There is a carefree approach to bicycling that I miss.  Rationally, I know that I can go out for a ride even though it’s just below freezing.  Sensibly, I even remember all the rides I’ve taken throughout the winters past.  Not this time.  I’m flat out done with winter.

Winter is slowly opening its tightly clasped icy fist, but another inch or two of snow fell a few days ago and it’s still piled everywhere.  So I spent a couple of nights in search of carefree cycling pictures and found some great ones!

These are all from El Saler, a small beach town near where my wife grew up.  It’s probably around 1991 and I’m riding an early Spanish version of the do-everything bike.  It took me many years to master the art of simply existing on the beach, soaking up the sun and tranquility.  These photos are clearly from back when ‘beach’ meant an active outing!

the approach

Preparing for depth

Testing the depth

Emerging

Almost out.

great expression on the beachgoers.

Side notes:  all these are scans of old photos.  I used photoshop elements to re-balance the colors and shift the temperature and saturation back to something closer to normal.  Then I had loads of fun using the depth-of-field app to choose what got to stay in focus.  Finally, I used the camera correction dialogue to add a bit of vignetting to the edges.  Yup, loads of fun.  Now I’m just waiting for spring!