A little mountain biking

Photogbiker

My son rides for NAU in Flagstaff AZ. They hosted a SW collegiate race this weekend and wife and I decided to head up and watch. Mountain biking is a little difficult, shoot the start, wait 40 minutes and shoot them passing and hope race is two laps. Of course they spread out on course pretty good so after first rider passes there is a steady stream coming by every 30 seconds to a minute.

1


2


3


4

Don't let ponytail fool you, this girl can ride!

Good time and team took SW championship so on to nationals in the spring. :thumb

jmphotocraft

Good captures, but I would like to see the DOF of #4 on all of them. A blurred background is a major factor in a professional looking image, if you ask me.

Another thing to try would be pan-blur to convey speed.

lifeinfocus

#2 is my fav. with the riders eyes straight into the camera, the angle of the bike, the background showing where he has been are all very good.

Phil

Photogbiker

Thanks for comments. #2 is my favorite of the day, but #1 is my son. Oh well.

Good point JM, I agree. Was using my 70-200 2.8 but was a bit cautious about being wide open and getting an arm in focus and face out. These kids were zipping by pretty quick so really testing my skills at keeping focus point on the face. In the end I chickened out and went f5 or 5.6. Would you have stayed f2.8 all day? I shoot them on road races and do a few pan blurs, but on trail it is too close and variable to get a good pan.

#1 was a 24mm and very close to trail, had to roll out of way a couple times. f4 or 5 on this lens is obviously infinite dof but I liked the perspective. Trade off.

Thanks,

Earache

I think you did a great job with these!

As a photographer, avid Mountain Biker, and consumer of MTB images and publications, it's my opinion that - very often - MTB action-shots
are better presented with a long(ish) DOF. In MTB'ing the setting/trail/terrain is contextual and of interest to the viewer,
so it's nice to see some of the details of the surroundings. Short DOF is indeed preferable in rider portraits like your #4.

Check-out the work of this PRO UK photog to see many different techniques and uses of DOF:
http://www.russellburton.co.uk/#!/index

Photogbiker

Thanks Earache, for the comment and link. His shots fall more to the wider angle with flash that I used for shot #1 (and many that day), which means a bit greater dof. I can see your and his point that with MTB the scenery a part of the overall story where football or the excellent soccer photos posted by JMPhoto are really about the person. In a field sport the background (coaches, crowd, etc) would be distracting and make it hard to pick out the person of interest because they would blend in, whereas a lone mtn biker in the forest with a colorful jersey is easy to pick out and doesn't get lost in background.

Interesting to consider. Only solution is to shoot more and see what we like!