It’s that time again to talk folklore. On Sunday [March 20] the calendar will officially say it’s springtime and we’ll do the 1-hour-skip a week later. Whatever. In NL, that’s as reliable as … the weather. As you’ve seen, we were fortunate to have already bagged a few beautiful sunny days.

Just as much as this winter’s hardship came as a total surprise, we know better than to rely on either a few atmospheric signs and/or what the weatherman tells us. A far more entertaining indicator of what’s to come are women riding bicycles.

The last week showed us a few small hints (see pics above), we’re all waiting for Rokjesdag [(Short) Skirt Day]. Equally random, Rokjesdag will just happen, we don’t know when. By the looks of it, it can’t be far off. And by ‘happen’ I mean that the majority of women wear dresses and skirts, bare legged. Sure, they will graciously occupy the sidewalk, but you really know The Day has come when they whoosh passed you left and right, en masse, on bicycles. After all, you look [even] better on a bike.

You can count on me keeping you posted…for merely statistical & sociological purposes, of course, as it’s an established phenomenon in civilized cycle countries :).

Today I received an e-mail telling me I’ve won the Bicycle Mania Photo Contest. It won’t come as a surprise when I tell you this really made my day. A bit of background information on Bicycle Mania (via Bakfiets-en-meer):

Every fan and promoter of urban cycling simply needs a copy of Shirley Agudo’s “Bicycle Mania”. You can regard it as a photo book, with probably the best collection of Dutch cycling photos ever assembled. Even as an Amsterdam resident and amateur(ish) photographer I marvel at the shots in these pages. Have a peek at a few examples here at the Eduard Planting gallery.

But “Bicycle Mania” goes much deeper. The photos are accompanied by well-informed and thoughtfully written text covering in sections covering the how and why the Dutch have achieved (and continue to build upon) the world’s best of nearly everything in transportation cycling: broad popularity, amazing infrastructure, safety, fun and pure variety on wheels. The text is in both English and Dutch, handy learning for those anglophiles who want to delve deeper into Dutch cycling culture than English can take you. Numerous authorities are interviewed, hyperbole and abuse of statistics is thankfully avoided and and it’s just a good read. In a nutshell: Recommended.

The photo I entered: ‘Family Cycle Train’, from the photo set ‘Saturday Cycle Modes‘.

As of today ‘Family Cycle Train’ is displayed in the window of The American Book Center in Amsterdam (Spui 12) and The Hague (Lange Poten 23). It will also be published in the next issue of The XPat Journal magazine (March 2010).

And of course the grand prize: a special edition Workcycles Secret Service and a copy of the book Bicycle Mania. I will read the book and Lauren will ride the bike ;).

It really made my day. Honored and proud. I think I will make one or two stops downtown and in the Jordaan today :).

Update: you gotta love the internetz, @IkbendAF (a contact on Twitter) already went by the store and took this picture:

Not only did Shirley Agudo’s book beat me to the punch, now a fan does too ;).

Disclosure: as you know I have a close relationship with Workcycles, call it ‘a fan, based on customer experience, but Henry was not on the jury, he ‘just’ sponsored this contest.

Consider this my photo wrap up of the latter half of January, aka catching up on lost blog time.

‘Halfway January‘ (photo set)

‘Perpetual‘ (photo set)

‘Push Those Pedals‘ (photo set)

‘Push Those Pedals‘ (photo set)

‘It’s Friday‘ (photo set)

‘It’s Friday‘ (photo set)

I captured my good friend Michael once again…

‘Dam, It’s Good‘ (photo set)

Having not been able to finish writing up a long post (and long overdue), today I moved on to something else that has been on my mind for a while, my very own Weekly Photo Caption Contest. Inspired by Karl’s on ‘Do The Right Thing‘, I really wonder what my readers will come up with. So, here it is, the first one. Write your funniest/cheekiest/most intelligent caption. Every week I’ll pick one winner who will receive a prize. The prize will be a surprise.

Meanwhile I return to finishing up that other post and figuring out if I can perhaps find time in a parallel universe to bring over 350 lost posts back to life…stay tuned.

Every day I leave the supermarket and turn into this street to continue my ride home. Up until last weekend I hadn’t really noticed these signs. The owner(s) of the restaurant on the corner apparently had enough and wanted to put a stop to people biking there, probably hindering their clientele and employees. The signs have a nice touch, movable plant ornaments with a polite message and signed with the peace symbol. Still, at first I was surprised, because I couldn’t imagine it to be such a problem, knowing that locals mostly (and shortly) ride there to actually park in front of their homes or the shops. Besides that, you won’t find many of the obligatory flocks of tourist bike salmons in this part of town. Quickly I realized the bike lane was put there only recently. So I did a Google Streetview check to see if that would supply me with some ‘before’ footage…bingo:

Google Streetview Amstelveenseweg/Veerstraat

I was right, there had to be more to it, I just forgot about the fact that the entire street leading from Surinamestraat up to this junction at Zeilstraat had been under construction, renewing the tarmac and tram tracks and reconfiguring the bike lane grid, moving away from the on-street situation.

