Cross-country skiing - first race

It was the first race of the season in these parts. A chilly day, +4F but there was a good turnout.

1. The lead pack heads out on their first lap.

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The third photo is the best IMO

Cant see the last image. Sucks about the camera...

eigga wrote in post #9318380
The third photo is the best IMO

Cant see the last image. Sucks about the camera...

And nobody ever will ... the camera froze when I tried to shoot it!

Actually, the camera has come around and is working again. Whew!

Nice pics, I always love the colors of a XC Sking race.

How cold was it?

Biffbradford wrote in post #9319029
And nobody ever will ... the camera froze when I tried to shoot it!

Actually, the camera has come around and is working again. Whew!

glad your camera is working again. great pics !!

bigcat1967 wrote in post #9320497
How cold was it?

It was +4F with a windchill of -15F.

I've shot at -7F for several hours in the past with no problems but that was in the woods, this time I was standing out in the wind for about an hour. When the camera froze it just stopped half way through the shot. I had already shot 400+ pix before, so I don't know why it stopped. For the next 24 hours I kept getting the ERR 99 message so I just left it alone for another 6hrs, then it started working again. ??

Plenty more ski races yet this winter, so I'll see how it does next time!

Nice photos but maybe a bit wrong timing, as far as catching perfect position of skier goes, not something else. Colors and lightning is nice.
As far as camera goes, I it can actually "freeze". It didn't happen to me yet, but I know few friends who had same issues. On the other side, it could be, there was some snow/moisture coming between contacts, and when it was out on cold this thing freezed and... well you know result For this I have personal experience, when my 300/2.8 rolled down in snow, and I had whole bunch of problems for rest of that day (same error 99). After night on dry and warm, everything was fine again

Timing is tough when your shutter finger is numb or you have a hard time just finding the shutter through your mittens. Taking the mitts off was not an option, believe me, and I was thinking of glueing a small knob on the shutter button so I could feel it better. Missing that final shot was frustrating. Shortly after the leaders started their last 4km loop, I jumped on my skis and headed over to the finish line. It was only 1km away and I just barely made it in time. They were flying! (and I obviously wasn't )

Next race in two days ... night race under lousy lights. Can't wait!

Biffbradford wrote in post #9322656
Timing is tough when your shutter finger is numb or you have a hard time just finding the shutter through your mittens. Taking the mitts off was not an option, believe me, and I was thinking of glueing a small knob on the shutter button so I could feel it better.

Never thought of putting a remote in your mitten next to your warm fingers?

Biffbradford wrote in post #9322656
Timing is tough when your shutter finger is numb or you have a hard time just finding the shutter through your mittens.

Believe me I know Few weeks ago, I was shooting xc skiing World cup here, and temperatures were around -17c with bad wind and snow storm. On medal ceremony I was pressing shutter and wondering why the hell camera doesn't want to work. Then I looked and saw I'm actually not pressing shutter button, but 1cm next to it

X-images wrote in post #9326581
Never thought of putting a remote in your mitten next to your warm fingers?

Well, now thats an option! It was the first race this winter so I kind of shocked with the numb fingers and especially frozen shutter, and with it being a race, there's really very little time to react. I think I'm going to try and put some sticky velcro on the shutter to help me find it in the cold.