Cyclocross Race With The 7D

Last Saturday I shot a cyclocross race with the 7D. It was another good opportunity to test the auto focus system. The cyclocross race resulted in less AI Servo keepers than the dirt jump shoot I did. I shot the women in AI Servo, as they came up over a little rise. the reason for the lower success rate might be that I had less time to get the AF point aimed right. It could also be that there's less to focus on with a cyclocross bike. But I did get some nice ones and I'm still impressed with the 7D. There are still focus options I haven't tried yet, too. There's another cross race this Saturday so I'm going to do it again and experiment some more. I think testing the 7D's AF performance is probably helping me tune up my technique, too. Bonus :)

After the women, I shot the rest of the races at this barrier. I played with AI Servo a bit during practice but then went back to single shot AF because it's almost always your best bet if you can predict the action. And with a barrier, you know where the action is going to happen so pre-focusing is the right way to shoot it. I was using an off-camera flash for all of these photos so one of the challenges was to keep the subject sharp with a slower shutter speed. I went back and forth between 1/320th second and 1/400th, usually panning to make sure the subject was as sharp as possible. Both of those shutter speeds are faster than the 7D's 1/250th flash sync speed. But with the PocketWizard radio slaves you can usually push it a bit.

Nice catch on the last one (#610). :)

that last one's awesome, both with the action captured and the reactions. he sure can jump high!

Very nice. I especially like how you positioned yourself for the background with the first one and the one with the 2 clydsdales jumping in tandem. Nice timing. Was the last one staged? I see he was in another photo with a different bike. That is quite an impressive jump. I couldn't do that even without a bike. I'm still trying to find the time to do some comparison shots with the MIII and 7D.

These are incredible. My husband said your first two weren't even real. (That's a compliment.)

Fantastic shots Photo John! Great camera and skills. I love the colors and how they were used.

Can`t be better IMO...love the action shots...perfect colors and great definition all around.

Great stuff, man that would be fun shooting someplace besides the desert! ;)

mbb

I thought I'd piggyback onto the thread as I too got out and shot cyclocross recently. First time for sports using my new, to me, Canon 1d Mark III. I have to say the pro body autofocus is a complete delight to use. I don't think I've ever walked away from a sporting event with so many in focus photos.

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross001.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross026.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross044.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross050.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross074.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross086.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross088.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross112.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross115.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross125.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross129.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross137.jpg

http://theharaldsons.com/images/blog...tecross139.jpg

Nice job, Scott; I really how you covered the event. Creative angles, and your shots convey the whole 'cross scene very well I think.

Awesome photos, Scott. You've got some real winners in there. Keep them coming. I just shot a big race back in Nor Cal and I just keep getting more psyched about CX racing and photos. Right now it's my favorite sport to watch and shoot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

Awesome photos, Scott. You've got some real winners in there. Keep them coming. I just shot a big race back in Nor Cal and I just keep getting more psyched about CX racing and photos. Right now it's my favorite sport to watch and shoot.

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Cross I think is really developing into quite the scene. At the race I attended there had to be 150 people at one point back in the woods on the stair section. They were doing beer handoffs, whisky shots, dollar bill grabs. It was a riot.

The rest of my edited shots can be viewed at:
http://www.theharaldsons.com/galleries/cyclocross/

Cross is awesome! Some shots from the east coast this season.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/...4a5c17a7_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2678/...c9e0423d_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/...c5262a55_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2628/...249c4aa9_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2500/...130cc224_o.jpg

Sweeeet! Welcome to the party, Tom! Always psyched to have another bike photographer.
That first photo is sick! Love that mud. I have yet to see anything that sloppy this season.

You should start a new thread to introduce yourself. Please tell us what you shoot with and how you found the site. You could post here on the sports forum or, if you want, the ViewFinder forum is our most general discussion board.

Will do!

One more mud shot first!

http://www.tso-photo.com/Cycling/Cap...20_A4GCE-M.jpg

I don't know how I missed this thread before!

Really glad to see CC coming back. 30 years ago it was on the brink of becoming a big deal and then just all but totally disappeared in the US.

The last shot with the argyle socks is hilarious. From the expression of the two folks it looks like someone is showing off, just a bit!

Are those disk brakes coming back?? Haven't seen one of those very often either!

All the shots are a fine selection from what it looks like the 7D's are going to be producing !