Goodwill Games Cycle crash

A blurb from The Courier Mail on 9/3/01 indicates that the Russian cyclist emerged intact:

"OLYMPIC champion Marty Nothstein yesterday described his Goodwill Games relegation from the notoriously rough-house keirin as 'one of the worst calls' of his career - and was then fined $US500 for dangerous riding after four riders were injured in a spectacular elimination race crash.

"A dual world champion in the event, Nothstein finished third in his keirin heat but was relegated to last after commissaires reviewed video of the race. German Bernhard Wachter, Belgian Ilijo Keisse, Asian Abbas Saeidilanha and Russian Vladimir Kiriltsev were all taken to hospital but an official said none of the injuries was serious. "

Remarkable photo. I guess it's time for me to go Nikon digital...

Actually, I would like to see considerably more vacuum at the top and the left (which would include the hand that's been cut off). I feel it would add more equilibrium to the composition and allow the tangled human sculpture you've captured to breathe. We have subjects entering the picture nicely, but are being hurried out of it on the other side, so I guess the framing and cropping are letting the side down a bit in this respect (IMO), though, to be fair, it's not as if you had time to ponder artsy finesse of this sort. You did freeze a very interesting moment, which is simultaneously violent and graceful (like Mohammed Ali's boxing), and the technical aspects, such as sharpness and exposure, are perfect. Congratulations.

 

NOTE TO THE ELVES: With all the excellent photos that are submitted to this site each week and considering the talented photographers below the top 100 who receive little notice, perhaps it would be a good idea to try to spread out the POWs a little more. In some ways, it is even a matter of politeness--implicitly, you are saying to everyone else that their submissions are so inadequate you were forced to select the same person again. If you insist on the big boys, then how about Stephane Bourson? This is nothing against Daniel Bayer (or his photograph), but we all know who he is and he's already got one trophy ;-)

Great shot. Impeccable timing. Even makes a woman flinch! :)

 

-Marilyn

I will have to correct the comment on the picture. The cyclist hitting the other one, is from the Islamic Republic of Iran (I.R. Iran) rather than Italy. It says on the bike and the shirt.

 

Great shot, great timing. It hurts.........

 

Avisheh

This photo is every sport photographer's dream...great shot and wonderfull framing

I agree this is perfet in technique. It's also very good for journalism. It may be good for a medicine class. But for someone who is not interested in sports is pretty much an abstraction.

First, the faces of the actors are hidden. there is absolutely no eye expression; two actors of three have no face whatsoever. I cannot feel and empathyize with any human being in the picture (is there any?!), I can only rationaly think: 'that must hurt'.

Second, the very perfection is an enemy of this photo: it's just too static. It does not depict the pace, the speed, the tumult. It just looks as a static studio (!) picture.

Finally, it fails as an abstraction. The only thing it captures well is chaos - it lacks symetry and shape force lines - so it's very hard for me to consider it aestethically pleasant.

What can I say? I enjoy pretty much all of Daniel Bayer's photos, and this one is no exception.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a hard time trying to figure out an "originality" score for this one. I mean, clearly it's not the typical "cycling race" shot. But then again, bicycle race crash photos aren't all *that* original or unusual, panning with a long lens is not really too difficult, and who wouldn't hit the motor drive when he saw this happening? In the end, though, I decided that this is one of the coolest crash photos I've seen, so I scored it high. I love it! ;-)

Great timing. I have to agree with the comments about the photo being too static. I received the same comments about a series of photos from a moto cross event. Our conclusion was that the top spokes are moving the fastest and should be allowed to blur a bit to imply motion while keeping the body in focus. Not easy and it requires setup time, which you didnt have.

 

For me the hardest part of shooting action is the PHD. Seems youve mastered that part. (PHD = Push Here Dummy, also known as the shutter release by those who remember to use it.)

 

Captures the chaos of the moment. One can almost feel the wheel running over the bottom rider.

I don't know... I think this photo is lacking in a few qualities to make it a great photo. Something worthy of pow. The composition is week but the exposure is at least accurate even though it's not outstanding in any way.

 

Yes it's an interesting moment to capture but so what? I guy getting his nuts crushed... I'm sure it gets a reaction.. but a great photo needs more in my opinion. Unless the elves are into weird fetishes.

 

Yeah it would have been hard to get the framing right and capture the moment... but that's what makes great photos so great... You can't just come up with them everday. This would be a nice photo to run on a sports page of a magazine but not a POW by any means. I would have picked almost any other photo in this folder over this one. There is some really great work in there. I would definately have selected the gymnastics photo over this. Talk about being at the right spot at the right time and clicking the shutter at the right moment!

40 comments already and nobody's taken the initiative to start a flame war on some minor observation of the POW? I'm tempted to go trolling after last week's fiasco...

Its obligatory to have a "this or that photo from the author's folder would have been better" comment on the POW, and Tom has already obliged us; but I agree with him. This photograph is a "decisive moment" to be sure, but the composition is too chaotic for me. I know that composition is not the paramount virtue in sports photographs, but there are several other pictures in the folder that capture equally dynamic moments, without the deficiencies of composition that this one shows. None of this changes the fact that we are all very lucky to have Daniel as a photo.net contributor!

Hi Guys,

 

Here is the sequence taken at 3 frames per second with no time to get "Creative". The Nikon D1X is a Digital camera shoots a max of 18MB file sizes, I was using it in it's highest setting so the buffer loaded up pictures before the crash was done. I was the only photographer out of some 30 that got anything of it . Right place, right time, maybe not the right camera though, 4 is all I got. As for it getting picked for POW, I don't have any influence over that, I agree that my favorite shot out of that folder are "Gymnast's Hands. "Marion's medal" might come in second as it is a bit unusual and the other shooters were wondering "Just what the hell are you shooting a medal ceremony with a 600 for? the throw is only 20 feet mate!"

