Moving motorcycle shots!

[jdmhon]

I wanted to take pictures of a friend riding his motorcycle. I haven't done any moving shots yet and I thought id take a stab at it.

My idea was to have someone drive my truck while I shoot from the back drivers side corner of the bed and have another friend hold a 22" kacey beauty dish with a grid and an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra at the other end of the bed while my rider friend rides behind us at around 20-25mph.

I was thinking about going with a shutter speed around 1/40-1/80 depending on my focal length I am using to blur the background and hopefully stop a lot of the motion of my friend riding with the flash in the beauty dish.


any suggestions or recommendations for doing this type of shot? any help will be appreciated.

[Stan_Fox]

If you do this, see if you can get a safety harness, just in case. Almost had a buddy loose his life doing a shoot like this (professionally). Even bouncing off the pavement at 25mph hurts like heck, not to mention the loss of gear!

Try shooting with the tailgate down, while laying down. A yoga mat helps a lot with this, too. A lens with IS will help a lot, and I prefer to go shorter than longer focal length, where possible. You'd be surprised at how bouncy most roads are!

Good luck and be safe!

[jdmhon]

thanks for the tips!

[TPhantom]

Thanks for the tip! I'm planning to do the same thing with my friend's bike. Although it will be hard.

[Master of Defenestration]

I know this is an old thread...But if you strobe it...You'll freeze most of the motion you're going for in the picture.