Donington Park British MX

[gribbsy]

Had a quality day at Donington yesterday for the first round of the ACA British MX Championship. Apart from a very brief hail storm, the weather held out and was sunny for most of the day

Apart from Margate beach the other week, this was my first attempt at a proper MX race. It's a spectacular sport and very photogenic. I'd highly recommend it for anyone that's never been before.

Anyway. Here's a few of my shots. Having taken about 1200 in total and half of those usable meant it was a little tricky to pick out a few. Still that's a nice problem to have! Here's the ones I particularly liked so far, all taken with a D300 and either 70-200 or 300 f/4.

#1 Tommy Searle hunting down Graham Irwin

#2 Glenn Phillips and co getting some air.

#3 Glenn Phillips leading the MX1 race.

#4 Over the Table Top

#5 Alex Rockwell mid air

#6 A dominant Tommy Searle

 

[Gary]

excellent
you seem to have the DOF / shutter speed balance just right.
nice colours too and ultra sharp

 

[Pokey]

Great shots all of them. still waiting for a meeting so i can try this for myself. No 4 is my favorite

 

[foodpoison]

Was absolutely stunned by all of these, and scrolled up to see what kit you were using.
No wonder

Wonderful shots, I really like numbers 2 and 4. Both epic.

 

[mxfun]

Yep.... Excellent set really like them,wish i was there...

 

[andyjayh]

Nice shots there Steve Totally agree about the addictive quality of the sport, only just started going myself as my nephew does Schoolboy MX.

Can be quite difficult to get the metering right I found with the brightness of the sky behind the riders. Tried manual metering this weekend and results were far better. As your shots are spot on :nuts: what is your prefered method of metering?

 

[paul cull-pearce]

Nice photos.

Paul

 

[dod]

great set, being picky I'd say the first is the weakest, something about it's not quite balanced, picky though

 

[gribbsy]

Thanks all for the positive feedback.

Metering was difficult for me too. I started by going fully manual when shooting riders against the sky. I usually choose centre weighted but this often resulted in silhouettes that couldn't be recovered in post processing. Some top advice I was given (thanks Nathan) was stick with what you know, but dial in some exposure compensation - up to 2 stops here. You need to chimp when changing angles though to make sure it's still looking good. I did find this was easier than changing other settings as and when the lighting changed.

I also shoot RAW which gives me a bit more leeway when it comes to getting the exposure right. Eats up the memory cards though

 

[andyjayh]

The shots I took at the weekend I went with spot metering and manual. Used the track as reference, then took some test shots and reviewed lcd and histogram. Seemed to work alright BUT as lighting conditions changed it obviously through the settings out. Had to keep reviewing with test shots throughout the day. Figure with some pratice I'll get quicker making the right changes as light changes

Also use RAW so I can correct some that I don't get right in the camera. Mainly I found that it was useful for light recovery, blacks, sharpness and saturation.

Still got some way to go looking at your shots though

 

[desantnik]

Nice one Steve!

I like the first two the most I think - the second one has your "lines of things" again and I rather like that.

Shame I couldnt make it, still there is always Canada Heights

The D300 is still belting them out... *mutter mumble*