Bikes...

It's October, so time for Ashton Court in Bristol to host the Octoberfest bike race. Embarrassingly for me, last years photos are on the same 'blogger' page as this post - which shows more about the lack of photography I have been doing over the last 12 months than anything.

The day seemed to lack the atmosphere of the 2012 event, possibly due to the (assumed) lack of Steve Peat, maybe also the weather was a bit better. Last years rain promoted some good photo opportunities. This year capturing riders' facial expressions and practicing with my flashgun was the objective.

I'd brought along my flashgun, precisely for this type of shot. I took a lot of these shots with and without flash - most looked good on the camera, not many looked good on the PC. I was happiest with this one, taken with flash at 50mm.



Pretty much lying on the ground half way up this steep hill, I wanted to capture the riders tackling a particularly harsh gradient. I like the composition with the grass in the foreground (hence the low position I found myself in). Many riders pushed their bikes up this hill, being toward the end of 30-ish minute lap this must have been torture! 300mm



An attempt at something arty... focusing on the grass in the foreground with the rider in the background creating a reasonable bokeh. 300mm



Some just find hills easier than others... 300mm predictably