Goodwill Games Cycle crash

Ever since I discovered photo.net, I have been a fan of Dan's photos... and I like this one too. Even though I am a sports enthusiast, I typically find sports and athletics photos boring and not overly pleasing from an aesthetic perspective(probably because of the garish, multi-hued jerseys and uniforms worn by most of the participants). However, every now and then an image captures my imagination or otherwise causes me to "look" for more than a split-second. This is such a photo. ABC's Wide World of Sports used to have an opening montage featuring a ski jumper careening off the edge of the jump while nearly decaptitating a couple of officials along the way. The narrator (Jim McKay I believe) described it as "the agony of defeat." It may be cliched, but here is a still that would definitely benefit from that title. Ouch!

Ouch! Looks like that hurts!

Great shots here, Dan!

Daniel,

 

The whole series is great, thanks for posting.

Talk about "catching a moment". Great...

Great image of a "decisive moment." I guess this moment decides this guy's future chance of a family. Great color juxtaposition, too. A-6/O-7

nice to see a change in the run of POWs.. its a tangled mess of a photo but in this case it's oh so fitting.

Great, a whole week of flinching when I look at photo.net's front page :)

 

Nice shot, impeccable timing.

Italy's Abbas Saeidilanha, right, runs over the crotch area of downed Russian cyclist, Vladimir Kiriltsev during a pile up in the men's elimination race final at the 2001 Goodwill Games and thus eliminating him from the procreation race, held at the Sleeman velodrome in Brisbane, Australia Sunday, September 2nd, 2001. Dan Bayer photo.

Great timing!

am i the only wondering "what happend to vladimir"? i mean, we want to know if he (and the rest) made it ok after the accident. i haven't followed the games, so i dont know

You can even see the look on the face of the cyclist left standing. Looking very sorry. Hahaha

Great sports moment captured. Brilliantly sharp image, but as a result it seems to have lost any impression of motion. I know that in these situations you have little time to control anything, but it also seems a bit too tightly framed. Timing couldn't be better though. Brilliant sports image.

Brilliant in all aspects. Regardless of the lack of time for composing, it resulted very well in my opinion. Ouch, makes my eyes water looking.

I hope this POW won't be touched by Tris Schuler !!!

I have to disagree with Jed. . . I think the framing makes the image and for this shot I dont necessarily think that a feeling of action is denied by the crisp nature of this shot. The expressions and brilliant colors, not to mention the obvious circumstances make this the amazing shot it is. Congrats on POW!

Hi, I'm new here, and although I've been looking through the past pictures of the week all day, this is my first comment.

 

This is a great composition. Sort of Kandinsky meets Picasso. Really an amazing shot in so many ways.

Truely amazing shot and impecable timing if i may add. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work. ;-). ~Hebber~

i don't wish i was there but thanks for sharing it.

If I ever had any doubts about digital cameras (though I never had any strong ones) they're gone now. The brilliant colors and crisp focus really make this photo "pop" - and it does a great job of capturing the moment. I also feel that the tight framing adds to the feeling of chaos, which certainly the riders must have felt. I suppose that a bit of motion blur may have added to the feel of action, but I think the fact that there is none is what really draws me to this photo. Excellent work!

If it's all about freezing a moment in time; this photo certainly does. Well done!

You just cant please everybody all the time, especially when it comes to motion photography. I loved the blur you put into this shot (http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=233556) but someone else gave it a 3/3 because of the blur. I like this weeks POW just the way it is but I also think it would look great with a slower shutter speed too.

 

I would be interested to know if this is part of a series, ie., did you anticipate the situation and then hold down the trigger on C? If so, do you have a just before and just after shot of this? I mean, I see the front sprocket of the Italian riders bike following the same path as the front wheel = MEGA OOCH!!!

 

Even when you are at the right place at the right time, and you have all the right gear, you still have to know what you are doing and your shots go one step further by adding creativity too. Like always, great shot Daniel!

 

the Nikon D-1x , there is one before and two afters in this sequence...at the camera's 3 FPS rate. As for the shutter speed, I was shooting a different kind of shot when this happened. had I been doing pan shot's at a 30th, I would have been totally screwed!!! It's a matter of just shooting when you don't have time to think.

 

David, your comment made me laugh:-)

...or relief from what would otherwise be an over cluttered picture? Empty space can be positive too.

Speaking of vacuums; I noticed a big one when looked for something by David Geiszler to compare this crap to.

Nicely done... Shooting action and being "right on" in the fasted pace world of sports....with exposure, timing, framing, and sometimes fast changing lighting, movement, important moments... etc... is a lot harder than some people realize... I've had a scattering of assignments to shoot skiing and found it to be incredibly difficult and challenging! I can't say that I did a great job with it either.. Did have a few good ones and they did get published.. but OH so much film and trial and error (lots of error)! I have profound respect for those that do it well and have the talent and experience to catch moments like this. KUDOS...

I find the picture very messy. What still makes it a good picture is the shapness, the timing and the face-expressions. Escpecially the eyecontact between the guy lying on his back and the guy who just drives over him.

I love action sports shots (especially cycling)! Great color and composition. If I nitpick anything, I would like even more open space on the left of the frame so that viewers could see the cyclist's full hand. Congrats on another POW!