AMA Motorcross - Red Bull Nationals

[ForumMuppet]

5D3, 300mm, f/2.8, 1/2000sec, ISO 100

5D3, 300mm, f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 100

5D3, 300mm, f/2.8, 1/1600sec, ISO 100

5D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II @ 145mm, f/11, 1/100sec, ISO 100

 

[paul13walnut5]

2nd two are very good, the first two are potentially brilliant, great depth great fall off great action great colour, you can almost smell the high octane fuel, feel the shail as they burst past, ears rattling..

Like these two an awful lot, but... I know you are using a big prime lens here, I just feel the crop is too severe, obviously if its the out the box composition you are stuck, if it's a later crop I would consider giving it 10% more space around the frame so as not to clip the helmets or the wheels.

For sports stuff I like to try and find an end compostion that I can let the camera pan to and then rest, I need the pan to let my aiservo start doing it's stuff ahead of the burst, I just get the feeling here that you've been tracking and lost focus on the composition slightly.

I'm being very critical here, hyper-critical, on the cusp of being ridiculously unreasonably critical, it's just that I love the first two images so much for everything else, if they were 10% wider they would just be absolutely perfect.

 

[candyman]

What a great combo: 5D MK III and 300 f/2.8 II. The lens is in my list.

 

[ForumMuppet]

Thanks guys, yes I LOVE this lens. The images I captured at the Motorcross are the first ones I shot with it as I just received the lens two days before the event. This was also my first attempt at getting used to back button focus.

Pauli, thanks for the feedback! I like hyper critical. Yes, these are all full framed compositions only scaled for the web. The only thing I could have done was to step back with the physical zoom. But once I did that someone would have stepped into my spot and I would be shooting the back of their head. :

 

[paul13walnut5]

I understand completely.

I've shot speedway motorcycling with a fixed 200 and a 70-200, I vastly prefered using the prime (50% less brain noise at the busiest moment, can concentrate purely on panning) but the images were better from the zoom, more keepers at least, by dint of the flexibility. Modern zoom optics can be cropped substantially for most purposes, certainly at least by the 1.5x deficit between the 200 and 300.

If you are going to stick with the prime then maybe its an idea to arrive earlier, during warm ups and use these to get the optimum position for the composition.

Brilliant image none the less, the measure if these kind if shots is 'do you feel like you were there?'
Emphatic yes.

 

[scottkinfw]

Awesome pics!

This is not my genre but I have tried it before, so I know how difficult these shots are to get. That said- awesome job.

My favs are #1&2. # 4 is totally different with the panning effect, and that too is great. I always forget to pan for some reason, so great use of this technique.

sek

 

[CarlTN]

The first two are better, yes...great job!