappy thing ? Completely separate camera and food compartment ? Space to put bladder of your liking (my 3L one from the HAWG was just a little too snug, a ~1.5-2L pack would probably be just the ticket). Etc. Etc. Good work Clik, good work. Infact I like it so much I'd almost consider having it's bigger brother, just for big trips.. http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/04/gh2_four_thirds_travel_camera_review http://rowanhick.com/2011/11/04/gh2_four_thirds_travel_camera_review 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com The real test of a travelling with a camera, 7 days clattering in a CamelBak This review is an update to a previous article since then I've upgraded to a GH2 with some new glass. For this review, like any review, which is oft forgotten on the 'net you need context. My context for taking photos is, I rarely take a camera out on the town (where more pocketability would be needed) nor am I photographer shooting for large format print. I am into adventure, I like playing with controls - the only time I set anything to Auto is when I hand the camera to someone else, I like HDR (therefore bracketing is required), I like to go places, I need something light weight, with good manual controls, that has varied options in glass - as I like both wide angles for landscape work, fast for shallow depth of field, and large zooms for wildlife and nature. The GH2 is a perfect fit. So if that's your cup of tea this camera is likely for you, if not.. well read on anyway. First off - four thirds system, I'm not going to recreate wikipedia here .. more about Micro Four Thirds What is the GH2? The GH2 is arguable the most 'pro' of the MFT camera range, including both Olympus and Panasonic, and a successor to the GH1 (which I had previously). It has all of the manual controls you could possibly want and a plethora of features packed into it's tiny little body, along with a few functional enhancements over the GH1. It has the largest sensor @ 18MP total area (although in practise, slightly less is used for capturing light), and is extremely hackable for video work. In comparison the other MFT cameras tend to trade off features for size. I personally like the grip style form factor of the GH2 vs the more 'compact' style cameras like the GF1 as I just can't get used to them in the store. The GH2 also has a couple of welcome enhancements over the GH1, including moving the dial selector rear of the body than the front. Like all MFT camera's the lenses are interchangeable between Olympus and Panasonic, so there's a good and growing selection of lenses, and if you're really desparate you can get other adaptors to other mounts. Right now I've got a good selection (7-14mm, 20mm, 25mm, 14-140mm and a four thirds 70-300mm), I'm only really hanging out for the fast zooms to become available, I'm pretty much 'done' otherwise in the lens department. Bracketing settings, a must have. 7 at 1 stop increments max. "The only good camera, is the one you have with you" This to me sums up micro four thirds in one phrase. I want all of the controls, for example exposure bracketing, and a sensor good enough to take big prints off, but in a package I can take places. How often have you heard "I didn't bring it", "it's a pain in the ass", "ugh". So you've got to wonder how many people actually carry their big DSLR's everywhere ? Those big DSLRs are not a lot of good sitting at home in a drawer when the picture is right in front of you. This is the single biggest advantage of the MFT system. I spent 7 days on a Mountain Bike in Peru, with my GH2, and usually my favourite lens the 7-14mm, nestled in the top of my CamelBak Mule. When I say nestled, I really mean 'just enough room to put an elongated grapefruit'. Even at altitude, and when I was dog tired, it still didn't weigh enough to be an issue - I just packed it away every single day. The results were amazing photo essay on Peru here The telling fact, was someone else on the trip, did have a DSLR, with a Clik backpack, specially made to mtb with, took his camera one day, and then that was it - it stayed behind. The body alone, weighs nearly half that of a suitably high end DSLR. Then the lenses, through MFT's optics are half the focal length of standard DSLR's. From the experts I am an enthusiast or this newly title 'prosumer'. Thus as said before, this review is in context. If you want an expert opnion with it all broken down in ultimate camera-nerd detail then go to these sites below. CSM Image Quality - Luminous Landscape A detailed look at image quality on smaller sensors vs Digital SLR sensors GH2 Review - dpreview.com On Safari - Luminous Landscape this mirrored my experience with the GH1. Why you would consider a massive DSLR with equally massive lenses.... GH2 with a Four Thirds Adaptor, and the Olympus 70-300mm. Doubling Focal Length I can't overstate this enough, if you are taking nature photos of critters large or small, big zooms are the order of the day. In DSLR land - this is usually in-accessible as they are ridicously expensive, and ridiculously large. However in MFT, because the effective focal length is doubled, that 300mm lens suddenly becomes 600mm. This is a huge factor (although realise in reverse if you want to go wide, things get tricky). If you're not shooting for a billboard or print production, which I guess 99.99% of camera buyers are, take this next bit into consideration. A 600mm regular DSLR lens. Well, first there's no such thing as a regular 600mm lens, they're