Rockets on Memorial Day

A Memorial day field trip to watch super bikes rip at 180 mph? Sounds good to me.

Besides falling off the back of a moving golf cart and stuffing my knees, palms, and photo-bag into the asphalt I would call it a successful trip. Nothing like a little bit of centrifugal force to start your day off with a headache.

Unfortunately Seo’s buddy Matt got the short end of the stick on a sketchy pass and ended up sliding out of the race in one of the first corners after a couple laps. Ultimately he turned out to be ok and walked off the course with a pretty beat up bike.

I’ll admit this was my first attempt at shooting anything on a track, and more specifically, anything bike-related. Seo lent me a somewhat out-of-alignment 100-400mm 4-5.6 which produced an interesting array of somewhat focused shots. Not that I’m complaining, even with a sharp 300 or 400mm tele I would have been hard pressed not to skunk myself on the first attempt. Trying to mount my 1.4x converter on the said tele was like looking into a really up-close-and-personal-blackhole… I would not suggest this technique if you lack a long lens.

After comparing blurry photos, having some laughs, and downing a beer or two the three of us headed back to Salt Lake. Photo-dork outings never get old.

A few selections below, possibly more once I have a chance to do a thorough edit.