Turn 5 at Laguna Seca

great picture

pretty static, bit too tightly cropped ie no room for the bike to go in/out of the frame, no detail in the dark areas partly explained by the angle of the light. I'm sure the rider would like it. If I was an elve, I would have picked one of several other pics in the 2 folders before this one.

Darron you are a very clever chap. Great picture.

 

The crop is very tight. Is this the total frame or was there some cropping done? A bit of space would allow the rider to breath and be going somewhere. As editorial stuff though its excellent. Could grace a page in any bike mag I'm sure.

 

No doubt a tricky picture to capture and you have to be congratulated on that. The rider does seem to disappear into the background, but this is after all a picture of a speeding motorbike more so than a person on a motorbike. So this element could be seen as a plus.

 

However its not my kinda picture but I respect your ability and the result you've come up with. Nice one.

Nice framing. As a rookie photographer very interested in capturing images of the motorsports I love, I thoroughly enjoy this image. For those who have never tried to capture a speeding race vehicle with clarity, good framing, and still not lose the sensation of speed it is extremely difficult and often frustrating. keep up the good work.

Come on, guys...April fool's ended already. Please post the real photo of the week.

Tehnically sound but ordinary. I would be pleased with it if I were a sports photography novice. But in no way outstanding. Hundreds of pictures just like it in every bike magazine every week.

 

Cropped/framed a little too tightly for my taste.

I am not much interested in the subject, so I don't get the rush that fans would from seeing this nicely executed photo. However, my choice from Darron's portfolio would be this one. It remedies two problems I have with the PoW selected. One I can see something of the rider's face (which is black on the PoW) and two, the bike and rider are nicely separated from the corner details, whereas on the PoW the background clutter is undeniably present. Don't get me wrong, the PoW image is good, but it's not the best of the bunch, IMHO.

Now THIS is a sports/action shot!!! It's not only "the moment", but also beautiful. It could be just as well art as action. Of course, what is art???

I don't see anything funny about the picture Dexter Legaspi, it's a direct, sharp, powerful picture that deserved the respect of POW. Sports photos are rare here. But when they are, I would like people give them a chance. I would like for you to post an attachment of something with great precision and technique like Darron has done.

Hey Darron, nice shot. I ride a sportbike and have driven this track several times. I really like the angle you chose for this shot. I have shot from inside this turn at the apex to get the rider with his knee down, but your angle really shows off the bike nicely going uphill and away from the sun. Believe me I have seen a lot of bike photos, and this one is really good. The color looks normal also. I'll be going to Monterey in July for World Superbike racing. Hope to shoot something half as good as this.

Congrats on POW, Darron, and IMO a worthy sports photo for the honor. Congrats also on doing this full time. I agree with Paul that the other shot is equally or even slightly more aesthetically pleasing, but they are both very nice and it'd be hard for me to pick one over the other. A vertical with a little more room on the bottom and a lot more on the top would make this a nice cover shot. Good work! Also, please take my relatively lower originality score with a grain of salt as it is really just IMO and means nothing :) -- by a 5 I mean that it is technically excellent but doesn't stretch the boundaries of originality for sports photography for reasons already addressed in the comments. But it is a quality photo, no doubt.

 

As an aside, thanks to the photo.net team for the idea of putting a random high-rated photo to the right of the POW. The quality of those photos has been outstanding lately and it is always a treat to come to the photo.net home page (and to occasionally reload it). I'm amazed at the beauty of many of the photos uploaded here!

Let me start by saying I like the picture. Yes its a bit tightly cropped. Still, I like it.

 

I was curious more as to what method you were using to "catch" the fast moving bike at that spot? was it "I'm going to click when he comes into the frame and hope I can react fast enough?" or did you have a better more productive method?

 

There is one thing I have been waiting to do. I want to take a shot like that except I want the wheels to be blurred. So overall the biker is crisp (shutter speed high enough to freeze him and the bike) but the wheels are blurry to enhance the feeling of "SPEED!" (shutter speed low enough to allow the blurring).

 

That is the reason (I think) for some of the people saying its too "static".

 

But a neat magazine quality pic. Kudos!

i personally think this picture is better in conveying a sense of action...but the photo by Darron is indeed sharper and has better colors overall.

again, this is just my opinion. so lighten up, guys.

what i see is a very nice framing,is this enough?

I agree that this is a nice picture, but not worthy of picture of the week. the shot titled "Another rider in turn 5" is absolutely exceptional and captures the moment, the expression of the rider and the speed flawlessly. The color and composition make the images. Sorry Darron, but this one doesn't quite do it for me.

 

I'm glad to see that you're doing well in your new profession!

Art it aint, but its a good photo, as far as these things go. There is more creativity manifested in the decals on the guys helmet than in anything on the part of the photographer. However, its sharp, nicely exposed, and for me, sensibly framed, showing the track corner behind, with a nice uncluttered background around the riders head area.

Shadow detail, and highlight detail to a lesser extent, are non-existent. I would attribute that (and the poor colour issue) to image preparation for the web, and not the original exposure, but I still have to judge the image on what I actually see, not on what it might be, so thats a negative point. I would really like to see into those murky farings a bit, and something of the riders face. And that blue tape plastered all over the nose, indicators and mirrors is distracting to say the least, and ensures that this photo will never be used for "bike advertising material". Though I cant really blame Darron Spohn for the riders aesthetic ignorance!

