MSteele wrote in post #5765492
Very well done. Those photos came out extra sharp. Were you in the stands when taking these? They don't look to be too much higher than you and I know those guys get some serious height.
I remember how big of a deal it was when Carey Hart landed the first backflip in competition and now these guys doing cordova's in mid flip and all kinds of other combos! It crazy how fast these tricks evolve.
Yes, I was in the stands, but this spot was closer to the riders, maybe 50-60 yards. And as far as height, yes, about the same (eye level, wheel level perhaps) whenever they jumped straight across.
I must confess that being my first live event of this kind, and having seen spiffy X-game events, and other stuff through Video, when I saw the ramp and the landing at less than 100ft (yes, that's short folks) from the ramp, I was sorely dissapointed. In fact, I even delayed my deployment of gear until the warm-ups.
These folks were able to -without much terrain- accelerate their bikes, and seemingly cross the 85-95ft gap in what seemed like an eternity (In a couple of runs, I actually fit about 12-14 frames with the 1D3 in which the bike is never touching either ramp).
So I felt very lucky to get that perspective on the jumps, I am starting to look at all the photos (I got home late, so I still have not seen over 80% of the entire shoot) and as mentioned, it's like I am standing right by them.
FYI, I used the 1D3, and 70-200 2.8 IS (Actually most focal lengths varied between 150 and 200) I had my x2 TC in my pocket, and I experimented to try and capture some in-flight details of the riders, no clue if it worked out yet. I tweaked the ISO so that I would get 1/2500 to 1/4000 at f/4.5 (figured less would give me not as sharp results). I later increased the f stops, in order to slow down the speed and do some panning. Not sure how that worked out, but when I get to them, if anything came out remotely interesting, I will be sure to post it.
Thanks for the comments so far, y'all...
