Seth Isch ENGL 106 12 December 2011 It is impossible to walk around campus here at Purdue and not see someone riding his or her bicycle or a bike rack packed full of bicycles. Bikes are a major park of campus life here at Purdue and at large college campus for that matter. This is why I picked this topic. We had to write about something that represented life here at Purdue and what’s a better topic? Bikes are such a major part of campus here and it seems that almost everyone has a bike. They are beneficial to get from place to place on campus and people take great pride in their bikes. I decided to take photos of and write about bicycles do the wide use of them, the great lengths people go to, to take care of them, and the many possible places and ways to take great pictures of bikes on campus. There are so many people on campus who have bikes because it makes it possible to get from point A to point B quickly. For many people bikes are their only means of transportation here on campus so if they want to go somewhere off campus it allows them to leave when they please and they do not need to wait on the bus system. Another reason is having a bike is it makes better use of your time and allows you to be more efficient. You do not spend as much time walking to class so you can leave later and arrive to class earlier. This allows for more homework time and time to get much needed rest. People do not have bikes because they are just lazy; they are extremely beneficial and a great investment. For many people having a bike is the only way they can handle “large� campus life and this why it is made so accessible. That is why there are places to park your bike and designated bike lanes to make owning a bike that much easier.
Although having a bike on campus is very beneficial it does come with its set of problems, the main problem being bicycle theft. This is why no one buys a bike for college without also buying some form of a bike lock. When you walk by a bike wrack you will see that every bike is locked with a chain to prevent theft. There are some people that resort to removing their seats and wheels to disinterest people from stealing their bike. They will do whatever it takes to prevent their bike to end up in tree after a party weekend. Many students do not have the privilege of having a car on campus so their bike is like their car. People are devastated when their cars are stolen and it is the same situation with a college student’s bike. These bikes are there life and many times quite expensive. You can tell a lot about a person by their bike. You can tell when they are more artsy and when they are a true athlete. That is what makes bicycle so cool, all the different colors and styles. Taking pictures of bikes was so easy because they are everywhere. There really is not a place on campus that you cannot take great photo of bicycle. It was so fun to hunt down all of the abnormalities of typical bike etiquette like the removal of seats and wheels. Another great aspect of bikes here at Purdue is all of the different colors of bikes there are. When you take a picture of a typical bike rack you will a picture full of many different colors to fit the owners taste. This was so fun to work with in photo shop. I spent hours playing with the color balance and saturation to make the picture look perfect. When I was done the bikes looked so great, being able to see their bright and vibrant colors. Also the timing of this project was perfect. With all of the falling and changing leaves my picture looked great. It gave the pictures great color and demotion. This is why a chose an orange background to better suit the pictures. Taking these pictures in the fall gave every picture a great background and only further extenuated the
bicycles. I was at first quit scared of getting all eight pictures, but in the end it was the easiest part of the project. Without bicycles this campus would not be the same. This is because they are such a major part of life here at Purdue. I am so glad that I chose this topic to do for the assignment because it was so much fun and really true to the assignment guidelines. Bikes blanket the campus and its do to the extreme usefulness. Also it was to fun to mess around in photo shop. There are so many great tools to use to make your photo perfect, like color balance, cropping, and background color affects. People love their bikes and that is why I chose this topic, because of their great use, peoples loves, and many qualities that contribute to a great picture.