Women's 1500m long track speed skating

The other night I had a little free time after shooting an afternoon hockey game, and since the Olympic oval is near enough to the hockey arena, I decided to photograph the women's 1500m speed skating race from 9:30pm until 11pm.

Like most of the ice skating events that I have photographed (other than hockey), I started off shooting with a fast shutter to freeze the action. I started with the Canon 70-200 2.8 lens, but quickly switched to the Canon 100-400mm lens since I wanted to get a little closer to the skaters.

I like the photos taken at 1/1000 sec but after shooting many laps of this, it was time to challenge myself with the slow shutter panning shots again. I know...I know...you are thinking "He is doing that again?", but it yields so many cool images, I just can't help myself. Maybe I should call this the Pan Olympic Games?

Here is the deal with motion panning: It is not uncommon to shoot 25 images to get one that is both sharp and a decent composition. It is a high risk way to photograph, but as you can see, it sure makes for some unique photos.

I started shooting the Canon 1D X MK II in Shutter Priority mode at 1/40 sec and got this American skater perfectly sharp. I like this image but didn't like the fact that his right skate is behind the barrier.

Same thing with this image where both skates are now hidden.

But then I started shooting in a position where I could get the skater in full motion and get their whole bodies in the frame.

And once I had some nice images in the camera, I decided to slow the shutter even more, going to 1/30 sec.



This is when I caught another favorite from these Winter Games. This skater was in the outer lane (away from the barrier) as I panned along with her. I held on as steady as I could and grabbed this frame. This is the wider shot...

...and this is the same shot cropped in a bit. Here is why I think this shot is a winner:

* The women's face is perfectly sharp
* There is great motion in her arms and legs
* Her entire body is in the frame
* She is wearing great colors to compliment the background
* She is right below the Olympic rings

This will definitely be in my top ten photos of this Olympics.

And of course, I kept panning and shooting, until the America skater came out and I switched to a safer mode (1/1000 sec) to make sure I got the shots of her skating.

I should mention that I chose my shooting position to be on the curve of the ice. I wanted this perspective for my shots.

After the American, I switched back to motion panning again. This shot shows you how much clean ice I had to work with.

I could pan as they entered the turn and as they rounded through and came out if the turn. Having the Canon 100-400mm lens allowed me to capture the skaters in all locations.

This was a rare capture as both skaters were neck and neck in the race and I was able to get both of them sharp at 1/30 sec.

I mostly fired the shutter when the skaters were near the Olympic rings or logos.

Normally I would wait until the skaters were past the coaches and officials, but after a while I thought I would try and motion pan through the people in the foreground for a different look. As you can imagine, if this were taken at 1/1000 sec, those people in the foreground would be really distracting.

I normally switch the my safe mode for the Americans, but for this skater I decided to take the risk. And the risk was worth the reward, getting a nice motion pan of her.

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