Club racing at Summit Point Raceway

HarveyMushman · July 8, 2006

Championship Club Series
Summit Point, West Virginia
2 July 2006

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I'm trying to learn here, so as always comments and criticism are welcome. Conditions were not ideal, with 95 degree temps and very harsh sunlight.

Jeffro · July 8, 2006

HarveyMushman wrote:

I'm trying to learn here, so as always comments and criticism are welcome.

When you're asking for C&C it's best to add the exif info.

Several of your shots are a bit OOF, and I can't tell if it was the aperature, the shutter speed, or if it was related to your focusing or panning.

I know some will tell you to get "face" shots instead of butt shots, and I would agree, when it's possible..:D

Not a terrible effort, the composition on them are pretty good to me.

HarveyMushman · July 8, 2006

Jeffro wrote:

Several of your shots are a bit OOF, and I can't tell if it was the aperature, the shutter speed, or if it was related to your focusing or panning.

Mostly panning, I think, although I do try to use as slow a shutter speed that I can get away with. In these instances I never dropped below 1/500, which should have been sufficient. I need to practice panning more.

I know some will tell you to get "face" shots instead of butt shots, and I would agree, when it's possible..:D

I know (and agree) but I like to try different angles sometimes.

Not a terrible effort, the composition on them are pretty good to me.

Not terrible. That's something, I guess.

Jeffro · July 8, 2006

HarveyMushman wrote:

Not terrible. That's something, I guess.

Okay maybe "not terrible" was a terrible choice of wording......

I thought the colors were good too, despite what you said about it being harsh lighting.

I'd try a faster shutter, with the panning, because I'm sure they are going fast enough to keep the back ground blurred...or try picking up the rider sooner start focusing earlier, and remember to follow through after you stop shooting.

Keep shooting!!

wxwax · July 8, 2006

Nice work, Mr, Mushy!

I like your first shot a lot, even tho the bike is hideously ugly.

An improvement might be to have more activity in the track bit to the right, the location of the bikes doesn't feel quite balanced. But a very nice shot.

I think 2, 6 and 8 could be strengthened a lot with some cropping. Unfortunately, neither machine is sharp in 8.

And ponytail girl is hot (it is a girl, isn't it? :uhoh )

mercphoto · July 8, 2006

Jeffro wrote:

I know some will tell you to get "face" shots instead of butt shots, and I would agree, when it's possible..:D

I'll go a bit further than that and ask what your intentions are. From a brief two years of selling photos to amateur racers I've learned that there are shots that people buy, and there are shots that photographers love to take and love to see. They are often times different critters. Surprisingly often the shots "we" find boring are the ones that sell, and the ones "we" find exciting are the ones racers don't bother buying.

HarveyMushman · July 8, 2006

Jeffro wrote:

Okay maybe "not terrible" was a terrible choice of wording......

I thought the colors were good too, despite what you said about it being harsh lighting.

I'd try a faster shutter, with the panning, because I'm sure they are going fast enough to keep the back ground blurred...or try picking up the rider sooner start focusing earlier, and remember to follow through after you stop shooting.

Keep shooting!

Thanks. Re: panning, I'm not concerned about a sufficiently blurred background. That's easy to get. What I'm interested in is blurred wheels and the sense the motion they give. Too fast a shutter speed and you can begin to count wheel spokes--bad news in my book. Of course this means my panning has to be damn good, or I'll be throwing a bunch of images away. None of these are sharp enough for my tastes.

HarveyMushman · July 8, 2006

wxwax wrote:

Nice work, Mr, Mushy!

I like your first shot a lot, even tho the bike is hideously ugly. An improvement might be to have more activity in the track bit to the right, the location of the bikes doesn't feel quite balanced. But a very nice shot.

I think 2, 6 and 8 could be strengthened a lot with some cropping. Unfortunately, neither machine is sharp in 8.

And ponytail girl is hot (it is a girl, isn't it? :uhoh )

Thanks, Sid. Yes, it's a girl.

I'm gonna go crop the ones you mentioned . . .

HarveyMushman · July 9, 2006

HarveyMushman wrote:

I'm gonna go crop the ones you mentioned . . .

Quickie recrops . . .

wxwax · July 9, 2006

I think they're much stronger.

Hey, if you happen to have Photoshop, you might try this technique to get a little more sharpness.

Daddio · July 10, 2006

Thanks for sharing these. I need to get out to Summit Point again sometime soon.

These do look a little soft to me...the action shots anyway. That BMW looks pretty dang cool! I'd like to see a shot of that one on the track.

HarveyMushman · July 10, 2006

Daddio wrote:

Thanks for sharing these. I need to get out to Summit Point again sometime soon.

These do look a little soft to me...the action shots anyway. That BMW looks pretty dang cool! I'd like to see a shot of that one on the track.

The action shots are indeed soft. Not one of my finer outings.

I don't have any action shots of the K1200R. Prior to my arrival at the track it suffered a "crankcase venting" problem. :uhoh

Club racing at Summit Point Raceway

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