The thing I really like about this photo is, as Chuck Dowling said, the angle that it was taken from. The mean profile of the Suzuki totally dominates the photo, with the man becoming a secondary consideration merely directing that colossal bhp in vaguely the right direction! The low angle hides the rider behind the bike... its a cool shot, Darron.

To those who want the wheel blurred more, showing motion: youre mad! That huge Brembo is beauuuuuuuutiful!!! Theres no way I want it blurred into oblivion...

Oh yeah, I hope you told him to get himself a decent bike for next time, Darron -- a Daytona, perhaps, or at least a scorchingly hot TT600? Something with a bit of soul? I lump Japanese bikes in the same category as Japanese lenses...

These shots are so repetative and frankly, to a non-sports fan, boring. This particular one is far too cropped making it cramped and overwhelmingly 'busy',thus stressful. The choice of this for pic of the week is insulting to the wonderful Owl from last week, If this is the best, the owl should have been given a second week.

"Art it ain't?" Why not?

 

Tight, beautiful angle of view, sharp and intimidating. The black mask of the driver adds to the effect. The angle of the bike draws your eyes to the pavement and the tenuous grip of the tires. Not being an aficionado of two wheels I am yet impressed with the photographer's skill and perspective. It's obvious to me he appreciates to sport enough to capture its essence. If that ain't art I don't know what is. But alas, I am offend accused of such.

 

Bravo for the diversity of POW.

 

Fantastic shot!

To be honest, this one doesn't do much for me. You can see pretty much the same thing in any motorcycle magazine.

Like a lot of other people, I don't know what is so facinating about this picture besides the quality of the exposure. Darron and I have already had it out and he told me that "sports photography is not an art" and this picture confirms his own beliefs. I believe that there can be art in sports photography. Based on the overall ratings I don't understand why it is even the POW. Obviously I am not the only one who thinks that it is just a very clear picture, which I would expect from that quality of equipment. I have seen a lot of very creative pictures on this site but pointing a camera into the corner of a race track isn't one of them, sorry.

This photo is cropped to fit an 8x10 format, other than that it is presented as shot. The lack of highlight and shadow detail are a result of JPEG compression.

 

I was using my D-30 with the 100-400 lens on a monopod, and panning as the bikes went by about 200 feet away. As for showing motion, take a closer look at the tires. Those aren't slicks. And if you look closely, you'll see the track below the bike isn't sharp. Could I have used a slower shutter speed to get more blur and show more motion? Of course. But I'm out there on the track to make a living, not to create art.

 

This thread seems to be a perfect example of why photo.net has earned a reputation as an elitist forum. Post a perfectly good photograph as POW, and the majority of the people trash it because it isn't high art.

 

Don't get me wrong. I know people mean well, and I also know this is a damn good photograph. When you cut through all the crap the only thing that matters is what my customers think, and they are thrilled to have magazine quality enlargements to hang on their walls.

A technical masterpiece indeed, breathtaking sharpness (all the bit's in place, good job IBM), and the colours, marvelous, eyecatching! But where's the poetry? What would good-old Henry say about this picture? Where's the delicate equilibrium and analogy between the lines of a landscape and the shape of a human form? Where the frozen motion of a man jumping over a small pond whose spread leg-pattern appers repeated in the posters sticking on a wall in the background. Photography intended as art should be 99% composition 1% technique. I think we should always keep this in mind. The problem is that art is difficult , technique after all could be handled even by a well-trained monkey.

Let's hope in poetic justice for next week's POW.

As an action photography afficionado (though not, ordinarily, Motorsports) I can appreciate how difficult capturing the desicive moment can be.

 

IMO, you've done this nicely. I like the tight cropping, I think it works rather well with this type of shot.

 

If I was the client, I think I'd be more than pleased with the results.

 

Regards,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before critiquing a photograph, especially one like this, one should try to understand where and why the photograph was made. This image was clearly created to sell and as long as it sells it's a great image for what it was created. Does it have any artistic qualities? Who cares!

Not all photography is considered art by everyone and not all photography is meant to be art for everyone! Art is highly subjective and what is art to me might be rubbish to you and vice versa.

Great image btw.

I remember sitting in the senior editor's office (he later went on to SI) on the first day of my stint as freelance sports photograper and listening to him critique another photgrapher's work. The photographer had shot a stock car race, and in many respects his work was similiar in concept to this one - Darron's being technically better.

 

I have to apply here to what my former editor said to those images; "when you shoot high speed motor sports you have to either convey a sense of speed with background blurring, or a strong sense of visual tension beyond vehicles looking like they are suspended with strings and sitting still. Otherwise, we can contract the finish line timers to take the photos for us and save you a trip."

 

This is a cool shot and a technically challenging one (not arguing that), but I still have to agree with some of the above comments in that there needs to be a sense of speed here, other that which can only be understood by other motorbike headers. Is this guy hauling ass, or doing 30mph? See what I mean?

 

Oh yeah, next time, don't publish this was taken with a digital camera. Let everbody argue about it first, debate what kind of film it was taken with, and *THEN* let them know it was digital :^)