Motorcycles on ice

 

    What could be more fun than watching motorcycles drive around on ice?  As a photographer I often get sent to photograph assignments that are basically eye candy.  The challenge is to photograph the eye candy exceptionally well, because as a professional I need to create something  more impressive than people riding motor bikes. My plan was to use color, blur, and photographing multiple vehicles to create more exciting photographs.
    The use of blur is a well-tried convention for shooting motor sports.  The complexity was that this race was on ice, so everyone drives slowly to stay in control.  I had to lower my shutter speed to a point where I was creating camera blur even when the motorcycles where stationary.  The benefit of the ice was that the colors stood out more vibrantly against the white ice than they do against the usual dirt or asphalt.  After some panning practice I began to control the blur, and started to see results I liked.

--Darren Breen