Covering the bicycle race–The Roswell Criterium

by Stanley LearyNikon D4 / Nikon D750
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Reading Time: 3 minutes
 
Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 220, ƒ/14, 1/30

Today I decided to go and have some fun covering The Roswell Criterium for a beautiful Sunday sunny day after a lot of rain in our town.

I thought I would play with panning, and let me say it is hard to play with panning. That is hard to get a good photo with bicyclists blazing by about 45 mph.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 280, ƒ/14, 1/30

I tried with the 14-24mm but felt that I needed to be closer, and the Nikon 28-300mm at 28mm on the curve was just perfect.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 800, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000

The pack of bicyclists would come by at such a clip that you had a hard to unless you had decided before they came into view your next course of action. Will you pan or shoot tight? Who will you focus on? Will it be the leader or someone else in the pack?

Technical choices like panning require you to shoot at a slow shutter speed and freeze the action as I did of the pack was shot at 1/2000.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 900, ƒ/6.3, 1/2000

I preferred shooting at a greater depth-of-field since I hadn’t shot much bicycling and wanted at least a few in-focus photos. Also, this gave the camera a little room front to back to play with focus sharpness.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 1400, ƒ/13, 1/2000
Here you can see I used my ultra wide-angle lens, the Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm. Unless you shoot this wide, you might not realize how close I was to the action, but the rider came by me less than a foot from me.
 
[NIKON D4, 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 1600, 1/2000, ƒ/13, (35mm = 14)]

I didn’t like the power lines in the background, but I couldn’t move to an angle and get rid of them for this type of photo.

Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 1800, ƒ/8, 1/2000
I did pull out the long glass and shot this photo at 600mm to pull in the start and finish lines.
 
Nikon Dr, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 3200, ƒ/8, 1/2000
When they are coming up a hill, it looks like I am on the ground, but I was standing for this photo to shoot over the fence.
 
Nikon Dr, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 640, ƒ/6.3, 1/2000
For this last photo, I decided to clean up my background and make it “A Classy Clutter” for a background.
 
We often have bicycle races in Roswell, so look for them in the news and come and shoot it yourself. No press pass was necessary for all access. Here is another group to follow that will tell you about the subsequent events http://www.bikeroswell.com/.