a) massive and b) expensive. You're talking $8'000+ for a lens. So lets peg it back to a say 500mm zoom lens. Taking a Sigma, not a top of the line model Canon or Nikon, sits around $1'000USD, weighs 2kg, and is 25cm long. Conversely lets take the Panasonic 100-300mm lens. It weighs 0.5kg, and is 12cm long, and costs $600. So you've got a tiny lens that's not expensive, that you can take places. When I went on this trip to Africa, at that stage the 300mm Panny hadn't come out, so I bought a 70-300mm Olympus, with a Four Thirds adaptor. Best decision ever. I'd never shot with such a long lens before. Amazing results... Shot with a cheap Olympus 70-300mm four thirds lens that I got on special. Upgrading from the GH1 General Performance improved over the GH1. Shot to shot times quicker and shutter lag reduced, more pixels. The charger thank you Panasonic! A wall plugin charger without all the cables. For travelling this was one of the biggest pains in the a___ with the GH1. Not to be underestimated. Oh yeah, you want to know about the *camera*. Finger dial, became a thumb dial thank you panasonic!. Ergonomically much better. touch to shoot now, this is a weird one. I thought this would be totally gimmicky. But in a crowded room, if you want to focus and shoot on an individual just touch the screen. Good for quick fire 'bang bang bang' shots. Pros Olympus and Panasonic Both have the MFT standard, which means two companies to buy lenses from... Light weight & Small Size Obviously. Tiny lenses and tiny body. Bam ! Controls Everything just feels intuitive. Or maybe I've been with Panasonic since the LX-3. It just all seems to work nicely. All the controls are well placed - the major gripe I had with the GH1, thumbdial on the front, is now on the rear. Durability I barely survived 7 days of All Mountain riding in Peru. The camera passed with flying colours, it's still focusing sharply and nothing untoward is happening. It officially had 24 hours total ride time juggling around in a Camelbak... Video quality Off the charts. Really insanely good for a little prosumer device, and if you start hacking it... well... Driftwood 176mbit GOP1 GH2VK Cons Slightly smaller sensor less dynamic range and ultimate pixel count compared to a full frame sensor Limited (mfr) lenses compared to say a Canon or Nikon body, you don't have ultimate lens selection. But then if you're not a commerical photographer, do you need to... Paying $90 for a remote shutter release. C'mon it's a button and a cable. Really Panasonic ?? Cost Not cheap. It's not really possible to do apples to apples, but it's getting up there price wise. http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/26/trans_provence_in_2013 http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/26/trans_provence_in_2013 2011-10-26 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Trans-Provence 2011 highlights from Trans-Provence on Vimeo. http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/08/sunset_over_liberty http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/08/sunset_over_liberty 2011-10-07 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Capturing Sunset, before a tower springs up out of nowhere... http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/04/the_long_road_to_bc http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/04/the_long_road_to_bc 2011-10-04 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/02/engineering_mongodb_replicated_blog http://rowanhick.com/2011/10/02/engineering_mongodb_replicated_blog 2011-10-02 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Nothing like killing a bunny with a rocket launcher, or in otherwords, dramatically over-engineering something. We used to have it as a saying on old software development team I worked for. Well. This is it. You're looking at it. A load balanced, replicated blog, using a CDN, for something that would realistically be handled with just static HTML on a single server. It originated from a fascination with looking at the MongoDB 'hype', and ended up refitting the mechanics car with a V8. The $100/mo challenge So of course, the first thing, is always a budget. $100/mo seems like a nice round number. What can I build for that ? Requirements are it must be redundant, if I mess one server up, the whole lot can't turn to custard. I've gotta be able to serve images to my friends everywhere, fast. I've got to have flexibilty to post whatever the hell I like. Use the best tool for the best job. Pages must be generated fast (no one likes slowness). Anything below 200ms would be good. It's got to look half decent, and degrade gracefully on people, use 3rd party services where it makes sense, and finally allow me to play with stuff when I want. Oh, and good uptime too. I like having my blog up when people visit it, otherwise what's the point ? (*cough* Posterous *cough*). Starting small But first things first. I had to get something up quick smart, so people could see my awesome trip to Peru. (when not doing deliciously nerdy stuff, I like to ride Mountain Bikes fast..). Time was of the essence, I'd just gotten back, everyone wanted to see pics. So no time to waste and I didn't want to ruin the photo experience by just dumping on Facebook, or Flickr. I'd half built the blog on a plane, on a previous trip. Time to finish it off. 1 week later. Done. Dusted and up. Scratching the itch It was running on one Linode, so staging and production became painful. Where there's an itch there's a credit card. 10 mins