As you can imagine, as well, I can see how people would cut corners at this junction during rush hour and move to the sidewalk to turn right, avoiding the hassle of dealing with tightly lined up cars at the traffic lights. Ergo, leave no real room for road users and these road users will quickly find an alternative. And at some point annoy others, like pedestrians and restaurant owners.

The newly installed bike lane is of standard (a-grade) quality. Completely segregated with a buffer zone on the left side, a billiard-like smooth surface, integrated bike junctions and exit paths and, of course, bicycle traffic lights at every car junction. Here are a few shots to get the picture:

The new bike lane, starting at Surinamestraat

Passing the western side of Vondelpark

The new bicycle crossing at Vondelpark entrance

Passing the restaurant in question

You know it's all good when young kids can ride home alone from hockey practice

Now I wonder how long it will take the restaurant owner to realize there’s no real use for them anymore. Well, the ornaments can stay, I guess :).

More here.

With Amsterdamize I use the city as backdrop for what I call ‘humanity in motion’, aka people on bikes. I publish photos, videos and stories, either personal or human interest, relating to my life or others’ who I meet along the way. It allows me lots of room to let the bicycle serve as a cohesive and inclusive subject, a blender, an umbrella, a line to hang things from, so to speak.

Often enough I shoot pictures of scenes that fall in between the cracks of my themes and/or subjects, which I’m tempted to put up, but usually don’t. Because there are others who do a far better job, doing this city justice. Which brings me to Wolfgang Josten, also known as Wojofoto on Flickr. He’s very much into street art, the raw edges of Amsterdam (and other cities), people in general and the number 1 mode of transportation. The bicycle is generally the backdrop for the city that he observes, a passing or stationary object supporting his framing, in context or juxtaposition. I will stop here and let his pictures wrap this post up.

taking a nap…..

taking a nap

streetart

bakfiets

laser 3.14

chase your dreams

laugh more live more -Workcycles shop-

bustart

amsterdam

amsterdam

For quite some time now I’ve been dealing with three frustrations:

• Not enough time/energy/inspiration to post more frequently
• Missing my Nikon, having to wait for the arrival of a new one
• Missing my HDD videocamera, which also died on me.

The first is in large part the result of the 2nd and 3rd, as I’m stuck with the now quickly degenerating camera on my mobile phone.

Ok, that was me moping and feeling miserable. Now to the good part. There are more people like me in Amsterdam, loving this city and shooting it up from all kinds of angles, no matter the camera. I present you with two of my favorites:

AmsterS@m – The Wicked Reflectah
“Reflections of Amsterd@m, the best city in the world :). Most of the pictures in this set are shot with mobile phones. I don’t use Photoshop or any other ‘magic’ software to create the wickedness of my puddle reflections :)”

Marjon of Iam sterdam (inspired by Amsterdamize)

Love it. Now, let’s see if I can manage to keep my cell phone alive in the next 30 days, because this ‘humanity in motion’ thing is going to get far too interesting to miss out on.

Running that errand I took a few with my Nokia (as I’ve done many times before), and however ok they can come out, it’s hardly the same, they also require some tuning to make ‘m more interesting.

Ha, no, I don’t have a backup Polaroid, there are ways around that, but I can fall back on the photo function of my Sony HDD video camera. Lucky me. I’d feel pretty desperate and naked.

Before venturing into town today, I borrowed my dad’s camera, a Nikon D70, three awesome lenses included. For the camera geeks among you: 18-70mm, 28-200mm, 70-300mm.

As I’m a bloke, I went straight for the last one. Ok, also because I wanted to give myself more time, a bigger window of opportunity to capture scenes that usually are out of my compact camera’s reach.

I won’t bore you with how I approached my subjects or fiddled with the buttons…because I didn’t. I just put it on automatic and let this SLR work its magic. Every now and then I would rewind and see what I had shot, already amazed, but only after loading them up to my computer I could really appreciate the sheer brilliance of this machine. ‘Holy cow’ and ‘No way’ are only a few of the things I uttered.

My dad heard them too and was happy I liked it so much, so he wanted me to have it.

Being a bicycle nut certainly is rewarding.

Speaking of nuts…there are 157 pictures in the ‘Humanity In Motion’ photo set. Or see below and toggle for full screen viewing. If you have the time, that is ;).