In The Thick of It
I just spent the weekend at Infineon Raceway in picturesque Sonoma. I was there to shoot images of AMA Pro Racing Superbike. The top class of US riders covering about 10 races total in the weekend. One of the challenges of shooting motorsports for me is finding the opportunities to move the images in my mind and turn them into pixels. Sure you can show up and snap away and get great photos of the racing. For me I wanted to get some action shots, but more importantly I wanted to convey a particular perspective that wasn't always obvious. I hope that I got a combination of results to make everyone happy. Images can be seen here.
Superbike Race 2 Start 17mm, 1/3200sec, f/10, ISO800, Canon 1Dmark2
One my more popular images made over the weekend is the race start image above. So how do you get a picture like that? The answer is pretty simple - be close. Very very close. To get the above image I needed to have the camera right on the wall. The Superbikes whiz past at about 90MPH on a start like that so you have to be situationally aware. Aware of your position and any camera gear. Aware of the riders site line. Aware that you may have to move quickly out of harms way if something goes wrong. Trust plays a role in situations like this as well. The riders have to trust that camera jockeys 18" away are professional and thinking about what they, the riders, need.
For the image I positioned myself low against the wall to get an eye-to-eye perspective with the riders. I had to position myself in a way that allowed me to rotate my body as the bikes passed - panning is required even at 3200/sec. Next, I cranked the camera settings because I wanted sharp results. Normally I would never shoot that fast, but the perspective was more important than conveying the speed of the riders for this shot. For this type of shot I don't look through the camera's viewfinder - it's too restricting of body movement for these tight quarters. If you've never done this type of "not-looking-through-the-viewfinder"shooting it does take a fair amount of practice, but once you can do it consistently, it will reward you with shots that you can't otherwise get. Take a look at the pictures below - that's me actually capturing the series of images that resulted in the picture above.
Photo by Nate Jacobson
Photo by Brian J Nelson
By the end of the weekend I shot 3770 frames, taking away about 100 keepers. That may sound like a horrible ratio, but think about your own personal criteria. For me just because it's in focus (or out) doesn't a keeper make. There needs to be a reason for the photo. Sometimes that can be an emotional reason, other times practical such as needed image for the track or race team. Of those 3770 images about 250 were outright junk, out of focus or composition wasn't correct. Like a rider's head chopped off.
Subtract the 100 "keepers" and what do you do with the 3400 left over? Well they are keepers too. But probably for the wrong reason. I'm a pixel hoarder. There should be a TLC show about this. It is the worst feeling knowing you are storing images that no one will see. But if you throw away 3400 images you might need one of them someday right? So like you, I store them. I have terra bytes of images stored, backed up and backups of backups. Just in case.
Happy shooting.
AMA, Infineon Raceway, Superbike, Technique in Photos 
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