A couple of weeks ago was the first XC race of the Island Cup. Since it was in Victoria, I decide to ride down. I rode to Mill Bay and too the ferry to Brentwood Bay, which is less than 10 km from The Dump. The problem with rides brken up by ferries is standing on the deck and freezing your toes off.
I arrived toward the end of the beginner race, and hung around all day. I took my camera and a flash, and set up by a little stream. Despite taking photos of every rider that passed, I only got a handfull of half-decent photos.
It started to rain as I rode down Mt. Work, and continued to do so until I got home. The ferry ride was colder, and the ride home was terrible.

Last weekend was the second race, this time in Port Alberni. I was going to get a ride up with Kurt and Kevin, but felt horrible the night before, sneezing and clogged sinuses, so didn't.
In the morning though, I felt quite a bit better, and thought it would help to go outside, so rode up Touzhalem along the trail from Providence farm. I come down this trail every time, but only twice have I ridden up it before , and that was over a year ago. I ride up that way to get out of the sun on a very hot day, but that was before I'd realized there was a bus that goes up through The Properties.
Mount Tzouhalem is my favourite place to ride, but I don't go regularly because I hate getting there. It's either a slow (on a mountain bike) 40 minute climb on the roads, or a 30 minute bus ride, preceded by 10 mins spent waiting for the bus (that only goes up there twice a day).
But realizing that I can comfortably climb the Providence Farm trail (I walked 2 bits, which I could probably ride when dry, or when more determined) makes Tzouhalem much more appealing. It takes me 10 mins on the road to get to the white church, and 45 from there to get the fireroad that goes from the main road to the cross. It takes me 15 to get down, and ten to get home from there. This means that mountain biking before work is possible! I could probably squeeze in Chicken Runs 2 & 3 and Three Musketeers while I'm up there.
It's rained almost every day since though.

Last Monday (my weekend is now Sunday and Monday), was reasonably clear but windy, with puffy clouds, so I thought I'd get going with my time-lapse project. The plan was to ride up Prevost to the very top, and shoot a time-lapse sequence of the valley with the clouds going by, but I got distracted by some hang gliders floating down from the top (and it started to rain, and my backpack isn't waterproof).
I followed them to their landing field and watched one land. I've often watched the paragliders, but never seen the hang gliders up close. The hang gliders are definitely faster in the air and much more maneuverable and "sporty", but they only seem to stay in the air for 20 mins at a time. The paragliders are often up there for 2 hours or more on good days. Also, the paragliders just fold up their wing and shove it in a bag, and thow it on the backseat of their car, whereas the hang gliders spend quite some time disassembling them, and then need a truck with special racks on the top to transport them.
I asked them if they were planning on doing another run, in hopes that I could get a timlapse of them winding their way down, but they said the wind was too rough.
I rode down the highway a bit and ended up setting up in a ditch at the side of the gold course. I took a few test shots, and when exposed for the sky, the bottom of the frame looked way over exposed, so I cut out the golf course and re-composed for just the sky, which was un-interesting. I should have trusted the histogram though, because the ground, while a little dark, was still usable.
I set up for one frame every five seconds, and sat and waited for about half an hour, and this is what I got (played back at 30 fps, at 15 was too slow):



Why is it all flickery? When I compare the frames, some are darker than others. Why? Everything on the camera was set to manual; aperature, shutter speed, iso, white balance, focus, etc.
What happened?