SHREWSBURY CYCLE GRAND PRIX 2015

I had a spare few hours last Sunday and decided to attend the Shrewsbury Cycle Grand Prix. I had not Photographed any street cycling but I have photographed Cyclo Cross and a few Mountain Biking competitions.

 

Some of the Sports Photography that I undertake by its very nature means that  I only get one chance to make the shot count, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and my keeper rate fluctuates accordingly.

 

I found out that the competitors race around the circuit for the best part of an hour and complete loads of laps , this gives the photographer plenty of time to play with  Iso, aperture and speed settings . It is a great time to get off of auto and play, be creative. I love to show motion in my Sports Photography which means that I very often choose to work with low shutter speeds and small apertures or if you are clever you use an ND filter set and calculate reciprocal settings.

 

I really like to have a look at the surroundings that an event is situated in and I particularly liked the fact that all of the riders were cycling up the No Entry sign the wrong way along a one way street.

 

Light can play an important part in Photography and can be used to your advantage when composing a shot. Notice in this shot how the sun has frozen the shadow of the rider but by using a slow shutter speed I have managed to capture motion of the cyclist.

 

The size of the lens that you use can also make a difference to the composition of the photograph. In this shot I used a medium size zoom a 70-200 F4 to be precise and you can see how it pulls the subject into the frame.

 

This particular shot was taken in lowlight with a 17-40 F4 Lens with a slow shutter speed using image stabilisation it was all hand held. The image has been post processed in Light Room 3.

 

With this shot I really liked the way in which the cobbles gave a very old  feel to the image.

 

My final shot was taken with the aim of showing motion  and it does show you how a low shutter speed and a slight bit of intentional camera shake can add to the qualities of an image. In all I took over 2,395 images in the space of one hour not all came out the way I wanted them but enough of them did.