Purposeful

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from all my sports shooting it’s that high-speed burst shooting should be used very sparingly.  I think it was last year that I came home from shooting Winchester Applecross with close to 7,000 images.  Three 0’s people!  Sure the high-speed bursts have their place, but for me I’d rather come home with images that were shot purposefully as opposed to images that are simply part of a series of high-speed bursts where maybe one is decent.  I don’t want to be that photographer who tries to impress people with the sound of their shutter rapidly firing off 20 frames at a time in a couple of seconds.  So how, then, do you get the good images you might ask?  Anticipate the action and know the sport you’re shooting.  I still came home with a crap ton of images (2k but that’s a far cry from 7,000).

Winchester Applecross coming my way.

Winchester Applecross coming my way.

Flat

I spent the day at the local city park shooting cyclocross.  I don’t race cyclocross and never will.  My license plate even indicates that I’m a road cyclist.  Anyway, I don’t know what the cyclists were complaining about all day – that Belgian wall looks pretty flat to me.  Easily rideable.

The Belgian Wall at the Applecross cyclocross race in Winchester is approximately a 45º angle, which is eliminated with this top-down, mapping view.

The Belgian Wall at the Applecross cyclocross race in Winchester is approximately a 45° angle, which is eliminated with this top-down, mapping view.