Twilight Criterium Bike Race

[Hazel Grant]

Part of the weekend celebration of my only granddaugher's first birthday was attending my first pro bike race, the Twilight Criterium in Athens, Ga. A fun event! They raced a circuit right through Athens at about 40mph (I think that was the speed). So, camera in hand, I tried to practice my speed shots and blurs. This is one. Light was difficult because it was already 9 pm when they started.
Nikon D40x, 1/13th sec, F4, 1600 iso 24mm no flash, hand held, cropped about 25%.

I am wondering if the whole thing is just too blurry or if there is enough contrast between the slower bikers in the back and those blurring in the front to give the idea of the bursts of speed encountered.

[Dennis Bishop]

I like the motion blur in this, although just a bit less would probably have been as effective. Including the crowd helps to add to the excitement of the event, and I particularly like having the man in the foreground loom so large with the wide angle lens. That adds immensely to the feeling of depth as well as helping to keep the eye directed toward the action of the bicyclists.

At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about the dark shadow above the street. On one hand, it's distracting, to me at least. On the other, it very much helps to show the time of day. My solution was to crop some off the top (even at the cost of losing part of the man's head). It not only took care of the shadow distraction but helped to focus attention on the racers.

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks for your specific comments. As I said, action shots are a new area for me, so I wasn't sure how this fared. The crop does focus more on the action. It was 9 pm, so street lights were all the available light.

Oh, and I like the quote you post from Outdoor Photographer....right on.

[Jay Gould]

When you look at the building line behind the racers it is terribly out of square; sorry! The whole image is leaning to the left. I took the image in LR and straightened, cropped, and played with lots of sliders. WDYT?

[Dennis Bishop]

When you look at the building line behind the racers it is terribly out of square; sorry! The whole image is leaning to the left. I took the image in LR and straightened, cropped, and played with lots of sliders. WDYT?

I'd noticed, too, that there was a CCW lean to the image. To me, whether to rotate it, or not, seemed to be a decision based on what the image was to portray. For a documentary shot, vertical should be vertical. However, for an image showing what it's like to be part of an excited crowd experiencing the action, the lean is not only okay but probably a plus.

[Andrew Aveley]

Being creative here has worked well. Having photographed a lot of sport, the mood and angle here is one that is very representative of what we see hanging over the barriers to see the racers.IQ not th ebest but a great attempt non the less.

[Robert Amoruso]

Hazel,

When I first looked at this image a few days ago I was unsure how I felt about it then then I did not feel it meet the stated purpose in your post. Today I see Dennis' repost and find that a new crop adds greatly to the dynamics and impact of the image. The obvious slant to give a feeling of being there and leaning over the barrier. The crop is what the image needed.