 

I like the shot because of what is going on, the lack of hands in the far left is less than desirable to be sure but...Hey! you DO take what you can get.

 

:-)

wow!! this is a truly amazing photo. how did you get the models to pose like that? they must have great balance! And the colors are so vivid..you must have used a slow film with a long exposure. The lighting is also terrific! How many floodlamps didi you use?? =P

this is an amazing shot in terms of capturing a great moment, but it's way too still. it looks set up (i know it's not). a slower shutter speed would have shown the action better. the fallen cyclists look like they're relaxing on the ground.

 

i would have like to have seen at least a hint of motion.

Daniel,

 

Though I like the POW, I prefer #3 of your uncropped sequence the best! Somehow, it feels balanced graphically despite the fact that the rider is definitely unbalanced -- and THAT doesn't look staged at all.

Right place at the right time and tack sharp. Great shot.

Of the 4 frames you showed, this is the best. However, I really don't care for the dimensions of the frames, and why aren't they all the same? The picture, while certainly an extremely well captured image for color, focus, sharpness and news-worthiness,leaves me wanting to see the rest of it. I feel the framing is too restrictive of the scene. The hands have been mentioned, but what about to the right? There's more going on there. Don't get me wrong, if I had been there and gotten this photo, I'd be thrilled. But I'd still want more.

Hmm. The Iranian cyclist is not ploughing into the Russians crotch at 30mph, he is lofting the bike over his stomach, as any sane cyclist would by instinct if something is in front of him. If you hit someone like that without getting the weight off the bike you cause major, major internal injury to the guy on the ground. You can see that the Iranian is lifting the bike in the transition from the first to the second of the four frames Mr. Bayer has posted (tensed biceps, dipped back and head, straightening of wrists). He is performing "down-unweighting". I have often wondered how these velodrome cyclists feel when they see a crash piling up in front of them and know they have no brakes to do anything about it, other than swerve, which isnt really an option at speed with a few feet to do it in.

However, as art, this photo has zero value for me, unlike this Daniel Bayer photo which is actually pleasing to look at as well as very powerful, graphically and symbolically (I commented on that photo before this photo became POW). The POW, on the other hand, is messy, and overwhelmingly lacking in emotional impact. In a word, dead.

In fact, I suspect the reason this photo was chosen, and this is confirmed by many comments above (including all the jokes), was due to the [untrue] notion that the Russian is having his crotch ridden over. Westerners in general have an unhealthy and immature sense of humour regarding injuries, specifically injuries to the crotch area. Three quarters of our entertainment comes from glee at others discomfort. Just look at the situation comedies that clutter our TV guides. Or even better, the real life thrill of police tapes showing cars getting mangled between lorries at sixty mph. Or planes flying serenely into buildings, disappearing without so much as a pop, as if by magic. And again. And again. And again. Personally, I refuse to get enjoyment out of seeing a cyclist on the deck, soon to be tasting pain.

But dont stop because of me, roll on, perverted "humour"...

Great capture. Exposure is crisp, tack sharp, good action.....but.

 

By the way Samuel, say hello to Benny Hill for us "Westerners" next time you see him.

I can't tell you why, but I saw the image and thought: It is a "Daniel Bayer"... somehow your images have a charakter. Even in this situation the image is "clear" and the colors are contrastfull... May be there is a same way of post-processing in photoshop? I dont think there is too much PS... But this may be is a way why they are quick recodnized as a "DB". ???

Axel, There virtually no Photoshop on these images. That's how clean the D1x was as far as image qualtiy goes. Almost a little TOO clean for my tastes. Look at the sequence in my coment above, they are raw there.

 

By the way folks, I appreciate all the comments on this, it's kind of why I joined .net in the first place. Not to get published, I already do that plenty, but to get simply get feedback.

 

While I would not put all the Goodwill Games photos in my portfolio, I am fairly happy with the results considering it was my first whack at a major "Olympics" style sporting event. You HAVE to understand here, they are SO DARN TIGHT on where you can shoot, it makes it really hard to come up with original stuff. We all know that by how my other work looks, I will get something different but here, you take what you can get.

 

Keep the comments coming,

 

Dan

I lerrrve the stop-motion of this picture. It makes the wheel in the crotch look so damn deliberate (even if it wasn't). It's almost a perfect sports photo... actually, ANY type of photo. Composition, action, meanness and anonymous, faceless violence...with a good dose of wit... and all in the name of Sport, which makes it "OK" to guffaw at. So many terrible things can happen in a small fraction of a second, it's nice to see something terrible you can voyeurize with a good conscience. This picture captures an absolute "decisive moment". It is perfect in enough ways to make it a classic. Makes me want to buy a D-whatsername to try the same thing.

 

Wonderful pic, thoroughly deserving of POW.

Daniel: Thanks for your answer! So it shows realy how far the digi-maschines are now... But these you are using are also too far out of my finacial reach :-( .But anyhow it makes me think on digi-photo a lot more positive than up to this image!

 

Tony: You are right again with your comment! Saying "in the name of sport" a lot is allowed, which may could be thought about - this image shows "the other side" of the sport.

 

BTW: Seeing that "nice" image make me wanna run out and shoot. "Nice" because of the color-construction, which is 100% opposite to the content!

I used to race and I am still a photographer so I find this image particularly striking. It is one of those great combinations of great timing, photo skill, and some luck. The result is superb.