StudioJ and myself went along to the WA vs Malaysia Grand Prix track cycling event held here in Perth on Sat night to take some shots (see thread here for info).

It was the first time I'd shot cycling in a velodrome, so there was a bit of experimentation with positioning, lenses and technique involved. But overall I was very happy with my results. It turned out to be similar lighting and shooting conditions to the figure skating nationals I shot a few months ago (see here for some shots of that event) but with fewer problems with shadows and white balance, but I was most often squeezing everything out of camera and lens to keep my shutter speeds high (1600ISO, f/4.0, 200mm with shutter speeds around 1/250th). Mind you it was also an excellent chance to go for a slow shutter speed and practice my panning skills.. and I was very happy with my panning results considering my previous attempts.
One thing I think we both noticed was... these guys are FAST! Its one thing to watch cycling on TV, but when you are standing on the edge of the track you really get an appreciation of the speed which you can't get on TV.
At the end of the day, all my shots had a much higher hit rate than at the ice skating which I was very happy about. It seems I am making progress with each of these little outings.
But having said that, while very happy with the shots, I don't think I got any shots that really made me sit back and go "wow" either. Maybe I need to shoot more cycling to learn how to capture the passion of the athletes better? Maybe because it was a friendly event there wasn't the tension or passion in the athletes as there would be in a major event? Who knows...

But here is a small sample of what I ended up with:


1. Apart from the Malaysia vs WA races there were plenty of other races too, from juniors to masters.


2. West Australians in gold and black, Malaysians in blue and black.


3. Practicing my panning - 1/45th second @ 200mm (320mm equiv)


4. This is almost a good shot.. grrr.. If only the barrier rail wasn't there and I didn't push quite so far with the slow shutter speed (1/30th second @ 200mm), as the guy on the right is the only one who's sharp. But I was very happy with the motion blurred background and their relative positions (and the fact they are all WAIS athletes too).


5. These guys look like dominoes being pushed over!


6. Ever get the feeling you're being watched?


7. I felt sorry for these blokes. Not only was this guy sponsored by Enjo, but the whole WA team was sponsored by Interflora! How un-manly! Poor guys..


8. This was one of the very few shots where I felt I captured some of their determination.. But they were very tough to get.

Oh.. and overall the WA team beat Malaysia! yaay!

Yay! Awesome pics, Adrian... must have been very hard to capture, I imagine.

Were you in the stands?

Thanks ST.

I was suprised that it didn't feel all that difficult to shoot compared to the ice skating shots yet I was using slower shutter speeds and the subjects were travelling faster. But I guess a cyclist is a lot easier to pan with than a skater who is changing direction often.

We were pretty much allowed anywhere we wanted which was fantastic... just as long as we kept an eye out for bikes! (more so the bikes that were warming up by doing laps inside the track)

So we spent most of the night inside the track, basically just a metre or two from the riders as they flew past.
But I did get some of my best shots from the outside of the track where the seating was - at the start of the turn after the finish line looking back down the straight.
Shots #2, #3, and #4 were all taken from this position.

And in what is becoming a tradition, I lost Jamie at the end of the night!

Kombisaurus Wrote:We were pretty much allowed anywhere we wanted which was fantastic... just as long as we kept an eye out for bikes! (more so the bikes that were warming up by doing laps inside the track)

Awesome... must have been the white lenses, eh?

Love your 4th shot by the way (the almost good one) and also the last one - great perspective...

Great series Adrian. #3 is my favorite. Their formation really adds to the photo as well as your panning.

Good pics Adrian,worth going there.

hi

some nice shots there, as a matter of interest what kind of lighting was there in the track velodrome? your shots look a bit to the magenta.

i love this sport

regards

Great shots - wish I could have been there too.

Fantastic pictures, Adrian....
It must be very interesting to take pictures there... Your panning pictures are great!
However the one I like the most is the last one... One gets really close to the cyclists...

Graet action shots - my fav is #4.

Number 4 is my favourite too. Funnily enough I have an identical image to your #2 but taken from a different position at the same time.

Capturing these shots was pretty hard, being so close to the action is very different, much harder to catch when they move so quickly.

I've attached a few of my favourites from the night, thanks to Hippyosaurus I mean Adrian for inviting us along.

Thanks for the kind words folks..
There's still plenty of room for me to improve, but at least I feel like I am making progress which is the main thing.
And I feel good just going along. I wouldn't normally think to go and watch track cycling, yet I had a great time. I think the same could be said with just about any sport at a decent level... Once you are in amongst it all, you get caught up in it.

I have a number of other decent panning shots.. well actually I have HEAPS of similar shots to all the ones I posted... but they all start to look pretty similar after a while. I guess that's what happens when they are riding around in circles!

Christian... I was having a bit of a play with tweaking the white balance when doing the RAW conversion for these and wasn't using the same settings for each shot.. so they are a bit inconsistent.. and I was using an uncalibrated monitor too. Note that I said "was"? Its not uncalibrated anymore. yaay.

Hey Jamie.. there you are!

Cool shots.. And amazing about both our #2 shots! They really are identical, and look like they were taken only 1/2 crank rotation apart (maybe 1/2 second?)

haha.. I remember you telling me about the raised hand of victory shot! It's a great shot, but was a bit of a shame that this was the closest thing to anyone celebrating for the night. Nobody seemed all that pumped up about their races.. not very excited when they won or disappointed when they didn't.

Cheers
Adrian

Great stuff from both of you!

Great shots Jamie... I notice yours are missing the rails, which is pretty cool. I like the perspective of the last 3 - it just seems so close to the action! Well done, dude!

hi

thanks

take care

christian

Great work guys, looks like you had fun.

Really good stuff boys; you're so obviously on top of the kit: lovely control..and a lot of hard work there!