Faugheen 50 Shots

Eye

Was at the Faugheen 50 Races last weekend, finally got to give my new lens (70-200mm 2.8L) a good test.

Alot of it was trial and error, but over all i'm pleased with the results, it also helps that i had a press pass to get me to certain spots on the track

Plenty of action as always with any road racing.

Please let me know what you think and check out my flickr for the full sets

Travelling Medic:


Elbows At The Ready:


Synchronized Jumping:


Wheelies At Speed:


Braking Too Hard Too Late:


And The Consequences:


Only Thing Hurt was His Pride:


Many More on my flickr for anyone interested.

Now that i've seen just what this les is capable of i can't wait to try and do more sports photography, If anyone knows of any fast and exciting sports events coming up in the south east, let me know

mehfesto2

Really like #3 and #4.

Only thing about #3 is that my eye keeps going back to that bloody red/brown tree in the background. Other than that it's impressive that you time -and framed- the shot so well.

Same with #4. I like the angle and framing. Did you get low for this, or does the road dip?

Out of interest, did you try any panning shots?

One last thing, the bloke on the yellow bike in the second pic looks like an obese child on one of them rocking-bikes you see near the trolleys in Tescos!

whyulittle

#4 is great. I'd say #3 could benefit from a tighter crop. The reaction of the crowd in #6 is well caught.

challengemaster

Nice pics, but what a shíte bike the medic was on! Walderstown yer man was on a yama 600 or so lol

Dodgykeeper

They are briliant pics, have never done any bikes must give it a go!

Eye

Thanks Guys,

challengemaster > yeah he was on the same bike for Faugheen, but just before the first race he went around the circuit on that really old handa 50 Got some great cheers from the crowds.

whyulittle > some of the shots could probably do with a crop, all i did was just resize the originals so a crop is not out of the question. I had a series of shots (not all sharp unfortunatly) as the two bikes came in hard and as the crowd realised the 2 bikes would'nt make the corner there were some faces and then when Farquhar lost it hands were thrown to the sky. Meanwhile i was busy jumping back out of the way :eek:

mehfesto2 > for #4 i was basicalling kneeling on the ground behind some straw bails where the marshalls were but it's just past the crest of the hill which makes the pics seem that bit more impressive, dound it difficult to shoot there and get clear shots, was actually easier for the likes of #2 & #3 on the straight where the jump was, got many more clearer shots there

As for the guy on the yellow bike.....LoL

il gatto

Very nice, especially no. 4. Got a lovely day for it too. Very sharp focus too.(I assume you ended up with dozens of blurs, tail pieces and just shots of hedge. That's road racing:D).
Panning doesn't really work at road racing. Firstly the bikes are doing incredible speeds (between 180-200mph on some straights). Impossible to move the camera fast enough or in time with the bikes. Secondly, you're position at a road race tends to be trackside. It's too close to pan after fast subjects. If you move farther back, spectators, fences and hedges will obscure the bikes. You sometimes find a good corner for it, but it's still tricky.
I remember seeing a medic on a VTR SP1. Must be the recession:D

Eye

Well in total from the sunday racing i took just over 1800 shots on the circuit, and there are 180 crisp shots that i'm very happy with so about 1% hit rate

I've deleted 670 that were just not focused. The other 980 are good and somewhat sharp but i'm very critical when it comes to it so i only used the sharpest ones i had.

Stephen

I was there for the Saturday practice session but alas I did not have a press pass so I wasn't able to get into that excellent spot at the end of the main straight :pac:




I'm guessing you were in that spot by the big white sandbags ^^^ ?

I spent most of my time across the road from it behind the wall. Took about 550 shots on the day. Deleted over 100 of them due to being massively out of focus/empty strips of road. Most of what's left isn't all that impressive either. I stuck 20 up on flickr. I think the light was a bit better on Sunday - very dark clouds on Saturday. Despite that I still got badly sunburned!

sunny2004

Whats up with the watermark ?

Eye

Stephen > Yeah i was over there with the marshalls for 3 of the races on Sunday. A Little hard to shoot there at times with the amount of people that ran wide and took to the run off area there so you need to be quick on your toes

sunny2004 > Yeah i know i was just batch processing them and resizing them, will see about re doing that and make it a little less obtrusive.

LeoB

Eye, Good shots. Its a great sport to shoot. Killalane is coming up in a few weeks and is a good track for shooting, plenty of corners, narrow roads=high speeds and thrills. Have you tried the dears leap at Dundrod. Ihave seen some amazing feats of bravery there, or is it madness. Very hard to pan at road racing, but think it might be easier at N/W 200 or Dundrod because of the size of the tracks.

Balfey1972

very nice photos. very sharp indeed. love the expressions of the crowd in the background as the rider is falling.

Eye

Thanks for all the coments.

It is very difficult to pan with them and to do it successfully, I did'nt try it myself in Faugheen this year, but my dad got some very nice shots last year from church corner whilst panning.

Unfotunatley I've yet to go to any of the other road racing events, Faugheen is only 10 mins away from me so thats the main reason i started there a few years ago. Now that i have a good lens and camera and its capable of shots like this i am seriously considering a trek or 2 to some of the other events, if not this year then certainly next year.