later, I had a new 'production' environment. I'm using 'production' in quotes as really, this is a blog which gets no traffic. And here I am with two Linode 768mb machines, and a Nodebalancer. Bam bam. Done. An hour of configuration later, and we have two live, load balanced servers. A couple of hours more and we have learnt about MongoDB Replica sets, copied over the database from (the shortly to be) staging box, dumped it into the a single MondoDB instance, fired up two more, switched on replication and wahey! Over engineering was readily apparent - but data was distributed. So now I've got servers, database, time to get the app running. Much to my suprise it only took one line of a different database connection string and bam! we now have my app talking to the replica set. (Top marks 10Gen on MongoDB by the way, error messaging actually makes sense.. and installation/configuration is a snap). Now she's ticking over smoothly. Capistrano Multi-Stage is making me pine less for Websitrano at home - at work it is our religion - however deployment is smooth, and the thing is pretty damn redundant. Next up ... GridFS :) http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/27/3_stages_canopy_shot http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/27/3_stages_canopy_shot 2011-09-27 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Tree canopy at 3 stages, just out of Collingwood http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/17/inca_trail_mtb_adventure_in_peru http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/17/inca_trail_mtb_adventure_in_peru 2011-09-22 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com The Olleros Trail, Day 2, 4000ish meters up. I boarded a plane to Lima, Peru Bound of full of excitement, fear, nervousness.. this was the trip of a lifetime. I'd never before undertaken something on this scale, by myself (well only for the plane flight in reality). 10 days of full on, action and adventure, high up in the Peruvian Andes. I'd heard about Sacred Rides from one of my mates in Toronto, he recommended them, a specialist Mountain Bike Guiding company, which did hard core trips for solid riders. No nancy tootling along gravel roads here mate. I mean pick how solid a rider you are, match it up with the trip and go nuts. This particular trip was rated 4/5 on skills, and 4/5 on fitness. Meaning you had to have a number of years under your belt riding, and be able to crank out solid rides day after day. Leading up to the date of the trip I kept watching youtube footage of the Olleros downhill, and other inca trail rides. I kept getting more nervous - since leaving New Zealand, the years had dwindled since my bike had seen anything resembling a mountain, all these Ontario trails were tight twisty technical singletrack, and flat, BC boys call us 'FlatLanders'. I was really hoping the endurance from 100km+ road rides was going to pay off, because in Toronto, there is not a mountain in sight to get those hillclimbing legs into shape. I hook up at the airport, with another dude who had a remarkably familiar looking bike bag. Turns out he was coming from Calgary. Awesome! (...but he has mountains in his backyard....) A sketchy taxi shuttle to our hotel in MiraFlores, Day 1 follows a few hours later, of all of our compadres rolling into the hotel. 3 Australians, 1 South African, another Kiwi, and my Canadian mate I'd met. The Commonwealth storming peru. Riding begins! Day 2, or really Day 1, begins with a breakfast and loading up the bus with bikes to head up to our first adventure. The bus is made for it, bike cage on the top, cooler covered in stickers, newly installed LCD to play bike p^rn on. The boys were impressed. In short order we're at the trail. Our lead guide, who is officially the man, Wayo Stein. Has been none other than the Peruvian Down Hill Champ, heads us out on some old river bed for our first ride. An ascent of 2-300m, felt pretty tough (oh o..) all was made better, on the turn around and the downhill began. A good 5-10km of -6% or so descent, fast, flowy fun. We meet up with our bus for lunch. Then we get introduced to the word of the trip. Exposure. Peruvians have built their country on it. Big scary one slip and you're screwed type stuff. Concentrate and don't stuff up. There's a sat phone, but you really don't want that number called. We start tackling a single track, along the edge of a mountain side. 1-2 feet wide. It started at first rocky, devoid of any vegetation with a nice little natural ledge to stop you going over the edge. A few kms and we drop down into a nice area to view one of our first Incan ruins. Then we get onto the exposed bit. 1-2 feet wide, *no* ledge. Culvert on one side, cliffs on the other, if you tumble off that's it. Dare not look down, lest you go the direction that you're looking. That would be bad. Granny gearing it we just mosey along. Some more km's down and it gradually winds into some hills with lush vegetation. Wayo calls out, 'it's a little slippery'. Be careful. Jacket's on it's cooling down. That turns out to be a test of bike control, wet muddy, mossy ground. First little bit of carnage begins, Don behind me can't slow down and asses' it. (Garmin Graph) The surreal light. [exaggerated by HDR] The downhill, to end all downhills. Olleros. Up at 5 in the morning, on the road at 6, for 4 hrs, 3 of which on a road that defines sketchy (although not as bad as I expected), including the most scenic pee breaks of a lifetime. Driving up the foot hills of the Andes