My World: Bicycle Jumps

[Michael Nagel]

These are from a series I took last year. I did not want to haul the DSLR around, so the gear used here was a Canon Powershot S90. The set-up was similar to the one someone would use with a non-motorized manual-focus camera:
Distance was pre-focused.
Shutter was preset to shortest possible exposure time.
f-stop was set to auto
ISO was set to auto

No way to shoot series, I was restricted to one photo per jump.

Somehow I am pleased by the results, here are three examples:

0732



IMG_0756



Riding the Cloud​

More of the series is here.

Best regards,
Michael

 

[Ruben Alfu]

They came out awesome Michael and I'm impressed how well the S90 handles these tricky exposures.

Ruben

 

[Asher Kelman]

Michael,

The discipline of having just one shot is like LF photography and therefore more thought goes on before the shot! I'm impressed by the quality and the sense of peak moments in al lthe pictures.

Is the focus set manually?

Asher

 

[Michael Nagel]

Ruben - Thank you! The exposure of the S90 is indeed handling difficult situations quite well.
Looking at the series now, there is one thing I see that I forgot: I should have used a fixed WB instead of AWB, this would have made the colors more consistent over the entire series.

Asher - Thank you! Using a compact camera for sports photography was - when looking at it now - a welcome lesson on correct preparation and more thoughtful work in general for me. Yes, the focus was set manually, the large DoF is helpful here. The S90 has a 'focus correction with manual focus' option which should better be switched off in such situations, as the AF kicks in when the focus is not OK adding shutter lag and makes you lose a shot.

Ironically the yield was rather high - 1 out of 4 found its way into the album.

Compact cameras can be fun - as long as they can be configured in a full manual mode.

Best regards,
Michael

 

[fahim mohammed]

Good anticipation skills ( plus a knowledge of the event ) gives a great advantage too.

Excellent shots.

Some just have a P&S and do more than ok with them. Even at 6000 meters above the sea level!!

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Fahim,

Some just have a P&S and do more than ok with them.

My Canon EOS 40D is seemingly a point and shoot camera. I find that if I don't point, I don't get the picture I wanted; if I don't shoot, I don't get a picture at all.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Michael Nagel]

Fahim,

Thanks, anticipation was very important (and knowing at what moment the jump would be interesting helped even more).

If I ever go up to 6000m, I will probably just carry a small P&S (thanks for sharing of the Himalaya photos).

Best regards,
Michael

 

[Ivan Garcia]

Excellent series Michael!.
Taking good action shots with a purpose built all bells and whistles DSLR is already complicated and difficult enough. These are truly impressive, even more so when we consider the limitations of the equipment you had at hand. Awesome work!