Tour of Utah...

[drewsp75]

Here are couple pics I got from the Tour of Utah prologue on Tuesday... share yours! Would love to see what everyone else is getting...

[Photo-John]

Thanks for sharing these! All three are great photos. Are you going to be shootinng more stages? Which one do you think is the best for photos?

Unfortunately, I'm too busy to get out of the office this week. I'm hoping that maybe I can get out to shoot one day this weekend. If not, this will be the 4th year since I moved to Utah that I haven't been able to shoot it

[armando_m]

Great shots !

Love the panning on #2

[drewsp75]

Photo-John... I couldn't shoot all the stages either. Stages 1 & 2... On Wed & Thurs... Were during the day.

The last three stages are possible! Friday is an individual time trial at Miller Motorsports Park, starting at 6 pm. Saturday is a 90-min crit in PC starting at 4 or 430... And Sunday is the queen stage from PC to Snowbird. I think it starts at 11... But it goes through Alpine, over the point of the mountain, through Sandy, on to the Bird.

You should try to make it! It's fun to shoot!!! One of my favorite things to shoot, that's for sure!

-Scott

[Photo-John]

Thanks for the reply and race info, Drew. I live in Sandy and I'm thinking going up the Canyon on Sunday might be my best bet. And evening crit in PC sounds good, too.

Your photos look a bit soft to me. Is that just from resizing for the Web or are you having some focus issues? If it's just resizing, do you do any sharpening after resizing? Maybe we can help you polish these up a bit

[Chris350]

I just finished the week on the tour. All 6 days. two days on caravan moto. When I finish sorting and such I'll share some up. Here's a tease....


Jai Crawford of Fly V Australia soloing up Little Cottonwood toward a win today.

It needs a crop to remove the wheel from the left, and maybe to shorten the foreground a bit. The sky is blown out but there's not much time to fiddle with filters on the moto, so you make do with what you can get and HDR is right out. This is my third ToU, second on a moto.

[seowitz]

Here's a few from stage 2 and 3. More on my blog.
http://www.erikseo.com/blog









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Blog - http://www.erikseo.com/blog
Website - http://www.erikseo.com

[Photo-John]

Righteous first post, Erik! I hadn't seen that last one yet. I dig the low angle and the flowers. Hope you'll post more here and share some of your experience with us! For anyone who doesn't know, Erik is one of the top ski photographers right now with tons of magazine covers in his portfolio. He's also really good using strobes for action sports photos. I think this was probably his first shot at bike photos, though. Pretty good for a beginner :smilewinkgrin:

[SmartWombat]

Mmm nice, I really wish you'd got in the foot on that last one.
But I'd be having trouble staying on the moto (Sinus issues) so it's waaay better than I'd get!

[SmartWombat]

I like that first shot, the hint of a car race circuit in the tiny bits of kerb you can see if you look hard enough, the tyre streaks, the tips of trees peeking over the horizon shows the elevation, all very nicely done.

[seowitz]

Thanks guys. Moto? I was lying in the lupines shooting

[Photo-John]

Thanks guys. Moto? I was lying in the lupines shooting

Yeah, that confused me, too. I think maybe Paul (SmartWombat) was scanning those photos too quickly. I tried to picture a way you could get that from a moto. Nope. Not possible

[seowitz]

Well.....i could have if i had about a 15 foot rig holding the camera out from a truck or something...

I wasnt credentialed for the event though so i didnt get any rides. Just had to find a spot and that was my spot for the stage for the most part.

[Photo-John]

I didn't get credentialed, either. Every year since I moved here I've been too busy to get serious about shooting the race. Yesterday I made it a point to go out and shoot, though. I went to the rotary on the north side of Draper. Since all the important photographers (besides you, I mean), were on motos or shooting in Little Cottonwood Canyon or on Alpine Loop, no one cared what I was doing. My photos came out ok. Maybe next year I'll get to put some more effort into it. I'll post a few later. I still haven't had a chance to process them.

[SmartWombat]

Of the first set, I thought with the relatively high position and the photographer in the background, the 4th was from a chase motorbike.

[Photo-John]

Of the first set, I thought with the relatively high position and the photographer in the background, the 4th was from a chase motorbike.

