The Giro team is pleased to welcome Pacific Arbour Retirement Communities as a new Giro sponsor!

The Giro team is pleased to announce that Kinder Morgan is back as a sponsor!

Why does our winner’s jersey contain pink? By tradition, the leader in the Giro d’Italia, that inspired our race, wears the pink jersey (it is a yellow jersey in the Tour de France).

Usually the Giro d’Italia is not much in the news here – it is hockey play-off time after all. But this year Canadian Ryder Hesjedal was in the lead and wore the pink. He has now slipped to second place but is very much still in the hunt. Go Ryder!

Read the full story here on the CBC site.

What are you doing on Sunday, June 24?

A great idea would be to grab your bike and “ride to suppport mental wellness and recovery!”

Click here for more information on how to participate in the 4th Annual Community Bike Ride.

The Giro team is pleased to welcome The Mulberry Retirement Residence back as a Giro sponsor!

What is a liveable city and what does that have to do with the Giro? In fact, what is a liveable city?

A liveable city is fun to live in, it gives meaning to one’s life. Much has been written on the subject – just do a Google search on “liveable city”. Liveable includes things like sport, art, work opportunities, easy transport, safe environment, eating out, and so on. It is certainly a goal of Burnaby to be a livable city and we are well on our way!

 A vital component of a liveable city is a sense of community. Sharing a cappuccino with friends is community. Taking the kids to Hats-off Day is community.

That is where the Giro comes in. The Giro is a community event designed to bring the community together. Already the Giro banners are up on Hastings Street, adding colour to the community (see the slideshow below). Soon you will see Giro posters in store windows, and Giro articles in the local papers.

The Giro also has spin-off community-building aspects. Maybe it will trigger a renewed interest in cycling. Or you may take a liking to sports photography as a result.

In an upcoming post we will have tips on how you can benefit from and contribute to a community event like the Giro. “Life as it should be”

[Show as slideshow]

In our first photography post we gave some details about the camera and settings you will need to take good photos at the Giro. In a follow-up post we mentioned the technique of panning as an alternative way of getting interesting shots of cyclists whizzing by. And whizzing by they will – 45 times for the men and 30 times for the women!

If all you want are some photos to remember the race by, then staying in one spot and getting shots as the riders pass by is just fine. However, why not make a photography project of the race?

One approach would be to tell the story of the race. So you can start by taking photos when the course is being set up, when the racers are getting ready and warming up. If you are lucky to get a good spot you could get a shot of the start and the finish too.

Watch out for unexpected photo opportunities that will add interest to you story: perhaps a reflection in a rider’s glasses, or maybe a detail shot of high-tech wheels. The spectators too can provide interesting shots. Perhaps you can capture the smoke of the starter’s gun.

Another way to get interesting photos is to vary the angle of your shots. We tend to keep our cameras at eye level, which is ok for most of the shots. But try to get some shots from higher up, maybe from a balcony. If you can also get to one of the inside corners, the riders will come quite close and so could get some excellent shots of very intense-looking riders!

Happy shooting!

[Show as slideshow]

In a previous post ‎we gave some tips on how to take good photographs at the Giro so that your shots of the fast moving cyclists are not blurry. The take-away point was to have your camera set to a fast shutter speed.

In this post we will tell you to do just the opposite – well almost. Sometimes it is nice to have photo where the cyclists are in focus but the background is blurred, which gives the sense of speed. The technique is called “panning”.

Using panning can give you great shots if you are good (or lucky). It does take a lot of practice!

The basic idea is to move, or “pan” your camera at the same speed as the bikes moving past, but keeping your camera focused on the bikes. It is difficult to keep your camera on a steady plane so you might find that the cyclists are slightly blurred too, and this is not so bad as it adds to the overall effect.

Strangely enough, for panning one tends to use a slower shutter speed, maybe even as slow as 1/30!

This may sound easy enough but really it is not. The key is to follow through with your camera movement even after you have pressed the shutter. Many cameras have shutter delay and the photo is actually taken a split second after you have pressed the shutter.

It is worth practicing ahead of time. If you get the technique right, it can be used for many other events, not just at cycling events.

 Once you get the hang of panning, you might be tempted to shoot only pan shots! Don’t forget to take other types of photos as well – more on that in another post.

For more on this technique, visit these links:

• The Art of Panning
• Mastering Panning
• Capture Action for Dummies 

Online registration is now available, click here to register.

The Giro team welcomes Burnaby North MLA, Richard T. Lee, back as a Giro supporter.