Laguna Seca MotoGP practice day (first post)

[Schwany]

I am a new member to this site. I met Skip Souza a couple of years ago at Laguna Seca. He said POTN was a good place to play. I'm finally getting around to joining up.

Here are some shots I took at Laguna Seca yesterday (the max amount allowed per post). I used a 40D and 300f4L IS for the shots between turn 3 and turn 4 (the wheelie shots), and a 200f2.8L for the overheads at Rainey Curve.

I hope I did the embedding correctly. If not, I'm sure somebody will let me know. Enjoy

Neil Hodgson

http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/Hodgson02958_8x6c.jpg




http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/Hodgson02198_8x6.jpg

Some MotoGP stars.
Pedrosa
http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/Pedrosa02572_8x6.jpg

Nicky Hayden
http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/NickyH02333_8x6.jpg

Lorenzo
http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/Lorenzo02315_8x6.jpg

Rossi
http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/Rossi02349_8x6c.jpg

End of morning practice wheelie
http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/PracticeOverRossi_8x6.jpg

Stoner
http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/Stoner03053_8x6c.jpg

[Gilly71]

Fantastic shots there, especially the first one of Hodgson. Class!

[Gravelrash]

Wow, these are stunning! Thanks for sharing.

[Naturally Aspirated]

very nice! i love the overhead shots a lot!

[1Twist]

The set is great. The first and last one really exceptional.

[UK_Tomcat_Fan]

rossi wheelie for me :)

[priorityone]

didnt know yamaha change ther front headlite farings to the older ones..

[Swiss Toni]

What a superb shot of Lorenzo, look at the concentration on his face, the lad's a real trier.

All the images are great quality.

[hypers2k]

Hey, great shots mate, i am a Rossi fan, but that shot of Lorenzo really shows the effort the man makes, well done

[RRocket]

Awesome shots of an awesome race. Too bad Rossi's last lap push was not enough. What a rider.

[Schwany]

Thanks folks.

I initially went out to the practice sessions Friday to see if a 400f5.6L would
be usable for motorcycles. I didn't do well with it. Maybe if the riders had
been covered in feathers it would have worked. he he

[Patrick-70]

very good shots.

[2wheeler]

Great shots. Lorenzo fan for G.P. I like Hodgson for AMA, he lives on the Isle of Man, and the company I work for is a major sponsor for the bike. Cheer for the home team !!!!!

[Skip Souza]

Hey guy, it's been a long time. I haven't made it at all to Laguna Seca this year.
I like the ones of Neil Hodgson the best. That overhead shot at Rainey curve is tough, they are gone in a nano second. Good work all around.

I would like to see some more if you have them.

[Schwany]

Great shots. Lorenzo fan for G.P. I like Hodgson for AMA, he lives on the Isle of Man, and the company I work for is a major sponsor for the bike. Cheer for the home team !!!!!

I like Hodgson too. Mellow and a very smooth rider. I've been cheering for him ever since he came over to the AMA, but the competition is pretty tough while Matt is still around.

[Schwany]

Hey guy, it's been a long time. I haven't made it at all to Laguna Seca this year.
I like the ones of Neil Hodgson the best. That overhead shot at Rainey curve is tough, they are gone in a nano second. Good work all around.

I would like to see some more if you have them.

Hi Skip,

Thanks. I wasn't running around at this event too much and only shot at 2 locations. So the shots would be very repetitive. I left early to get out of the traffic as well. Normally I finish up at turn 11 when it's all lit up just right. Not this time.

Anyway, I'll dig through the pile (17GBs worth after tossing the out of frame shots) and see if I have anything else. Maybe some more AMA riders.

[fortisi876]

The last one is one of my fav angles but slightly too soft imo.

Got any of Nicky with that hot new paint scheme they gave him?

[Cyclop]

Excellent series of shots! Duc's rule!

[Schwany]

The last one is one of my fav angles but slightly too soft imo.

Got any of Nicky with that hot new paint scheme they gave him?

Thanks

Nope, I couldn't come back on race day when Nicky had the cool paint on.

They are all soft for the most part, and I'm not real big on excessive
sharpening. Although I do my share.

I fight DOF issues a lot when panning at any angle other than straight out
in front of me, so only certain parts of the shot are relatively sharp. I also
shoot at slowish shutter speeds, which aggravates any photographer
errors, or unusual motions that the motorcycle may make.

Below is an example of quick and unusual motorcycle movement:

This shot would have been one of my my best shots of the day except that
Rossi's rear end stepped out exactly when I pressed the shutter. How do I
know this? He is getting up out of the saddle, has a lot of pressure on his
right foot, and only the rear end and his foot are fuzzy.

http://www.schwany.com/09motogp/VRossi02381_8x6.jpg

[slider2828]

Wow did you have a media pass to get so close and clear?

[Schwany]

Excellent series of shots! Duc's rule!

Yep, got one in the garage. Almost as good as a Norton. Kidding, the Ducati can stop.

[Mark Cullenane]

Great shots, love the panning technique for the blured backgrounds

[Schwany]

Wow did you have a media pass to get so close and clear?

I shot 24 gigabytes of RAWs. I was bound to get a couple in focus. ;-)

Truth is I use prime lenses and I know where to stand on the spectator side
of the fence to pan with the focal lengths I have. I don't have
a media pass. I'd be very happy if I had one. I'm only medium happy.

BTW: I don't want to get into a prime verses zoom thing. It's just a preference.

[slider2828]

THey are great pics, I couldn't even get close to that, my 70-200 just couldn't reach.... Need at least a 1.4x on top of it or 300 price would be perfecto!

[Sharpstat]

Great shots.

[pappawheely]

nailed it! Nice shots.

[Babba_gee]

Nice man, Your shots came out very good, I really like the rossi one!

[boboy888]

nice set of shots, thanks for sharing