Cycle Speedway
Cycle Speedway Sheffield vs Ipswich.
Pictures from Sheffield vs Ipswich Cycle Speedway at Sheffield on the 05 June 2011 are here.
Some photographic technique thoughts below.
This Sunday’s brief was to take pictures of Cycle Speedway. Not something I’ve done before. Usually when I go to photograph any race, I prepare by scoping the course, first by map, then maybe by driving/biking/walking the course to see where the action will take place.
My preparation for this event was slightly different. No course reccy was needed.
Instead I headed over to YouTube to watch some Cycle Speedway races.
Some hours viewing, and several crashes later I come to the conclusion, that firstly this is fast, and a brief race format. Each race is only 4 laps and all is over in about a minute, and the “action” can occur anywhere. Wow, so for the entire race meet, we’re looking at maybe 20 minutes of racing, and I need around 50 shots. A challenge, and one that would require some new camera skills.
My usual way of working is to prefocus my camera to catch the action at a given place an time. I knew that in Cycle Speedway, that this approach would not work. I would have to track the action, and let the camera automatically focus. Next step is to google AI Servo (auto tracking focus). Which results lots of “AI servo sucks” type comments, closely followed by “AI servo doesn’t suck, it’s your technique that sucks” comments.
So to see which of the above statements was correct I’d have to give it a go.
Half term for the kids, and I have two fast moving subjects, who are sick of their Dad taking pictures of them. AI servo on camera engaged and shooting is commenced. A fun hours photography.
I learned that AI servo worked really well if my tracking was good. So it doesn’t suck. Lots of ths shots on Sunday wouldn’t have happened if I’d not given it a go.
Always learning.
The race report by Shaun Hudson on the British Cycling website is here.