Covering the bicycle race–The Roswell Criterium

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 220, ƒ/14, 1/30

Today I decided just to go and have some fun covering The Roswell Criterium for a wonderful Sunday sunny day after a lot of rain in our town.

I thought I would just play with panning and let me say it is hard to just play with panning. That is hard to get a good photo with bicyclist blazing by you are about 45 mph.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 280, ƒ/14, 1/30

I tried with the 14-24mm, but felt that I needed to be closer and the Nikon 28-300mm at 28mm on the curve was just perfect.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 800, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000

The pack of bicyclist would come by at such a clip that you had a really hard to unless you had decided before they came into view your next course of action. Will you pan or shoot tight? Who will you focus on? Will it be the leader or someone else in the pack?

Technical choices like with panning require you to shoot a slow shutter speed and freezing the action like I did of the pack was shot at 1/2000.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 900, ƒ/6.3, 1/2000

I preferred shooting at a greater depth-of-field since I hadn't shot tons of bicycling and wanted at least a few in focus photos. This gave the camera a little room front to back to play with on focus sharpness.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 1400, ƒ/13, 1/2000

Here you can see I used my ultra wide-angle lens the Nikon 14-24mm @ 14mm. Unless you shoot this wide you might not realize how close I was to the action, but the rider came by me less than a foot from me.  

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 1600, ƒ/13, 1/2000

Now I didn't like the power-lines in the background, but I couldn't move to an angle and get rid of them for this type of a photo.

Nikon Dr, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 1800, ƒ/8, 1/2000

I did pull out the long glass and shot this photo at 600mm to pull in the start and finish lines.

Nikon Dr, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 3200, ƒ/8, 1/2000

When they are coming up a hill it looks like I am on the ground, but actually was standing for this photo to shoot over the fence.

Nikon Dr, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 640, ƒ/6.3, 1/2000

For this last photo I decided to clean up my background and make it "A Classy Clutter" for a background.

We have bicycle races pretty often in Roswell, so look for them in the news and come and shoot it for yourself. No press pass needed for all access. Here is another group to follow that will tell you about the next events http://www.bikeroswell.com/.