Choose event: - Select below - Coalville Wheelers TT10 - 25/05/2002 Sherwood CC TT10 - 06/06/2002 A.A.Brown RR - 21/07/2002 Whitham Wheelers TT25 - 28/07/2002 Bognor Regis TT25 - 04/08/2002 Coalville Wheelers Team TT10 - 26/08/2002 Vegitarian C&AC TT10 - 28/03/2003 This section contains some of my cycling photographs, a more comprehencive list is available where by they are grouped by the date / event. Please senect the event from the above selection box. The photographs are obtainable by the individual or can be used by clubs on their own web sites as long as they acknowldge and reference my website. As a cyclist myself I recognise that we all like to see quality photo's of ourself and collegues. I also hope to produce detailed shots of some of the more interesting equipment taking part in events I attend. Cycling is a great sport as like walking and photography it gets you out into the countryside and you are exposed to the British weather. Once keen you want to find like minded individuals and join a club where you can meet and talk, go club rides and more importantly race. I'm a member of the Coalville Wheelers and have enjoyed both mountain biking and timetrialling with them. Photographing cycling is more involved than it at first seems, both the photographer and rider are a similar heights and when they go past you soon realise just how fast they go. I apply a similar techneque to photographing cycling as I do motorsport, particularly rallying where again you are close to your subject. Firstly it's important to choose a good viewpoint, concider lens, light and background in particular. Don't look into the sun try getting the sun behind or slightly to one side of you. Choose a lens where you can take a picture without the subject being ontop of you thereby giving you time. Concider whether you want to photograph a single rider cropped tight or a group. For single riders I typically will use either my 80 to 200 if using film or the 105dc if using digital, as the digital has a ration of 1.5 making the effective focal length nearer 160mm. For a group of riders I'd either use a 28 or 35mm lens. Watch your background you want it to be fairly plain and simple and setoff the against the cyclist. A good feature of the 105dc is the defocus control which lets me control how the out of focus background appears. Secondaly have all the basics correct, see my technique section on holding a camera and stance, your also going to have to remember to pan with your subject, see panning in the techniques section. Then concider where your subject will be to get them in the position and size you want them. Then use manual focus, I don't trust auto focus when the subject passes us at speed, instead having chosen the spot I focus on the road/track at that point and work from there. Concider if fillin flash help, often a cyclists head will be facing down and in shadow so a bit of fill in flash will help bring out the details in the shadows. Now as the cyclist comes through, pan with him. Locate him in your viewfinder as early as possible and followhim through to your pre-focused point and then whilst still panning gently press the trigger and keep panning. Your aim should be to produce a sharp image of a cyclist with an out of focuses blured background depicting speed. Start by photographing time trials where a cyclist comes through every minute and then move on to road races, cyclo cross and track where there is much more going on at the same time.