Posted by Futility Man on August 9, 2010, 7:37 pm
On Mon, 9 Aug 2010 22:20:03 +0100, totallydeadmailbox@yahoo.co.uk (The Older
Gentleman) wrote:
>If I was taking those pix, I'd have scrambled up the rocks, and tried
>shooting downwards, from a height, to get a more arresting image.
Being intimately familiar with the terrain there, I'd bet you 50 Euros that you
wouldn't. ;-)
You'd end up scrambling up a loose dirt embankment and sliding back down into
the roadway just in time to get plastered by a squid.
The weather is brutally hot there this time of the year. They have a shade
shelter set up in a level spot just off the road and when they hear a bike
coming, they scramble out to a good vantage point and hope to get a pic. There
simply isn't time to crawl up the dirt bank and it would be insanity to sit up
there all day - and probably illegal, since that side of the road is a national
park and there are stiff penalties for disturbing the dirt or plants there.
They're doing the best they can with what they have. They're sometimes obliged
to shoot dozens of pics per minute, trying to get riders coming from both
directions. The shutter and depth of field settings they use are what they need
to get the maximum number of good shots.
In that corner, the bikes aren't going all that fast, maybe 40 to 45 mph. It's
not hard to freeze spokes at those speeds.
--
Futility Man
Posted by The Older Gentleman on August 10, 2010, 2:04 am
> Being intimately familiar with the terrain there, I'd bet you 50 Euros
that you > wouldn't. ;-) > > You'd end up scrambling up a loose dirt
embankment and sliding back down into > the roadway just in time to get
plastered by a squid.
Ah. Right :-)
>
> The weather is brutally hot there this time of the year. They have a
shade > shelter set up in a level spot just off the road and when they
hear a bike > coming, they scramble out to a good vantage point and hope
to get a pic. There > simply isn't time to crawl up the dirt bank and it
would be insanity to sit up > there all day - and probably illegal,
since that side of the road is a national > park and there are stiff
penalties for disturbing the dirt or plants there.
Really? OK.
>
> They're doing the best they can with what they have. They're sometimes
obliged > to shoot dozens of pics per minute, trying to get riders
coming from both > directions. The shutter and depth of field settings
they use are what they need > to get the maximum number of good shots.
Well, if you mean 'a bike nicely framed and in focus', then yeah.
They're just amazingly uninspiring pix, but then I suppose you only get
one chance before the rider's gone, unlike a track day when you know
he'll be coming round the mountain again. Unless he bins it. And like I
said, someone who desperately wants a pic of 'me on my bike' isn't going
to be discerning.
>
> In that corner, the bikes aren't going all that fast, maybe 40 to 45 mph.
> It's not hard to freeze spokes at those speeds.
Itr's not hard to freeze spokes at any speed if you use a fast enough
shutter speed.
--
BMW K1100LT Ducati 750SS Honda CB400F Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER GN250 Damn, back to six bikes!
Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com
Posted by Futility Man on August 10, 2010, 11:01 am
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:04:21 +0100, totallydeadmailbox@yahoo.co.uk (The Older
Gentleman) wrote:
>> park and there are stiff
>>penalties for disturbing the dirt or plants there.
>Really? OK.
The north side of the road is the border for the Great Smoky Mountains NP. When
a tree falls from that side of the road, they must get special permission to
remove it. They're allowed to cut up what's actually in the road, but must have
a permit to remove the rest of the tree. It's stupid, but it's the law.
The next time that rumor floats through about the Dragon is going to be
"straightened" or made into an Interstate (motorway), remember the Park. It's
never going to happen.
>* but then I suppose you only get one chance before the rider's gone
Exactly. Not in my case though. I reversed and went past each photog three
times. On the second and third passes, I sounded my horn to let them know I was
coming into view. The loudest thing on my bike is the valve train, they don't
usually hear me coming. I sound like George Jetson's car.
> someone who desperately wants a pic of 'me on my bike' isn't going
>to be discerning.
If I wanted artistic, I'd set somebody up and get that. I don't care enough to
pay $6 per picture for any of these, so the proofs are all I'll ever see. It
would be easy enough to get the full pictures and photoshop the backgrounds but
I really can't work up that much enthusiasm.
>Itr's not hard to freeze spokes at any speed if you use a fast enough
>shutter speed.
Even at the speed I was going, 40 or so, the tread of my tires was plainly
visible, as were the scrubbed-away portions of my boot soles.
I have some pictures I shot when I was working as a guard at Laguna Seca back in
1980. Almost everything on the track was a two stroke and using 1/1000 was not
enough to freeze the spokes of the guys coming out of the hairpin and carrying
the front wheel down the long straight. I was using a Canon AE-1 (pre-program),
that was the fastest speed I had.
There were some people there from Honda of Japan. It was rumored they had a
couple of bikes with square pistons. Everything was kept behind tarps and even
though I was guarding the pits that day, I never got a glimpse of anything but
the bikes as they hit the track. Everything in their pit stall was carefully
screened off. Neither bike made a full lap before the engine seized.
They packed everything up and left. Later we realized what we had actually
witnessed but at the time we didn't have a clue. Everything I find in print
says they started working on these engines in 81, but I beg to differ.
--
Futility Man
Posted by tomorrow@erols.com on August 10, 2010, 11:40 am
> .... I was working as a guard at Laguna Seca back in 1980.
> There were some people there from Honda of Japan. It was rumored they had a
> couple of bikes with square pistons. Everything was kept behind tarps and even
> though I was guarding the pits that day, I never got a glimpse of anything but
> the bikes as they hit the track. Everything in their pit stall was carefully
> screened off. Neither bike made a full lap before the engine seized.
> They packed everything up and left. Later we realized what we had actually
> witnessed but at the time we didn't have a clue. Everything I find in print
> says they started working on these engines in 81, but I beg to differ.
Now *that* is an interesting tidbit!
Posted by The Older Gentleman on August 10, 2010, 2:08 pm
>
> > .... I was working as a guard at Laguna Seca back in 1980. > There
> were some people there from Honda of Japan. It was rumored they had a >
> couple of bikes with square pistons. Everything was kept behind tarps and
> even > though I was guarding the pits that day, I never got a glimpse of
> anything but > the bikes as they hit the track. Everything in their pit
> stall was carefully > screened off. Neither bike made a full lap before
> the engine seized. > > They packed everything up and left. Later we
> realized what we had actually > witnessed but at the time we didn't have a
> clue. Everything I find in print > says they started working on these
> engines in 81, but I beg to differ.
>
> Now *that* is an interesting tidbit!
Heh. Just added my two-penn'orth and then read this.
--
BMW K1100LT Ducati 750SS Honda CB400F Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER GN250 Damn, back to six bikes!
Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com
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>shooting downwards, from a height, to get a more arresting image.