The Photo Shoot

Seeking better action shots

The photo shoot last week was a revelation.  I am one of those people who find instruction manuals worse than a foreign language so rarely read one. It was therefore extremely useful to have a person of knowledge in the photographic domain explain some of the intricacies of the camera.

Instead of leaving the camera in automatic mode, I have now discovered the menu button. While I am still rather in the realms of theory and will need to practice heaps and heaps, I admit I am inspired by the potential of this button and the others bits and pieces and settings that up until now had been purely decorative.

I also learned that the word "noise", when used in a photographic sense, has nothing to do with the thing that enters our ears. Very good news as I was having difficulty understanding how I could take MX action shots without a certain amount of  noise contamination.

The Sunday MX was a test, however I was very happy with the result. I had made progress. Instead of deleting 19 pics out of 20, I binned only 50%. Give me 30 years and I think I’ll be  a professional photographer.

Please note: The time delay will not be due to a lack of talent. However it will probably take me 30 years to save the $ 30,000 needed to purchase a professional camera with all the bells and whistles.

But those of us present at the photo session were there to learn about taking better shots with the cameras we have and we did. (The $30, 000 would be better spent on 2 new bikes according to the general consensus).

However many thanks to Jo from the Capture it School of Photography www.captureitnz.co.nz  for her clear explanations, her patience and her acceptance of the "noisy" noise and the dust.

Also, many thanks to the riders who patiently repeated the same sections of track over and over, all for our benefit.

The photos below were taken by Jeggs, pictured above at work, and Glennis, who also took the photo of Jeggs above.