The Schwinn Sting Ray Hudson Valley Photographer


August 16th 2021
The Schwinn Sting Ray Hudson Valley Photographer

Hudson Valley Photographer Sting Ray Schwinn

I’m not sure why I’ve been digging taking pictures of old bikes so much recently.  I have a ton of shots of these old classics just waiting to be processed.  I think it’s because I recently got a cruiser of my own, and just love going riding around Hudson Valley.  I bought one for my girlfriend too so that we could both go out on our cruisers and have a blast riding around town and having drinks at whatever random place we find.  This one has a springer front just like mine.  That means that there is a spring on the front of the bike that acts like a old version of shocks.  They actually work pretty well too.  It softens the ride quite a bit.  Again this is more of the fine art photography that I have been really enjoying

lately.  Although they don’t comapre to when  I get to do portrait photography.

This was one of the first shots that I took when I was walking around downtown Hudson Valley this weekend.  I went out to try and get some shots of some street people, and I didn’t really get any shots that I truly loved.  This is probably due to the fact that I was around 1 when I left, and I was shooting in the worst possible light.  The sun at this time produces pretty harsh shadows on faces at this time of day, and unless you’re shooting in the shade the light isn’t very flattering.  I did get a few other shots, but I didn’t like most of them, so I don’t think I’ll be posting any of them.  I did really enjoy the almost painting feeling to the bokeh in this shot.  I still can’t tell how much I like this shot.  I has some character, but again my framing is just not quite what I want.

The post process was pretty simple

  • Convert to BW
  • Use split toning to get a nice light brown tone to the BW.  I have really liked a lot of the split tone BW conversions that have a slight cast to them.
  • Added a noise layer to give the image just a little bit of noise and grit.  I tried to get realistic looking noise.  If you add some noise and then gausian blur it you will get something similar to what I created here.
  • Added a texture layer and masked out the bike to give it just a little bit more character.

Hope you like it.

-Dave