TooFatTwoOhOhEight

The 2008 mountain bike racing/shooting season kicked off for me on Saturday with the Leesburg Baker's Dozen race in VA. Unfortunately, I had lost track of dates, and was surprised on Friday to find out that there was a race scheduled on Saturday. As I already had plans for most of the afternoon/evening hours Saturday, I decided to hit the race early and try for some shots in the pine grove section (which, while I quite like this shot, overall only went so-so):



My master plan then had me taking off for my other planned activities, and afterward, heading back out to the race for some night-shooting ('round about midnight).

I had a couple of specific shots in mind that I wanted to try after dark, and I think I managed to nail them pretty well. I wanted something with rider's light trails with the farm silo in the background (since this was a race on a farm, I thought it only appropriate):



And I wanted some shots from a high vantage point, showing the racer's light trails running through the field:



After spending most of my daylight shooting hours in the pine grove, I decided to go back and try for some interesting "light-trails-weaving-through-the-trees" shots. Some worked better than others:



My next task is to figure out how to get the light-trail shots, but be able to hit the rider with a flash at the end, so they show up on "film" (similar to what this guy did). The trick is ensuring that I don't distract/blind the riders and cause them to ride off the trail into a tree.

I still have to weed through all of the almost 700 images I shot. I should have un-edited copies up in a day or two. I'll post back here when the task is complete.