Sporty self portrait

[mattb]

I was riding over thanksgiving break (instead of skiing - boo!) and decided to grab a shot of myself riding under the prominent moon. It's not my best MTB photo but kind of fun. I didn't have a tripod so I was balancing the camera on a boulder which limited my composition options. A flash would have been nice too but I was traveling light. I was thinking of trying to get some ski shots this winter like this too if we ever get any snow.
Pentax K-5 & DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited pancake

IMGP4004 by MattB.net, on Flickr

Anyone else take any sports self portraits? Let's see 'em!

[Don Schaeffer]

How did you get this?

[mattb]

How did you get this?

I set the camera on a boulder across from this section of trail. I got it focused and set to how I wanted to expose and then put it on interval mode for 22 shots with a 2 second delay between shots. I ran back up the trail and rode the section, going as slowly as I could where I wanted to frame the shot and listened for the shutter. That gave me a couple of shots per pass and I did this twice to get this one that I liked.

[Don Schaeffer]

wow. I'm impressed!

[Photo-John]

Very nice, Matt! I've got a lot of photos like this, too. Trying to set up and shoot a decent mountain bike action self-portrait is a game. You may not end up with the best photos, but it's a really tough and entertaining challenge. Having a built-in interval mode is a real advantage - another reason to pay more attention to Pentax. Did you notice I included the Pentax K-30 in my Holiday Camera Guide?

[mattb]

Thanks John. Yes, I saw that. While they may not make the very top cameras I still think they are the best value. My older K-x didn't have interval shooting so for star trails I had to rig up an external dongle from my laptop to an IR LED to trigger it. It was a lot more trouble. It's good to see a "pro" feature like that trickle down to more entry level gear like the K-30.