Just like the title says, no crits for me today.  No, is not the heat and humidity that are keeping  me indoors.  I’m actually busy hitting the books.  This coming Saturday I’m taking a certification test.  Shooting the crits today mean that I would spend a couple of days in front of the computer instead of reviewing material.  Remember, photography is just a hobby for me.  My real job is inside an elementary classroom.

I forgot to post when the pictures from Week 3 were uploaded to Sportsduo.com.  I did post a message with links at TXBRA.  Here are the links and a few pictures.

Cat 4/5

Cat 1/2/3

I’m currrently selecting, deleting and editing images from last week’s crit.  As I go through them, there a few of them that just pop and it makes me stop for a few minutes.  I then start to think, how can I process this one?  Maybe black and white?  Or how about using slightly high saturation or bump the contrast?  Sometimes I even process the same image 3 or 4 different ways using Lightrooms Virtual Copy feature.  If I can’t select a favorite, I usually call my wife for her opinion.  If two different versions look good, I’ll upload both of them.  That’s the beauty of digital photography!  Here are a few images as I go through the 1/2/3 race.

Last night while I was transferring the pictures from the memory cards to the computer, these two pictures caught my attention.  The first picture is from the 1/2/3 race @ the 90º turn.  Pay close attention to the left foot/pedal of the rider.  The pedals seems to be rubbing with the ground.  When I’m sitting on that corner shooting, I only hear a little bit of yelling from some of the riders, “Keep your line!” or “Nice and easy boys”, but I never hear metal (or plastic) rubbing against the ground. Maybe is just the angle and probably there’s no rubbing against the ground, but it was certainly interesting for me since riders blow through that corner.

The second picture is from the finish of the 4/5 race.  They race for 50 mins in a 1.2 mile loop (approx).  Most of the time, this is the race were you have a nice sprint at the end.  It is rare to see a breakaway hold, compared with the 1/2/3.  As I setup for the pictures with two laps to go, I hear that there has been a crash on the far side of the course and I see the EMS taking off to attend the riders.  Sure enough, when you see the first group of riders pass the finish line for the bell lap you can clearly see that part of the field is missing.  I find my spot on the course for the pictures and just wait for the leaders.  I was shooting wide open so I had to be careful on where to focus.  I take a look at the field and compare wheels and decide to focus on a Bike Barn jersey.  Sure enough, I followed the winner of the sprint.  Here’s the winner of the 4/5 race, Jonathan Sanchez – Team Bike Barn.