Back to shooting some more moto stuff

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:42 pm

Milam Creek MX (http://www.milamcreekmx.com/) opened around Dec. 1 and is located a few miles north of Denton. A fellow photog/rider buddy of mine (Aaron Remkus) told me about the place and suggested I check it out. In a word - awesome! No light poles or electrical wires in the background to clutter your images. Met the owner (Larry Shirey) and we talked for a few. Very cool guy. Asked about restrictions on photographers and he basically said, "There are none, but don't get hurt and don't get anyone else hurt." That being said, I would not recommend that anyone go wander around an MX track unless you've done it a bunch before, OR if you're with someone that knows their way around. VERY easy to get hurt out there.

Here are a few that caught my eye during my first pass.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Here's one of a photog buddy of mine putting his gear through it's paces...

And here's one of him chimping in the background.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 11:33 pm

That just makes me want to get the camera out... that and I've always wanted to go on a photo shoot w/ a group. That way you can see & learn from others shooting in the same conditions and (best of all) with a bit of team work out and shoot the same moment from multiple angles.

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:36 am

Wes, when you're shooting MX, are you shooting in burst mode most of the time and hoping for the best, or are you waiting for the moment that hits you to take the shot NOW. ? Dunno if you saw my thread, but I just got a Nikon D40, and am just beginning to learn how to take good pictures.. Hopefully I'll get the settings right in the gym so I can have some good Wrestling shots of my son...

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:53 am

Hat - do I shoot in burst mode? The answer is both yes and no. I do shoot in burst mode, but it's usually only for 2 or 3 shots. It's very rare that I will run off more than that. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with gunning off 10 shots, and that's the way that I used to do it. However, as I got more experience and seasoning as a shooter I've developed my technique to the point that I don't need to do that anymore. A couple of disadvantages to machine gunning a bunch of images is that it takes up more room on the memory card (I shoot RAW and only have room for 120 images on a 2Gb card), and it gives you more images that you have to sort through in post processing which means that it takes more time. One of my goals as a photographer is to spend as little time as possible in front of the computer. Probably 75% of my images are single-shot captures; the rest are 2 and 3 shot bursts. The speed-shots (motion blurs) are the ones that are almost always captured in bursts.

Congrats on the purchase of your D40! I think that you'll find that it's an awesome camera that's capable of a LOT of stuff if you take your time to learn how to use it. I don't know how long you've had it, but you'll probably find yourself in A mode a lot at first. At least, that's the way I was when I first got my D70. It took a while to get used to the feel of the camera, the layout of the controls, and to understand everything that I was seeing through the viewfinder. After a while you'll learn to depend less and less on the automatic modes and will probably find yourself getting very creative in some of the more manual modes. A site that you might want to visit is: http://www.kenrockwell.com/. A very good site to help you get started.

BR - I'm actually going to try and get a group of 10-20 photogs together to go to this new MX park this spring. If you happen to be in North Texas at the time you're more than welcome to go. I would invite Gambit but he's so married to his beeper that I don't think he could leave the house for 10 minutes. (Just kidding, bud!)

Here's one more from this past Saturday.

BlackRider · Post by **BlackRider** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:15 pm

hrmmm... now I need an excuse to drive to TX this spring............

Only problems are: I'm poor, I'm going to school year-round because I really really really want to get out, and... I'd need a whole list of vacation type things to do along the way.

So if you happen to schedule it during a break, I might be able to set up a vacation around it. I'm already scheduling my 2008 photo trips... even if I have to skip a week of class, I am 100% sure I'm going to Oshkosh for the airshow this year and the week before that is the Dayton Airshow. ALMS is the weekend of the Dayton Airshow, so since I'm going to Oshkosh... ALMS will take the place of Dayton.

...there is the Grand Prix of Houston... April 25-27, but that's not during a break.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 10:47 am

If you'll let me know enough ahead of time I can probably plan for it, Porchey.

But even if not so much ahead, let me know when you can. I'd like to go.

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:33 am

Here's a link to an unmolested image I took today at the In-Laws for Christmas.. Then I went and tried to use the Nikon software, but didn't use a copy of the image.. I can tweak it a bit to increase the sharpness, etc. But I was pretty happy with this image today. :

http://www.ianglenn.com/images/xmas07.jpg

I did some cropping of this image after I uploaded this, and I have to say that I like it cropped. I was across the room with my 55mm lens, and this was zoomed in all the way, about 16-18 feet away. (Maybe a little closer) Taken on Auto Mode w / flash.. I think my next purchase / request will be for a decent speedlight.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:07 am

Ya, the linked image has too much dead space at the bottom.

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:36 pm

Nice image, Hat. I agree with Gambino in that the linked image needs to be cropped a bit to eliminate the negative space at the bottom.

A good speelight is almost a must. I've heard good things about the new Nikon SB400, but I honestly have no first-hand experience with it. The SB600 is a great unit and will satisfy pretty much all of your lighting needs. The SB800 is a great unit but is probably overkill unless you plan on getting very serious with your photography.

Gambit - how much notice do you need? I'd love to have you along for my next trip to Milam Creek up by Denton.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:14 am

dunno, just as soon as you can, I guess.

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:29 am

XMEN Gambit wrote:If you'll let me know enough ahead of time I can probably plan for it, Porchey.

But even if not so much ahead, let me know when you can. I'd like to go.

Probably sometime within the next 2 weeks I'll be heading back out to Milam Creek in Denton. As soon as I know, you'll know. I'll probably get a group of 10 or so photogs together to go out and do some shooting.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:52 am

Sounds good. FYI, I'm definitely tied up on the weekend of the 26th.

Spinning Hat · Post by **Spinning Hat** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:18 am

Here's a cropped One of the Kids:

And a cropped action shot I took of a friends' son on Saturday bringing the pain:

These look like crap on the web being resized.. they both look great before I uploaded them.. I don't know what I did, as all I did was a resize in painshop pro, nothing else...

XMENPorsche · Post by **XMENPorsche** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:06 am

Cropped one of the kids - much better.

Wrestling photo - I don't know about Paintshop Pro, but with Photoshop you have an option for sharpening a photo when you resize. You may want to look for a similar feature in your program.

I would also recommend trying to bump up your shutter speed a bit (something like 1/200 or so). For this kind of shot 1/60 is kind of slow. I also noticed that you were at f/5.6. Not sure what lens you're using but if you should try to open it up a bit more to get a faster shutter speed. If your lens was already wide open then I would suggest bumping ISO. I notice that you were at ISO 400 You may want to try as high as ISO 800 to see if you can get the speed you're looking for.

Spend some time with your camera and play around with it. Learn how it responds at higher ISO's, etc. to get a feel for the results that you'll get. Looks like you're off to a great start!

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:41 am

Hat, the most common "mysterious" issue that I've seen with putting photos on the web is colorspace. I believe there's three options, sRGB, Adobe, and... something else.

If your colorspace for a photo is set to Adobe, the colors won't look right on the web.

There are multiple options in PSP for sharpening, the most dramatic of which is "unsharp mask." If you apply noise reduction, sharpening will interact poorly with that unless you're careful.