Cycling - "Superweek" (part 1)

Superweek is a series of bicycle races in the Chicago/Milwaukee area, now in it's 42nd year, and actually lasts 17 days. We're now on day 6 and I was lucky enough to land a contract to shoot for the organizers, so I'm there every day! Here's a few shots from the first few races. Not necessarily *best of* but hopefully interesting, I try to mix it up. In the Pro category, we currently have racers from Australia, Germany, South Africa, France, Colombia, and the national team from Trinidad and Tobago. GALLERY

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Wow, great shots!!

agreed.....the logo really detracts imo.

1downfall wrote in post #10538238
agreed.....the logo really detracts imo.

Thank you.

It's supposed to!

I don't understand why the logo takes away from these pics (they will be for sale).

Anyway, those are sweet photos! I LOVE the second shot! You pans are great also!

Great eye for composition, good job panning as well.

Looks like you are earning your keep.

Great shots John!

love the last shot..really gives the sense of movement and a feeling of shooting out of the peloton...nice series..

The panning shot is impressive. Never attempted panning, but I know the keeper rate is very very low. Awesome shot.

Thanks everybody. Some of those races had the riders going by me 50 to 70 times, so I had plenty of chance to experiment - creeping my shutter speed down to 1/40th of a second. If you can hit it at that speed, they turn out pretty well.

#1 Could be pretty awesome without the guy on the right side of the frame.
#2 Best of what you posted. Well composed and it really helps give a sense of motion and energy
#3 Too soft
#4 Seriously? A crooked picture that looks like it was taken with a point and shoot?
#5 Really solid pan. Nice work
#6 Another really nice capture. Personal nit-pick but Id do something different with the crop rather than have them just cutting through the middle of the frame.

AdamLewis wrote in post #10550043
#1 Could be pretty awesome without the guy on the right side of the frame. Standard crop ratio of 4x6
#2 Best of what you posted. Well composed and it really helps give a sense of motion and energy Got lucky. Just shooting what came around the corner.
#3 Too soft Yeah, but he's going away from me and I caught the Metra train in the back ground! He's chasing the train! See the sparks?
#4 Seriously? A crooked picture that looks like it was taken with a point and shoot? That was taken at 8:30pm on a dark street as he's riding toward us at 28mph, plus you can't stand in the street in front of him, there's 60 guys right behind trying to beat him! I challenge anyone to get such a nice photo in those conditions. Really, those shots are REALLY HARD.
#5 Really solid pan. Nice work Thanks. Yeah, I don't have the EXIF handy on that, but I think it was at 1/20th. Very lucky shot.
#6 Another really nice capture. Personal nit-pick but Id do something different with the crop rather than have them just cutting through the middle of the frame.I dunno, where do you want them? Again standard 4x6 crop ratio.

Just a bit on the finish photos (#4). Again, this is at 8:30pm on a typical city street. You can't stand out in front of him because you'll get run over, better than 90% of the time you're behind the barriers with everybody else, plus you really don't know what's going to come around the final corner. One guy? Two guys? 10 guys gutter to gutter? Will the winner be on the right side or left side of the street? Will he have time to get his arms in the air as he crosses the line? or will it be 10 meters past it? If you're too far away from him, he'll be under exposed and noisy because you've got your ISO at 1,000 or higher. Too close and you risk blowing him out with your flash. Too slow of a shutter speed and he's blurry plus the camera has a hard time focusing on a dark object coming at you in the first place!

Really, I shoot hundreds of bike races a year, and these twilight finishes are REALLY HARD to get right. I do have some methods to increase my keeper rate, but if I told you ... I have to kill you.

I'm really surprised nobody mentioned my dirty sensor.

These are great... I really like the panned images!

Day 9 out of 17. Hotter than blazes, so I pretty much parked my butt under a tree and pushed the envelope of shutter speed. 1/10, f22, ISO50. Any slower and I start over exposing pretty badly. I think that's the limit with my MkII N.

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