Rocky Mountain Roubaix - Early Season Cycling (7 images)

Got to chance to shoot an early season roubaix this weekend here in western Montana. Comments and criticism appreciated as always. All were shot with the 40D and 100-400 L.
1.

Really great shots, love the 2nd photo most of all.

Rubbish, send me your camera and lens

Seriously 1,4 and 6 are quality!

I would crop #6 more but they look good.

Glad people are enjoying the shots. I find bicycle road racing really tough to shoot because you don't get many opportunities as they go by and that it unless you move ahead of them again. Next time I would like to try and get better backgrounds than I did this time around.

They are nice photos in general, but with a bit different cropping you would get great photos instead of just ok photos
But that I won't just complain, I will explain, how I would crop them.
#1 - A bit on top, just above helmets, and on bottom where shadow on road starts. Shadow makes too much of contrast, and there's nothing there to lead eye to there anyway. Maybe a bit more on right wouldn't hurt either. You don't need all that much space around cyclists.
#3 - Same as #1
#4 - Personally I don't like shots with half legs. Include all or crop more. So this one I would crop just under handlebars and a bit, not much, on right. But on right, empty space works fine for me.
#6 - Would be cool if it wouldn't be that early. This early you have just ugly looking half green grass, but composition is cool. But to make it work really good, try cropping it just above cyclists. You have enough space on bottom, so you don't need additional one on top. Especially because background is not that spectacular.
#2, #5, and #7 are fine for me, so I wouldn't change them
PS: I'm used to really tight cropping (thanks to my first boss), so...

Thanks Primoz! This is the kind I feedback that I'm really looking for. When I have some time frre up I will work on the cropping a bit and see how it all works out. Thanks again for looking and giving feedback.
-John

primoz wrote in post #5346838
They are nice photos in general, but with a bit different cropping you would get great photos instead of just ok photos
But that I won't just complain, I will explain, how I would crop them.
#1 - A bit on top, just above helmets, and on bottom where shadow on road starts. Shadow makes too much of contrast, and there's nothing there to lead eye to there anyway. Maybe a bit more on right wouldn't hurt either. You don't need all that much space around cyclists.
#3 - Same as #1
#4 - Personally I don't like shots with half legs. Include all or crop more. So this one I would crop just under handlebars and a bit, not much, on right. But on right, empty space works fine for me.
#6 - Would be cool if it wouldn't be that early. This early you have just ugly looking half green grass, but composition is cool. But to make it work really good, try cropping it just above cyclists. You have enough space on bottom, so you don't need additional one on top. Especially because background is not that spectacular.
#2, #5, and #7 are fine for me, so I wouldn't change them
PS: I'm used to really tight cropping (thanks to my first boss), so...