Dirt Crit

Last Sunday saw the Dirt Crit edition of the Cranky Monkey race series. As usual, I was out there TooFatToRace stylie, sitting on my butt in the weeds, camera in hand, sweat oozing from... well, it was pretty hot.

For those who want to cut to the chase...the photos are here. Broken down by race start time. 8am, 10am and 12pm.

The nice thing about the Crit format is that the course is relatively short, so the riders do a bunch of laps. Therefore, I had lots of opportunities to shoot each rider.

Shooting race after race at the same park (this is the...um...4th one this season, I think) leads to a lot of similar looking photos. Trying to find a different angle, I spent a good deal of time under the cover of the trees this week. I was shooting at a fairly large log crossing. I strategically positioned myself so I'd be able to catch the hotdogs flying/jumping...



or running over it:



...and also get the more conservative riders who went around it



The results were pretty good (IMNSF*ingHO).

I was also using my new flash mod, with my homemade battery pack mated to my high-tech Sigma flash (as opposed to my old low-tech Vivitar flash). That worked out pretty well, but the Sigma flash did crash on me a few times. This has happened in the past and was supposedly remedied by me sending the unit back to Sigma for reconditioning. Apparently, it needs some re-reconditioning.

Here's one of the shots where my Sigma let me down. My buddy JoeP showing off his mad nose-wheelie skillz:



And here he is again on the next lap, when my flash was behaving itself (but the photographer couldn't keep the subject in the friggin' viewfinder). Apparently, that nose-wheelie thing is intentional:



To end on a photography note: I'm beginning to wonder if the Canon 24-70mm lens wouldn't be a wise investment. The Sigma 24-70mm lens that I use seems to take a couple of seconds before focus-locking on the target. The Canon lens has internal motors which should alleviate this. Maybe I'll just rent the Canon for a test-drive before dropping the cash on a purchase.