Drag Bike

Friday night I made my first attempt of taking pictures at the local dragway Mason-Dixon Dragway in Hagerstown, MD. I had very few keepers being it was my first attempt and my timing was off. This is my best shot from the evening.

Nice shot, I like it!! (but no exif?)

Its a little soft, but not bad...

Steve Beck wrote in post #10775151
Its a little soft, but not bad...

That is the one thing that bugs me, I wish the bike was sharper but I was having trouble keeping up with the speed of the bikes that evening.

Jules.r wrote in post #10774546
Nice shot, I like it!! (but no exif?)

Thanks! Here is the exif:
Camera & Lens 7D & 70-200 2.8 IS II
Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 120 mm
ISO Speed 800

Bikes are hard. They accelerate very rapidly and they are a smaller target than cars. I also find their bright headlights give my autofocus fits. Just practice. You'll eventually get it.

Just shot a motorcycle drag race this weekend. If you want to see the images from it, go here:

http://jimmarlett.zenf​olio.com/p856748707

Excellent shots in that album, I see it is definitively something that takes practice. Did you use any fill in your shots?

Got Torque 570 wrote in post #10794285
Excellent shots in that album, I see it is definitively something that takes practice. Did you use any fill in your shots?

Yes, I did use fill for a bunch of the shots. Just a 580EX on HSS. I think I was using Tv with the shutter speed set for 1/1000 for most of them, but I'm too lazy to actually look. Drag bikes tend to launch so quickly that is it worthless to try to use a slow shutter speed for a panned look. At least I always end up with a blurred bike if I don't try to freeze the action. I find that black leathers tend to disappear in the shadows without fill or some post processing work or both. I don't use fill flash as often as I should.

Great shot, but do Hyabusas need to be any faster ?
Tom

Since you asked about my technique, I probably ought to add that I shoot from trackside most of the time. If you're shooting from the stands, fill flash is not very useful. It is probably better to go down track an pan the shots. It isn't so much the fact that the bikes are going fast as it is the rate of change (acceleration) from the starting line. The farther down track you go, the less rate of change you encounter. You have to find a happy medium where acceleration is reasonable and speed is not so high that you can't keep up. If you are constrained by sitting in the bleachers and the light is starting to go away, then down track panning is the way to go. Even that will take some practice, but if you do it enough, you'll get the hang of it.

Thanks for the tips Jim. When I got to the track the track side was already lined with other spectators so I had no option but to sit in the bleachers and try the panning technique. I also wanted to work on panning on this outing since I haven't had much time to practice panning shots.

I did notice that right off the line was my best bet for panning. I could never get the timing quite right in the short distance I had to work with because of the rapid acceleration of all the vehicles running that evening. Hopefully next time I can get track side and use some fill.

Busas always need to be faster