18
Apr
2010

Sea Otter Day 3 – B&W Flyers


The pros and a horde of photographers had the dual slalom course at Sea Otter looking like an ant hill this morning. Tripods, light stands, flash heads, camera bags and a few dummies made for cluttered backgrounds without careful work. Too much sun has drawn a distinct line across my forehead and I can still feel it simmering hours later as I edit through another pile of images. There's a blast of color to mountain that really seems to work. Kits, helmets, and body armor combining to give many riders a Darth Vader look. From Dual Slalom Practice it was over to Downhill for the cat1/pro shakedown runs. Speed way, way up at both venues.

Today I processed this batch as B&Ws. The last few images almost look like a portrait session as each rider flew by. I got in the rhythm of the train and almost all of these were single shots.

Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three Sea Otter 2010 - day three

6 Comments

BR
April 19, 2010, 10:22 am

I love these pictures…thanks for bring them up. PS – GET A MOUNTAIN BIKE! 🙂

Bin
April 19, 2010, 5:32 pm

All I can say is..wow. I’m in in awe of your skills with a camera.

Dave Wyman
April 22, 2010, 8:46 pm

As always, wonderful photographs. I think you use a telephoto lens to its true potential (not to mention you’re equally adept with wide angles). You perfectly isolate your subjects.

    Velodramatic
    April 22, 2010, 9:04 pm

    Hi Dave,

    Nice to hear from you. I was thinking about you just yesterday when I came across a tagged picture of you on Facebook. Out on another adventure I’m sure.

    In spite of its weight, my lens of choice is my 200 f2. Incomparable AF and sharpness when I get it right. Now if only Canon would make another prime with this class of AF in the 85mm range.

    Have you been riding much?

Pat Branch
May 15, 2010, 5:30 pm

Great shots!! I’m the kid with the tall camera. The bokeh on that shots is so awesome. The exif said it was taken at 200mm and I didn’t think it looked like it came from a 70-200 (just got one!).

Velodramatic
May 17, 2010, 12:29 am

Hi Pat,

I wondered how the pole-camera worked out for you. Funny, I saw I guy shooting with a similar rig to try and capture the peloton crossing the American River during today’s Stage 1 of the Tour of California.I asked him how he did and he was quite pleased.

Nice to see you pushing the envelope (or in this raising the bar 😉

::Michael