Action Sports Cartel

I like it alot, to pick it apart I'd like to have the rider perfectly centered in the space between the shrubs and the foliage is a bit hot from the flash on the left. A bit later in the evening might have warmed up the sky in the background a bit but I think it isolates the rider well the way it is without being blown out.

rip it up

Hi Dave,

If I may I don't think your non centeredness or the slight hot spot is the problem here. My first thought when i opened the photo is "how steep is that landing?" I don't think your choice of framing does this any justice. May I suggest that shooting this vertically would be a better option. Maybe get as low as you can and get a bit wider (without making him to small in the frame) and show us the landing. The air doesn't seem that large and if you show a steep landing it might give it more of a "wow check what he's going in to" feel. Also walk around and see if there's a better spot to shoot from (like high from the side) so as to show whats on both sides maybe. Is this a step up or a gap? I like your lighting even with the hot spot is seems natural and not out of context. Now if you shot faster and took out the ambient more I bet that hot spot will be a problem but you chose wisely to have the ambient roll in and be more a part of this. Nice work and keep shooting. Check out www.sterlinglorence.com/ he's got it down to a science.

thanks

the run in and landing are both pretty uninteresting so I didn't thinkl that they needed to be shown. The spot is just a step up cresting a hill on a race course. I shot it from about 200' (guessing) away with my 70-200 in order to get the sky framing the rider as he scrubbed over the hill. I kind of got what I was trying to get, I just don't know if it was a worthy shot to get.

its tough to get ideally framed scrub action, the best ive seen are usually fish eye. gives it some in your faceness. Not sure if its becuase they are low and flat but something is usually off with framing. Fishey can help some.

I feel like whips and scrubs never make the best pics on mtb.

Nothing personal but the crit up top is way off becuase it is missing the point of the move.

i guess i would have gone wide and upclose with a little bush in the foreground given the surroundings.