we were headed to the Olleros (o-yer-os) trail built by Incans long before modern civilization. Dust is the order of the day to start. Paving way to sketchy exposure and ever increasing grade - at some points easily -20%. Brake pads started smelling at only 2-300m of the descent, after about an hour of riding we end up in the town of Olleros, eating and some impromptu bike maintenance we were off again.. Every kilometer of every bit of mountain biking I'd ever done put to the test. This was the "All Mountain" part of the "XC/AM" trip for sure. I kept thinking about the brave sods on a hard tail I'd seen from pictures a couple of weeks before. The terrain started out hard pack loose rock over scenic valleys, quickly giving way to maximum exposure on windswept ridgelines, and then it got sketchy. The trail cut into the side of the mountain as we got off the ridge, loose rock switch back descents, wincing as rocks pang off the down tube, 8inch rotors squealing, trying to stay clipped in, trying to stay on the bike, hugging the side of the mountain. Every rest gave the brakes and riders a short respite, 1000m down it turned into super loose gravel, which was near impossible to control, bike surfing... holding the rear brakes, trying not to dab the fronts - my lack of weight actually hindered me - I couldn't get rear traction, locking it up or not, didn't make a damn bit of difference. Nearly collected one of the other guys on the fastest bit - had to lay it down on a very opportunely placed feature otherwise we were both going down. We averaged, get this, averaged -18% grade for 8km. 1500m of descent. A few technical drops required a couple of steps off the bike, as the grins gave way to exhausted arms, messy handling started showing up - the switchbacks being particularly ugly. Never before exposed to terrain like this trying to just stay on the bike was the only mission. If you went down in the wrong place wrong time, your bike, or you, or both were toast. Wayo's words "you're riding by yourself" never rang more true - don't trust what's around the corner. By the time we'd dropped 2400m we were toast, and then it was the way out along the valley floor, 25km of -6% grade, pulling it out to the Pacific Ocean. The landscape at one point surreal, like a moonscape, concrete like hard pack, grip was off the charts. Wayo was just having fun, launching off anything that would lead to air, weaving in and out, railing natural berms. The Garmin counted down till we could smell it, then hear it, then see it - The Pacific ocean. 5hrs previous we were 3.7km up in dry arid, thin air. Now grins, everyone agreeing that was the most epic trail they'd ever done. Beers all round. (Garmin Graph) Groggy from the previous night of breaking down bikes, but the stoke still going on strong from Olleros. Breakfast is hoofed down, and we transport our selves to Lima airport. Next stop Cuzco. As if out of nowhere, clouds open up in what felt like one of the quickest airplane descents - we landed at approximately 3500m. The immediately cooler, and drier Cuzco greets us. In short order we're at our hotel and building bikes just as quick as we broke them down. If you didn't know how to pull apart and put your bike back together. you will after this trip. It doesn't take long, and we're climbing out of the hotel, onto a gentle granny gear grind up a hill. And oh my god what a grind. At 3500m suddenly things just seem hard. The legs pumping away to get this hunk of Carbon, Alloy and Titanium up the mountain leading up from our hotel. An Incan ruin, and a history talk from Wayo is very welcome, letting what little of the oxygen is in the air find it's way to my quads. "By the end of the trip, you will be comfortable climbing at 4000m" really ? (Garmin Graph) Finally things level out and we get to play on single track, and then descend into Cuzco. We get to see parts off the beaten trail. Back alleys, dirty downhill trails, littered with trash and water drains you're not really sure what is going on in. This isn't your average tourist trap walk, and I'm sure lonely planet isn't pointing out these places. An unexpected style of riding - urban downhiling into Cuzco. One of the highlights, nailing the 3rd big staircase in a row. Stunned tourists not knowing what to do with these crazy dudes, wearing armor, and bouncing down stairs on bikes. Eating in short order, the ride package includes Breakfast and Lunch everyday, so we were treated to some very tasty food at a cafe just round from the hotel. Everything here is fresh and pretty damn organic - no chicken mills, or snap frozen produce. The fresh lemonade just kicked ass. A quick rest at the hotel, and then dinner seemed to roll around in no time - we all went out to dinner with the guides, which was quite welcome - giving us advice on what was the go or not. Altitude sickeness and weaker stomachs started affecting a couple of people. One went down with some dodgy food and my room-mate started looking decidely ill, later figured out the altitude was affecting him. There's no rhyme or reason. I'd brought Diamox, and started taking it at Lima, but after seriously tingly fingers gave that idea up. Don (SA/UK) Shane (AUS) Paul (NZL) Rob (AUS) Lee (AUS) Paul (CAN) Me (NZL/CAN) The motely crew of mayhem. We were gelling as group the mix of antipodean's may go down in SacredRides as a "do not mix together". Definitely not a stayed bunch of politically correct gentile's. No sir. Mix aussies, kiwis, south africans, and a Canadian into the