Derby Phoenix Bike Championship:

Tips On Technique by Will Cheung...

Motoring On:
I saved this clipping from photography monthly magazine, providing some useful advice on technique by the editor Will Cheung (pictures by Tony House) along with a diary of events...

"To get a frame filling image you'll need a telephoto lens- a zoom that extends to 300mm is a good start, especially on DSLR's with APS-C sized sensors. Here there's a focal length magnification of 1.5x to 1.6x so a 300m becomes effective 450mm or 480mm respectively... You'll need to support such a long lens and a stout monopod is perfect. Giottos, manfrotto and Velbon offer good models.

A big part of successful action photography is getting a good spot, like the inside or the outside of a bend. Racers are going relatively slowly on bends and even though this still might be 70mph at least you stand a good chance of tracking them with a long lens."

"...racing cars and bikes often bunch up on a bend and, particularly wit bikes, they make an interesting shape, so compositions can be much more dynamic. Inevitably, such positions fill up quickly so get there in plenty of time to bag a good spot." (Will Cheung, Photography Monthly)

"For shooting speed, setting the DSLR to give fine/large JPEG files is going to let you blast sequences of shots at several frames-per-second rather than using Raw format which takes longer to write.
For white balance either choose a manual setting to match the lighting or use custom white-balance... All SLR's are autofocus and while AF can work, you may prefer setting focus to manual and taking control. One technique to try is prefocusing, where you focus on a particular spot on the road and take the shot just as the racer reaches that point." (Will Cheung)

"Shutter speed selection is important because it's this that will determine how much movement there is within the scene. Start by selecting shutter-priority AE mode and a speed of 1/500 sec- if it's a dull day, increase the ISO to allow this. Take a few shots of racers at full speed and check out the results on the camera monitor: If they look so still that they don't seem to be moving, try 1/250 sec or even slower. Ideally you want a combination of a sharp subject but with some movement to imply speed and excitement." (Will Cheung)

Side cars:Taken by myself...