That makes more sense

I don't think Drew was shooting from a moto, though.

[Chris350]

Gotta like Eric's shot. Leipheimer has just left the group behind. It's about 3 km from the finish of Stage 2 to Mt Nebo.
Levi's move:


Sunday Stage 5 break on the Alpine Scenic Loop:


Sunday Stage 5, H248 passing Jordanelle reservoir on the way to Kamas:


The Stage 5 break passes Midway:


Heber Ave & Swede Alley during the Park City criterium Saturday (Stage4):

[Chris350]

yep no motos on the prologue, it was right in your lap though, easy to walk right up and put yourself in a great spot to shoot. Prologues, crits and ITT's make for really good opportunities to work close and not have to chase the race all over creation. Working from a moto is no real picnic, those road stages are long days from start to finish. It's now Wednesday the following week and I'm just barely caught up on my work, sleep and my real job...
I know wah wah wah...

[Photo-John]

Love that Alpine Loop shot!

I did make it out on Sunday for some photos. I kept it simple and just went to the rotary on the way out of Draper. It was a decent spot and no hassles to get in or out. It's been a super busy week to I haven't been able to get the photos processed. But I'll post in the morning. I'm really digging this thread. Maybe next year I'll get my act together and get a moto ride.

[Photo-John]

Here's my little Tour of Utah offering. I only shot one day and one spot - Sunday, at the rotary on the way out of Draper. I would have liked to shoot up the Canyon but I didn't want to get stuck up there all day. The Draper location allowed me to get in and out easily, I had a few different angle options and the background was pretty good. I don't think it allowed for really superior photos but it was solid.

I also needed to get out and test with the EOS-1D Mk IV some more and this was a great opportunity for that. I shot all of these with the 1D Mk IV in AI-Servo. Normally I probably would have prefocused for some but I really want to push the AF on this as hard as possible. And roadracing is a really good subject for that since they're moving so fast and there's not much area for the camera to focus on. Looking at these photos after the shoot, I think the 1D's AF performed really well - definitely better than I would expect of my 7D and probably better than the old 1D Mk III. I shot all of these at ISO 800 and they're a bit noisy of you look closely. But I think they're totally useable and I didn't have to worry about my shutter speed at all. These were all shot with the old non-IS Canon 70-200 f/2.8L zoom.

[Photo-John]

Which man, you're probably wondering. *The* Man.

I'm posting this separately since it's not actually a bike photo. But part of these events - for me, anyway - is the whole parade and pageantry. I can't resist the escort and support vehicle photos. I also really dig the Utah Highway Patrol motorcycles. I'm not a Harley fan at all. But these bikes are beautiful.

[Re.]

I got to shoot all 6 days of the Tour. It was awesome! I shot it last year for the first time and have been really surprised at how much I enjoy shooting road bikes. (I mountain bike my face off in the summer, and love watching the TDF, but I don't own a road bike myself). Here are a couple of my favs, 1 from each stage:

Prologue: Levi showing the tell-tale signs of a cyclist, tan lines and road rash
Stage 1: Riders descending from Big Mountain pass
Stage 2: The ref and a fan following Levi to the top of Mt Nebo
Stage 3: TT silo on the rack track
Stage 4: Jeff Louder a few laps away from winning the crit
Stage 5: Peloton cresting a hill early on in the stage (you know, before getting blown to bits over the next 11,000 feet of climbing. Hah!)


More here, just put up a gallery to share with friends: http://rewikstrom.com/client/tou2010/index.html
You can also look up RealCyclist on FB for more from me and another photog with rad shots as well!

[drewsp75]

Wow... there are some awesome captures from last week! I'm truly humbled!

Erik, great photos and Chris... loved you capture on the Alpine Loop! I love Re's artistic treatment of the race too!

Thanks for sharing... I'll post some more of my better ones here in a bit!!

-Scott

[drewsp75]

Okay... here are a smattering of my grabs from the Crit in Park City and the Queen Stage on Monday:

[Photo-John]

Another great first post in this thread. Thank for jumping in, Re! It's great to see you here. Maybe someday we'll actually meet in person instead of just circling

I love that s-curve long shot. That's a beauty.