mix and you have a recipe for one heck of a time. This is something about a guided trip, you have no idea going into it, how it's going to end up - with your mates you know what the outcome is going to be. Complete strangers - everything is new territory. We'd figured out our riding styles. Coming to an hill climb the group generally sorted itself out one way, downhill another. Day 5 Rolls around Hump day, our 4th day of riding. This is where if you'd done multi-day stuff before you were glad. We spend a day on the trails, checking out Incan ruins. Starting to build on the days in the saddle, I could feel my technical downhill skills going up. Some moments following Wayo, hammering out some sections I was fully stoking. I could feel the body slowly acclimatizing but still, today was TOUGH. It started with a hike a bike @ 4000m. I forgot to turn my Garmin on, but I'm sure we did 2-300m vert hike a bike. Lung busting stuff. The day took us from 4000m, down to 3300m or so. But it was punctuated by lung burning uphills. You had to get into a rhythm and not push your muscles too far, as the oxygen debt you couldn't recover from, but slowly and surely, it was getting less tough at this altitude. But don't let me sound like it was easy. Nope. No siree. Many an uphill resulted in resting, head in between my knees trying to force oxygen back in. The standing joke was every 30mins it was someones turn for a mechanical, be it Derailleur adjustment, puncture, headset, anything ... just give us a break for 10mins. Tonight we hit the hay exhausted. (Garmin Graph) The Sacred Valley We pack up our bags, throw them in one vehicle. Bikes in another. We shuttle to the start of our ride, while the 4x4 heads off to Ollantaytambo. Lots of wide open easy rides greeted us today. Long, red, dusty roads. Great way to eat up the kilometers, to one of the bigger atractions - the Moray. A great incan agricultural project. On our way we stumble upon something none of us have seen. "Look up" A halo around the sun. Crazy stuff. Then we reach, one of the fastest, most balls out fun section. There wasn't exposure, there wasn't any cliffs, just very quick hard pack. Video on Vimeo, of the balls out run from Church to the Salt Mines. Rule #4 - It's all about the bike. The Velominati Rest Day - Macchu Picchu Ha ! Rest day my arse. I nearly got heat stroke, and was totally shagged by the end of it. 6000 people a day visit Macchu Picchu, only 400 go up to Huayna Picchu. Guess what we did ? Yep. You got it, we legged it up to Huanya Picchu. This is hands down the scariest place I've ever been. If you're even remotely afraid of heights, by the top, you will be a gibbering wreck. No guard rails. No barriers. It's your own stupid damn fault if you decide to get to close to the edge. And for some of us, even a metre away from the edge was still too close. Most of the crew decided to do the full Grand Cavern route. 3 hours of hard slog. Drenched. (don't wear jeans, oh but you knew that already..). Some very very sketchy wooden ladders. Token wire ropes for the really scary exposed stairs. For one of our group this was a childhood dream to do Macchu Picchu, and it certainly was very spectacular. The entire time, you kept thinking, how did those poor buggers get stones all the way up these stairs, all over the place. Absolutely crazy. The pictures below speak for themselves. click for larger versions An awe inspiring respite from being in the saddle. One place we stayed in the Sacred Valley The last two days of riding Fully rested from our day off the bikes, we hit our last two days of riding. I however, was not rested, a touch of altitude sickness/mild cold meant I started the day feeling like sh*t. Day 7 we rock up to 4400m/14'500 ft (Garmin Graph) and so began the ride. You know it's going to start out rough, when the clouds start rolling in over the mountains. Not more than 20mins into the ride, hail starts coming down. A peak that we'd passed on the van ride up was dusted in snow, which was completely dry an hour before. You know the drill. Nasty horrible wet riding. Riding shoes soaked through. A couple of the crew didn't have waterproof jackets (if you're reading this, and going on the Inca trip, pack one!). Really what MTB trip wouldn't be a trip, without a complete epic ?. I even managed one-when-no-one-was-around-tanty after falling off for the nth time. I don't know whether it was the altitude getting to me, or the solid week of just shredding, but man I was *tired*. 2-3 hrs in I realise I'd been riding at 120mm travel instead of 150mm, my front tire was too hard, and generally I was out of sorts. Despite the epic nature of the morning, we were in luck, lunchtime rolls around and we were treated to a delicious meal of soup and fresh Trout, in one of the local families own home no less. Talk about 7 happy chappies, warming up to Soup and a hearty meal. (Garmin Graph) It was as if the riding gods pressed the magic good time button. The clouds parted, and epic single track unfolded. Them be clouds... It's almost over. My out of sorts-ness turns into a head cold. Fantastic. But I'm going to finish the ride come hell or high water. We pack our bags to leave the Sacred Valley, get on the bus, and head to our final start point. The last day was uneventful bar the biggest hill climb of the trip. 3/4hr of grinding (really, that was the biggest hill climb), finishing with a fast downhill run into Cuzco, the biggest danger avoiding the mangy dogs... As long as we had expected the day to