Northstar Downhill Bike Race Photos

[Rick_R]

Last weekend took a little vacation up to the Lake Tahoe area (Northstar Ski Resort) for some downhill bike riding and racing (basically I rode slow before the race on Saturday and shot the race on Sunday).

The lighting was constantly changing from clouds rolling across the sky and the occasional rain shower (helped the riders, sucked for the spectators). All the photos were taken with Fill Flash with the shutter at 1/400 (Highspeed Sync rocks). Most of the photos were taken approx. six to ten feet away from me at a small jump or drop on the course and most of the riders were flying by me.

All were processed in Lightroom only (no Photoshop). I agree with Scott (Jorgemonkey) that lightroom is incredibly powerful for quickly processing a large amount of photos.

Here are some that I like:










Regards
Rick

[Photo-John]

Great timing and framing. But if I were using flash, I would have shot slow and panned to get more of a sense of motion. They've all kinda got that frozen feeling. I like bike photos where I can really feel the action!

[Rick_R]

Great timing and framing. But if I were using flash, I would have shot slow and panned to get more of a sense of motion. They've all kinda got that frozen feeling. I like bike photos where I can really feel the action!

I really cannot show the slower shutter speed ones as they are very blurry. I really need to work on panning. They were really moving and in some cases within 3 feet of the lens and the speed at which they passed increased as they got closer. As with every, practice really helps.

PS: George and Asa say hi as we sat across from them at lunch. If you have not got a chance to ride N*, they have really improved the trails (not Whistler, but much but than old)

Regards
Rick

[skoberphoto]

I was just at the Race on 9-14-08, and got some cool pics too.
Check them out if you would like.
www.skoberphotography.com/gallery/northstar/

and I agree with your mention of adding motion. It is the technique I did to get the photos I took. I hid in a shaded area so that I could control the lighting a little bit better. I had a flash set up for fill and let the sun back light them through the trees.

Let me know what you think.

[wull]

I think the 2nd one is great.
Well done