A whole lot of activity goes on in the Featured Image—and more than I realized until sitting down to edit in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic. The nearly 100-percent crop comes from Leica Q2, on Nov. 6, 2021. Vitals: f/8, ISO 100, 1/250 sec, 28mm; 2:01 p.m. PDT.
As I walked up Meade Ave. in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood, I heard jovial talking and motorcycles revving ahead of me and found them on cross-street Idaho. I crouched down behind a car and, after changing the aperture, managed to click the shutter once before they rode off in choreographed procession; there was a precision to their group riding that evoked safety and conveyance. They roared towards El Cajon Blvd.
Please pardon my uneven edit for the composition. I adjusted for the bikers, all of whom are black. I tried to draw out facial features in post-production but struggled to do so. Leica Q2 may capture loads of detail, but I was positioned a third-of a-block away—and close-cropping is no substitute for a telephoto lens. Additionally, helmets helped to obscure the riders’ faces.
Let’s talk other objects, starting with the U-Haul truck. Was someone double-parked to move in or out of an apartment? Or was the vehicle there to lug motorcycles? One reason for the second question: I returned the next day hoping for a shot of the parked bikes, but there were none.
To the right, the line of mirrors draws the eye towards the end of the street, where are parked a cop cruiser, ambulance, and what looks like a fire engine. What happened? I’ll never know, and I missed the vehicles’ presence until tonight’s edit. The biker’s rode off that way, turning right at The Boulevard.