be, with our beat tired selves, it was over pretty darned quick. (Garmin Graph) It is over.... Beers to celebrate. The boys all made it in one piece. We spend our last 24-32 hours in Peru, eating, packing up the bikes, thanking the guides, causing mischeif. This was one helluva ride. It will go down, I can safely say for all us, as one of the most memorable things we'd done. All of my 18 odd years on a bike culminated in this one trip. I couldn't have asked for a greater bunch of guys to ride with, or better guides to take us on this adventure. For me personally, it was 10 days of waking up stoked, every morning to ride, every day having another epic trail to ride on, every day a new adventure, every day constantly pushing it. Credits All pictures (but those of me), taken by me. Some are HDR. Appreciate linkage action back if you like any, feel free to post with credits. Full Flickr Album Some pictures, yo. SacredRides.com Hooking up the trip Wayo Stein Our freaking awesome guide with Micky and Russo ! Trek For making such an awesome bike Trek Toronto Robert at Trek Toronto for getting my Remedy sorted. Panasonic GH2 The ultimate travel camera system http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/19/packing_remedy_into_pike_bag http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/19/packing_remedy_into_pike_bag 2011-09-16 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Packing my 2011 Trek Remedy into a Pika Packworks MTB Bag [Update] This bag served me well, I've got a review coming, but my beloved Remedy stayed in one piece between Canada -> Peru -> back to Canada again. http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/20/thats_amazing_webgl_water http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/20/thats_amazing_webgl_water 2011-09-02 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com The coming of the browser is here. Check out this in Chrome. http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/ And the source: http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/water.js Freaking cool.  http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/20/packing_for_one_adventure_nervous_about_bc_bikerace http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/20/packing_for_one_adventure_nervous_about_bc_bikerace 2011-08-30 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com The trails started after a bit of road that got people pretty well spaced out. The singletrack was very rooty and semi-flat and rolling. Technical and slow seemed to be the theme for the day. Slow is pretty much the theme everyday for me, but today seemed especially slow. I passed a few riders who were pulled off to the side of the trail having what appeared to be a full mental breakdown. There was lots of cussing, stomping feet, throwing bikes and I even saw someone crying hysterically. I guess the BC Bike Race effects everyone differently. Quote From http://crice666.pinkbike.com/blog/BC-Bike-Race-Day-3-and-4.html http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/21/prepping_for_an_epic_adventure http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/21/prepping_for_an_epic_adventure 2011-08-28 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com For the first time in my life, I am doing something on my own that is making me more than a little nervous. September 2nd, I get on a plane bound for Lima Peru, to go ride my bike on a few trails. ...Well that's the understatement of the century.  I mean some trips, you get shots, pack a few books etc. This one, I got Diamox. 'For rapid ascent at high altitudes'.  :)  http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/21/caught_a_sunburst http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/21/caught_a_sunburst 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/21/panasonic_gh1_micro_four_thirds_travel_camer http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/21/panasonic_gh1_micro_four_thirds_travel_camer 2011-01-03 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Updated! 2011View review of the GH2 My experiences with the Panasonic GH1 on a 18 day trip to Uganda, Tanzania Elephant in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Olympus 70-300mm, F5.4, 1/800.   So background - I fit firmly in the prosumer category, I've loved photography forever starting with developing film when I was a kid and making my own prints in B&W. But I'm not a pro photographer and no delusions of grandure around blowing shots up to billboard sizes. I've lived by "The Best Camera is one you have with you" philosophy. Some of my best shots have been with little 'toy' point and shoots. I can't stand the idea of dragging round an SLR everywhere, they're heavy and cumbersome which is the antihesis of travelling.    However, when you are going to Africa on Safari - everything changes!. I agonized for a good month or two at the beginning of this year, braced for getting in trouble and splurged on the Panasonic GH1. My reasoning - video quality and size. I wanted to take kick ass videos of animals on safari. Throughout the year I played with it, getting accustomed to what it could do and learning to use everything practically blindfolded.  In the bag    A month out from our trip, I needed to get what was needed. While Panasonic had released the 100-300mm it hadn't arrived in stores yet, so an online mission to B&H Photo netted the Olympus 70-300mm, a spare battery, monopod, SDHC cards. Finishing it off with a Crumpler 5 million dollar home bag, some lens tissue, power adaptor, charger, the trusty Lumix LX3 and my bag was full. 3 lens' covering from 14mm all the way to 300mm, two cameras and accessories in one little bag we were ready for Africa.    