2012 Summer Olympics: Biking at the Velodrome

As you know, if you have been following the blog for the last week or so, I love shooting images of a sport that is new to me. I really like the challenge of capturing the action and seeing if I can get a decent shot of a sport I am new to. I do some research and I plan some possible shots before I get to the venue, but other than that, I am going in as a newby.

Before entering the Velodrome, I already had an idea of the shot that I wanted. I figured that the best photo would be a slow shutter motion blur pan shot (where I purposely slow the shutter speed to 1/50th or something in that range, and then follow the bikers to keep them in focus, while the background shows my movement).  That was my plan and that is basically what I did for most of the shoot.

I was a little disappointed that the photo positions at the Velodrome were on one of the turns without the Olympic rings. So, I shot most of the images to my right to include the rings in my shot.

In the team events, sometimes one of the riders would peel off and let his teammates take the lead. This gave me a chance to isolate that rider right by the rings.

I took this shot at a much faster shutter speed and pointed the camera down and to my left. I did this to get a different perspective.

And for this photo, I used a longer lens (300mm) to photograph the bikers on one of the far corners of the venue. Again, I used an exposure of 1/20 sec at 200mm and panned with the riders. Trying to handhold a camera, pan at the exact same speed as the riders, and stay zoomed at 200mm was quite a challenge.

For this shot, I did the opposite of my previous motion blurs. For this shot, I focused on the rings, held the camera steady and let the riders blur through the image.

I shot numerous wide shots with my Canon 16-35mm lens and even tried the Sigma 15mm fish eye lens.

This is my favorite shot from inside the Velodrome. I love the successive blur of the riders and the way that their line of riders leads the eye from the bottom left up into the image.