After months of saying, "I'll get to a race" I finally got the chance to go!

A couple months ago I had a post or two asking about autofocus techniques to help increase my keeper rate with my 70-200. Out of the OOF shots I had with that lens, I can now say it was 90% lens fault, and 10% user fault. I got a chance to go crazy with the Nikon 70-200 F2.8 VR, and I am at a loss for words how much better the AF is, everything.

What got me most excited was the fact that most areas in the Bay Area have been getting 1-6 inches of rain in the past 2 days. Which means for really muddy action. Except for the fact that these trails are on sand, so it was mostly dry :mad:

But anyway here are a couple from the first race. They are just cropped/resized. I was very pleased with the colors from the lens straight out of the camera.

#1 The first group starts off at around 9 am.
<a href="http://scottmosher.exposuremanager.com/scripts/expman.pl?rm=show_photo&photo_id=2008-01-06-00826&dir=galleries/3/10/1"><img style="border:1px solid black" src="http://scottmosher.exposuremanager.com/scripts/expman.pl?rm=view_photo&photo_id=2008-01-06-00826&dir=galleries/3/10/1&file=2008-01-06-008_medium.jpg"></a>

#2 The Junior class jumps over the first of two logs.
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#3 A Cat C racer flys by coming out of one of the turns
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#4 One of the juniors shows how its done at the top of a climb
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#5 Another Cat C racer at the top of the same climb
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nice shots!

I'm aching to get out and ride...so badly. I have a cycling video on the front of my phone and every time I close it, I wish it were spring/summer. I went for a ride today because the temp was like 50 degrees, but I've been sick for the past week and a half, so it actually turned out to be a very wrong move. I only went a few miles then turned back because I felt SO horrible. Plus I was riding pavement with knobbies.

but anyways, too bad to hear about the lack of mud, but still nice shots. I like the wheel blur on #3, what shutter speed was it at? what was the temp there? looks like a mix of leggings/shorts and long and short sleeves.

I haven't been able to get out on the bike either for a while. I've been too busy with work, rain, and holidays.

Temp was around 40ish, but its been raining big time the past few days, and it was supposed to rain during the race day, so everyone came prepared.

That shot was at 1/350 @ f3.2

A couple more of my favorites. I think the shoot this past weekend was one of my more successful ones. I'm having a hard time narrowing down the best of the best from the weekend.

#6
Even the kids got into it
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#7 One of my top 5 from the day
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#8 He was injured a little bit, but got up and finished the race. It was a pretty nasty spill though
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#9 One of a few closeups I was trying for
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#10 Another top 5
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#11 One of the few "pack" shots I got. Most riders were either solo, or with only 1-2 other riders
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#12 A little panning action
<a href="http://scottmosher.exposuremanager.com/scripts/expman.pl?rm=show_photo&photo_id=2008-01-06-38945&dir=galleries/3/10/2"><img style="border:1px solid black" src="http://scottmosher.exposuremanager.com/scripts/expman.pl?rm=view_photo&photo_id=2008-01-06-38945&dir=galleries/3/10/2&file=2008-01-06-389_medium.jpg"></a>'

#13 The hike-a-bike section
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Scott: Nice photos. Here is the result of photo #8:

http://bikeguy.smugmug.com/photos/240660790-L.jpg

He was really feeling the effect of the crash at the end of the day.

Nice meeting you at the race.
Rick

Hey! It was good meeting you too. I could tell by the way he landed it was going to be sore after. Luckily he didn't land directly on his head.

I'll probably see you out there again sometime, as I plan to try to get to more of the races this year.