Why micro four thirds rocks for travelling    As soon as we started travelling I started realising the huge advantage over traditional DSLRs. I had the equivalent focal range of 28-600mm in one bag for not a heck of a lot of money. To put that into perspective, to buy one lens capable of 600mm you're looking at 5k plus on a single lens and they are HUGE! (eg ... weighing 5kg). Even going back to 500mm, we're still generally talking 1-2kg for a lens.  When you're bumping around in tiny planes, safari vehicles, have ridiculous weight limits (15kg for 3 weeks), every few hundred grams counts, and if one lens cost that much money well the paranoia factor would be off the charts. I get pro photographers who do it for a living need that gear, but when 99.99% of everyones photos land up on the web, the law of diminishing returns kicks in. My bag with everything in bar the monopod and mic, would fit under an economy airline seat, and I could get my feet in as well !   So, how did it go ?    Battery life was surprisingly good   One thing I was nervous about was battery life. Many reviews had talked about battery life being an issue - so I'd bought a second battery, and was on the fence about a third. Turns out the 2nd battery was hardly necessary, most everywhere we went we had some form of power so I could keep one charged all the time. I pretty much got 2 days out of one battery charge shooting a good 200 shots on the busy days.    Controls controls controls   In use the camera performed flawlessly. The viewfinder was great even in the brightest sunlight, I was married to my Tilley hat which gave shade over the EVF - quite welcome but not necessary. The controls I'd memorized before I went, and that was some of the best advice I'd seen written. Commonly I was tweaking ISO or changing exposure a smidge, without moving away from the viewfinder. I set the LCD to the controls/settings display after a few days which was great for making sure the camera was set right before taking a shot. In reality I probably missed through poor focus/settings less than 5% of shots over ~2000 shots.    2x focal length, oh my! All shot on Olympus 70-300mm @ 300mm (600 35mm equivalent) Here's that advantage of 4/3rds. Doubling the focal length - the little 300mm lens is doubled in 35mm terms. 600mm let's you get some spectacular shots, shots you would have no hope of getting otherwise. Here's my one drawback - I wished there was some faster glass, f4-5.6 is *okay* but that extra couple of stops and shallower depth of field would have been most welcome. Still I'm sure I saw lots of people with lots of other very expensive lenses not getting any better shots being so far off.    The one big lesson   Bring a monopod and have it setup at all times   In Uganda it wasn't an option as our luggage was lost so I couldn't use it with the Gorillas, the second time was the lion kill, which by the time action was happening I was too busy taking shots to get to the monopod (or more to the point wasn't allowed to, as we had to keep super still lest a Lioness get ideas about human food). Lesson learned, I missed some good shots that I kicked myself for.   But video saved the day     What I made a mistake on:    - Forgetting a clear lens filter. Mandatory purchase. There is so much dust everywhere.  - Not testing out properly SD cards. Two new cards (Delkin - stay away from) both failed ~20-30 shots in with write errors. Awesome.  - Bringing a Mic, too much wind, people talking, camera's clicking. Unless you were going by your lonesome then it's a waste of time.    What would I have done differently?   - Bought a GF1 instead of the LX3 and stuffed a wide angle on it, maybe the 9-18mm oly, to get landscape shots without having to change lenses.     In summary: - GH1 rocked. Kinda annoyed the GH2 released the week I left, but hey.  - 20mm F1.7 pancake. Once I was back from the daily drive, off came the big lens, on went this one. Lots of fun. - 70-300mm Olympus. It worked, and was cheap ($300! after a rebate) but AF was slow and noisy as hell. Now the 100-300mm Panasonic is released, I'd go with that without a doubt.  - 14-140mm Kit lens. It's awesome, silent focusing and small.  - Rode Stereo Video Mic. Why did I take it ?  - LX3. Great for throw in your pocket point and shoot  And the results?   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowanhick/collections/72157625516413099/ In the end did I take the videos I wanted ?  No. Video work is *hard* I didn't spend nearly enough time practising/playing with video and a certain shortage of card space really hindered things. It was the reason I got the GH1, but in the end I fell in love with the size of the system and will stick with it.  http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/caldigit_vr_raid_drive http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/caldigit_vr_raid_drive 2010-12-26 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com You need lots and lots of storage http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/42_minutes_african_lion_kill http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/42_minutes_african_lion_kill 2010-12-23 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com This past couple of weeks we were in Tanzania, Africa on Safari. One of the highlights of the trip, was 'the lion kill'. It's a story I've got to put down in words as it's almost unbelievable.  