Mountain Bike Race

[Scurra]

I went to a mountain bike race back home quite recently and decided i'd try and emulate some images from my favourite bike publications, so I took my 20D along.. All that dust and a DSLR wasn't a good idea but it was great fun. Let me know what you think of this image:

Taken while I was standing alarmingly close to where several people had already burst through the tape at the side of the track on their way to the ground in a cloud of dust.

 

[Xmetal]

I like how the rider is in perfect focus, draws my eyes straight to it.

 

[Scurra]

Yeah I like that too, especially the concentration on the riders eyes being so clear. I had to blur the background by panning though because as you can see there would have been a lot of distractions had it been sharp as well.

I'm not too sure about the composition though, I like the leaves at the top of the image but theres that area of nothingeness between the rider and them. I did shoot some in a landscape format as well.. I'll find one so that you can compare to portrait.

 

[Scurra]

Ok here is a landscape format image.. taken on a different part of the downhill course. It was harder to centre the rider in the frame because I couldn't see them coming, I was stood between some trees just after a jump so I had to rely on hearing them to know when to be ready to shoot.

 

[Happy Medium]

great shots, you really capture the energy involved. and even though that last one is cut off, i like the effect of the rider looking through the shot.

 

[CleeM.]

I mountain bike Those are some great shots. I know what you mean by its hard to take pictures when they are going so fast and you cant see them coming. I really like the first one.