Canadian Motocross

[MaxPower]

Here are a couple of scanned images I took at the last race for the Canadian Motocross Nationals in Walton, Ontario.

The #30 rider is the 125 cc Provincial Champion that my company sponsors - Pierce Chamberlain. This year he clenched both the 250 cc and 125 cc Provincial titles.

These are my first attempt at any type of Sports photography. Any comments/critique would be welcome. The images were scanned from the negative and except for resizing, they are untouched.

[Photo-John]

I have to admit, I was expecting snowmobiles, though :-P

It's ok. I can joke because I'm Canadian, too.

These are a decent beginning. The second one is very soft. Shooting a jumper against the sky is hard. You're focus has to be perfect. If you're using autofocus it has to be very good and manual focus must be pre-focused. Even with AF I would prefocus a shot like this. I usually watch the jumpers, judge the distance, and then focus on an object the same distance. Often, focusing just past the gap will do it. It depends on the stuation and your position, though. There are no set rules. And if you have a camera with good predictive AF, like a Nikon F100 or EOS 3, you should be able to lock onto and track your subject pretty well. I would recomend using the center focus point and practice keeping the subject right on that point. Panning is a necessity if you're using predictive AF. If you want to set up a particular composition, you'll absolutely need to pre-focus.

Glad you posted. These are cool and we can definitely help you improve your technique. I like your avatar, too!

[MaxPower]

Thanks for the reply John.

These were taken with my Minolta Maxxum 450si, with a 70 - 300mm lens. It was last summer, but I believe I had the camera set to aperture priority at ƒ2.8 (I think?) This was when I really started playing around with my manual settings. Since then, I have learned a tremendous amount about aperture. Now I strictly shoot in manual. It forces me to learn.

Hopefully I'll get to another race this year and we can see if I made any progress over the year.

The shots that were taken with my Canon A70 turned out MUCH better.

BTW, as a sports photographer, I would like to get a longer lens to fit my newly purchased Maxxum 70. Any suggestions?