After a couple of days in Lake Manyara, famous for tree climbing lions, we were hanging out to see one. Driving back from picnic'ing on we got word that 2 Lionesses were spotted below the lunch area. We drove down trying to spot them. After a couple of minutes and some very sharp eyesight by our guide, 100's of metres off in a tree he sees one. We pass round binoculars all happy to finally see a Lion in the wild.  We drove off after a few minutes, but for various reasons, we went back. Just then a Lioness, and a second Lioness cross the riverbed way off in the distance. Game on! They were skinny, it was the middle of the day, and the guide said 'it looks like they're hunting'. We watched a (very alert) Gazelle, hoping for the worst/best depending on which of the sexes we were. The Gazelle headed for the hills. About 200m to our left some Baboons were up in the trees making a bit of noise, so we drove round to be greeted by the sight of a waterbuck, looking around wondering what was going on. Along the bushline, one of the Lioness' carefully walked out, Waterbuck startled and she chased it clockwise round the bush to (what we heard) was said buck meeting the other Lioness. A few guttural sounds later we guessed the fate of the waterbuck. Our guide got *that look*, you know that, "we have to see this" look and drove back to a clearing 50 metres round the other side of the bush.  Would you believe we could see the hooves of the waterbuck poking out of the bush on our left, with the waterbuck on it's side. Our presence startled one of the Lioness's she walked across the clearing, looked right at us, gave us a menacing snarl, and hid behind the bush to the right hand side of our truck.  So there we were, Lioness #1 and Waterbuck on the left, clearing, bush, Lioness #2 on the right. Us in the middle. Nerves start setting in and pulse rate starts rising. A split second later this is what happens  My pulse was racing, and could barely handhold the video [hence the shakey cam look], as all I could see was the action in front through the view finder, but all I could hear was lioness #2 getting very upset beside us, everyone in the truck was on edge/more than uncomfortable.  Out of nowhere come not one but two cubs, the lioness backs off and lets the cubs go at it. A pictures tell a thousand words..  With some (caution: VERY graphic) video footage  So after 12 minutes it was time to get out of there, the guide started the truck and then the unbelievable happened. The cubs backed off, the waterbuck came to attention (after being eaten from the abodmen!) and got to it's feet. Pictures tell no lie ..  The last thing we saw was Lioness number 1 leaping onto it, to (we hope) finish it once and for all.    For more pictures of our trip click here to go to the flickr album   All taken on a Panasonic GH1, with an Olympus 70-300mm lens.  http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/fuel_ex_in_don_valley http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/fuel_ex_in_don_valley 2010-11-07 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com A little chilly, but pretty damn sticky when not sliding through leaves. The black beauty and the Don valley: 2010 Trek Fuel Ex 8 http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/what_kind_of_arguement_is_that http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/26/what_kind_of_arguement_is_that 2010-07-11 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com The wearing of helmets by cyclists visibly implies that cycling is less safe than it is  Wearing of helmets indicates to motorists that you're more competent and thus it's okay to drive closer to you  Wow, those are two of the most off the wall, crazy notions for arguments against helmets I've ever heard. These were voiced as the opinion (clearly identified as her personal opinions) by a Yvonne Bambrick of the Toronto Cyclists Union this morning on CBC's Metromorning. They might be your opinions, but said on CBC's Metromorning, they send a strong message. This opinions are absolutely nuts.  As a New Zealander of my age generation we all had 'the helmet lady' come to our schools when were around 12-13. She showed us lovely things like the catheter's her son has to use, feeding tubes, etc to show what happens when your brain rattles in your head from hitting the deck. That scared the lights out of us as kids, and (for the most part) we all wear helmets ever since having our school assemblies with the helmet lady.  Society requires us to wear seatbelts in cars on the road, we should be required to wear helmets. You fall off your bike and hit your head, it gets injured. Helmets reduce head injuries. Head injuries are preventable. Thats plain and simple logic.  [Update] Just today there was an article that Rebecca Oaten's (The Helmet Lady) son passed away, more here .. . http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4031829/Aarons-tragedy-spurred-Helmet-Ladys-crusade http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/28/imagine_if http://rowanhick.com/2011/09/28/imagine_if 2010-06-21 00:00:00 UTC Rowan Hick rowan.hick@gmail.com Taken at a friends moms garden at their cottage. All sorts of vibrant colours, shallow depth of field lens. Intense colours, a little too much as I used the vibrant setting to push it a little further (hey film buffs use different film stock to the same effect!). Taken on a Panasonic GH1 with the 20mm F1.7 pancake lens.