First Motocross

dadwtwins · January 5, 2009

A friend of mine from work invited me to a motocross race on a course close to where I live. I told him he doesn't need any further persuasion since I rarely need an excuse to take pictures of friends. Especially when they are doing something they love as much as I love photography.

I have never taken pictures of a motocross but I have shot pics of car races when I experienced the Lemans for the first time with my brother-in-law and my father last summer. As I was driving to the race track, I saw some hawks on the side of the road and had to pull over. I have not taken many pics of these birds of prey since they are usually so far away.

Here are a couple of my attempts to capture these majestic birds.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447746061_EcaTy-L.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447746061_EcaTy-L.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447746084_6Q2ER-L.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447746084_6Q2ER-L.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>

Even with the time spent on the hawks, I still made it to the track before the start of the race. I found the way they started the race very interesting. All the riders start with their front wheel of their bike between their legs facing their bikes. It was later explained to me that they have to start this way to prevent a huge jam up on the first curve of the track. With over 50 riders at the start line, it made sense.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447748309_8dC7f-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 800px; height: 518px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447748309_8dC7f-L-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>

Once they started the race, it took me awhile to figure out the track. Since I was taking pics of only one rider, my friend, it was more tuff then I would of thought. They whizzed by so quickly by the time I read his bike number, brought the camera to my eye, and feverishly tried to focused he was already passing me by. I knew I had at least ten tries to capture him since the race would only last that long. Once I got the hang of spotting him, pictures started to come out fairly decent. Here are a few I managed to grab of him.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747472_yzqbu-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747472_yzqbu-L-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747333_pjGzb-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747333_pjGzb-L-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747353_9oJLb-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747353_9oJLb-L-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747096_QQkVE-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747096_QQkVE-L-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747818_Tqg7z-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747818_Tqg7z-L-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747909_MB7TL-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447747909_MB7TL-L-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>

Finally, here is a picture of Ray and his friend Julian who also was in the same race.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447745937_N2yHp-L-1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 750px; height: 600px;" src="http://dthorp.smugmug.com/photos/447745937_N2yHp-L-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>

I enjoyed myself throughly during this race. I can see why these guys enjoy racing as much as they do. It is fast, muddy, physical and a total adrenaline rush. Even so, I think I will stay on this side of the glass. It just seems a bit safer ;-)

ian408 · January 5, 2009

Nice shots. Good action. Maybe a little tighter on some of the crops.

Where'd you go?

dadwtwins · January 5, 2009

ian408 wrote:

Nice shots. Good action. Maybe a little tighter on some of the crops.

Where'd you go?

Thanks for the advice:D. The race was at Sand Hills Ranch in Brentwood

Erbeman · January 6, 2009

Pretty good for your first time. I would suggest you open up your aperature a bit more for two reasons: One to allow more light in which would have let you take a pic at a higher speed to prevent the bit of blur you have. The other reason is because it will make the background of the pics a bit more out of focus which will make your subject stand out more, and yea crop out the dead space in the future. I hope you go shoot another race and share them with us. Thanks for your post

First Motocross

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