Cycling Photography - Races and Social Events

acaurora

Hi all,

As someone new to SmugMug (and getting more involved in photography in general), I have taken quite a few pictures over the past year and wanted to see if I could get some feedback in shots I have taken and what suggestions could be made to possibly improve my photography.

My background is primarily in that I used to race on road bikes until I got into quite a few crashes and decided to back out, but wanted to still be around the racing scene. I have always liked photography, so I decided to get into shooting for these cycling races and social events related to the bike shops. I haven't really taken any photography classes, but I have tried to train myself at least in the photo management with Lightroom, Photoshop, and, of course, SmugMug!

Please have a look at my SmugMug, and let me know if there is anything you feel that I could improve upon. Thanks in advance! :thumb

I also apologize if this belongs in a different thread! :bow

denisegoldberg

You would be more likely to get feedback if you pick a couple of photos and post them here.

--- Denise

Moving Pictures

Don't necessarily assume that a high-speed drive will be the cure-all for great images.
Eons ago, when I instructed young journalists and interns in the dark art of photography for newspapers, I'd show a few pictures of a baseball player striking a ball, with the ball-on-the-bat look. And then I'd do the math, explaining how a three-frame-per second burst, or a five-frame per second burst was still too slow in terms of how much the ball moved in relation to the frame.
Timing and knowing shutter lag is the big thing. Huge. My suggested exercise ...create a pendulum on about a 4-5 foot length of twine. Hang the pendulum so that you can capture pictures of it such that when it is at its furthest extent of motion, it lines up at or near a vertical object in the background (I'd hang the pendulm off the ceiling near a door in the office to demonstrate.) Set the camera for about 1/250 sec exposure, then put the pendulum in motion, and practice until you can anticipate when in the arc to depress the shutter release button ... and have the image capture the pendulum right in line with the vertical object in the background.
This is a great way to teach shutter lag (and anticipation) and demonstrates that great action/candid shots are not necessarily the result of a bajillion frame-per-second cameras, but good anticipation.

IIRC, some good track-racing shots are often found just at the end of a turn, as cyclists are coming out of an impressive lean. Many moves are made just after this point. Set up there, crouching low, with a short-ish lens, reasonable DOF ... and you'll have a kind of one-shot-per lap situation anyway.