Bicycle Race pic v. Tour of California

mylegacy412 · Feb 20, 2007

Today's stage of the Tour of California bike race ended in Sacramento (where i live) and since my mom is really into biking she wanted to go.

I figured it would be an opportunity to practice shooting fast moving targets, since I race motorcycles, when the season starts up I will want to shoot that too.

They only went by this part 3 times, so i didn't have much time for trial and error. I am pretty pleased with this picture, and just wanted to share (this is my first post) and would appreciate any feedback. thanks.

tsacain · Feb 20, 2007

Really good job. I have tried to do objects moving that fast and its is extremely hard.

morydd · Feb 20, 2007

Nice shot. That's Chris Horner of the USA by the way. I'm jealous.

mylegacy412 · Feb 20, 2007

morydd said:
Nice shot. That's Chris Horner of the USA by the way. I'm jealous.

thank you

LaFoto · Feb 21, 2007

Heya Mylegacy, and welcome to ThePhotoForum.
This is quite an impressive first photo here, panning is something that I haven't so far done very well, but interestingly enough, also my first attempt to pan was at a bicycle race. But I only had five attempts (we only came by that race in passinb) ... and they seemed to have slowed down quite a bit as to go round a bend, so ... it was easier

.

Well done. Post more!

fmw · Feb 21, 2007

Nice shot. I don't race but I'm a road cyclist for exercise and I do follow the pro tour. I hope the Tour of California is successful. This is the second year and it looks like it will be. It's good to have the pro teams here in the U.S. for a major event. They rarely leave Europe. It is a grueling sport and a great photo op.

mylegacy412 · Feb 21, 2007

LaFoto said:
Heya Mylegacy, and welcome to ThePhotoForum.
This is quite an impressive first photo here, panning is something that I haven't so far done very well, but interestingly enough, also my first attempt to pan was at a bicycle race. But I only had five attempts (we only came by that race in passinb) ... and they seemed to have slowed down quite a bit as to go round a bend, so ... it was easier .

Well done. Post more!

Yea i was on the straight away for the first lap they went by, but then i figured the corner would give a more interesting shot.
I know as a motorcycle racer that straightaway pics of us are kind of boring, but in the corners there is alot more action going on :thumbup:

fmw said:
Nice shot. I don't race but I'm a road cyclist for exercise and I do follow the pro tour. I hope the Tour of California is successful. This is the second year and it looks like it will be. It's good to have the pro teams here in the U.S. for a major event. They rarely leave Europe. It is a grueling sport and a great photo op.

Yes it was pretty exciting to have it come here. It was also nice to spend some time with my mom, since she loves biking so much.
Floyd Landis (sp) the guy who won the tour de france last year (from what i hear) was standing next to my mom in the crowd, and when he was asked to come to the podium to speak the cops wouldn't let him across the track, and the crowd had to help explain who he was :lol:

She was pretty excited to see him in person.

fmw · Feb 21, 2007

mylegacy412 said:
Yea i was on the straight away for the first lap they went by, but then i figured the corner would give a more interesting shot.
I know as a motorcycle racer that straightaway pics of us are kind of boring, but in the corners there is alot more action going on :thumbup:

Yes it was pretty exciting to have it come here. It was also nice to spend some time with my mom, since she loves biking so much.
Floyd Landis (sp) the guy who won the tour de france last year (from what i hear) was standing next to my mom in the crowd, and when he was asked to come to the podium to speak the cops wouldn't let him across the track, and the crowd had to help explain who he was She was pretty excited to see him in person.

Floyd won the inaugural Tour of California last year. I'm surprised he wasn't competing this year as defending champion. Perhaps it is because his former team is out of business.

mylegacy412 · Feb 21, 2007

fmw said:
Floyd won the inaugural Tour of California last year. I'm surprised he wasn't competing this year as defending champion. Perhaps it is because his former team is out of business.

my mom said it is because after winning the Tour de France last year he failed the drug test and was kicked off his team. Since then he has been busy trying to clear his name and retain his championship (they are trying to strip it from him).

fmw · Feb 21, 2007

mylegacy412 said:
my mom said it is because after winning the Tour de France last year he failed the drug test and was kicked off his team. Since then he has been busy trying to clear his name and retain his championship (they are trying to strip it from him).

His team completely folded. There is no reason he couldn't race in the T of C, however. I'm surprised he didn't. It would have been extremely easy for him to find a team.