Castle Combe Bike Races

[ukaskew]

Not sure what any of these are or what the hell was going on today really, but they were fast, a bit scary (some nasty crashes) and pretty loud. I think I was the only one there not in leathers, covered in tattoos or with my shirt off, but I enjoyed my first time taking pics of racing bikes anyhow...

More here: http://chrisharrison.smugmug.com/gallery/3220692

 

[Revels]

Cracking pics as always.

I have no interest in bikes but only took a look as I saw they were your photos!

 

[Renault_Boy01]

is it possible for you to take a bad pic

 

[F&B]

Hi Chris - really nice pictures.

Were you using the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-S you have listed in your kit on smugmug? Do you use a teleconverter, and do you ever use the lens wide-open, i.e. 2.8, for motorsport or is the depth of field too small?

Also, does your lens have VR and is it useful for panning or do you switch it off?

 

[JR]

Stunning pics chris.

 

[ukaskew]

Hi Chris - really nice pictures.

Were you using the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-S you have listed in your kit on smugmug? Do you use a teleconverter, and do you ever use the lens wide-open, i.e. 2.8, for motorsport or is the depth of field too small?

Also, does your lens have VR and is it useful for panning or do you switch it off?

I was using the 80-200 yes, all of those bike shots are with a Nikon TCE-14 (1.4x) Teleconverter attached, and with that (280mm) it was still too short for bikes in most places.

I shoot motorsport using Shutter Priority, so on a sunny day shooting at 1/125 or thereabouts it balances out at about f22. It's never got dark enough to shoot anywhere near f2.8, to be honest a 'fast' lens is fairly pointless for this kind of thing, it just so happens that they are extremely sharp as well which is what you need.

It doesn't have VR, if it did I would switch it off, although most have a 'Mode 1' (that only corrects vertical movement, apparently better for panning) I still prefer to do it manually.