Anaheim, CA – Supercross Main Event

Last nite was the first Supercross race of the season! Every year it is held at Anaheim. They typically have 2-3 races year during the season at Anaheim. Race 1 is always the most anticipated! Gates open at 12:30 PM and the event starts at 7:30 PM. We arrived to watch the practice and the races ended at 10:30 PM. A full day of great racing!! I am a big fan of SX/MX. The colors of the bikes/riders added into super sports action is a photographers dream!

I ended up taking 945 photos yesterday! This was my first Supercross event using my new D800. I was eager to see how it would preform during the nite racing. With my old D300…I had no chance of taking any nite photos. Too much noise in the photos. The D800 was awesome!! The photo above was during the main event. We were sitting about 2 rows back form the track. Sweet seats!! The only downfall of the D800…BIG file sizes! 945 photos = 33 GB! Ouch!

This was the first photo I processed….cant wait to see the rest!

Peter Talke Photography Settings:

Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: Nikon 70-200 f/2.8
Setting: Manual Mode
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO: 2500
Exposure: 1/1600
Aperture: f/2.8
Gear: hand Held
Post Process: Adobe CS6, OnOne Software Photo Tools 2.6

Kevin Windham made an appearance as well! We miss KDUB!

AMA Supercross – Ryan Villopoto

From a race earlier this season in Anaheim…this is Ryan Villopoto. If you have read Places 2 Explore for a while…you know that I am a big Supercross/Motocross fan. I try to go to at least one race a year. Photography and SX/MX are meant for each other. I’ll give Ran Villopoto his due…not my favorite rider (that’s Dungey) …but he is tough to beat this year. Looks like another SX title in 2013 with only 2 races 2 go. Kudos RV2!

Anaheim, CA – Supercross – Ken Roczen

If you have been reading P2E for a while, you know that I am a huge Supercross/Motocross fan. One awesome sport to watch, attend or photograph! Last nite in Anaheim was the season opener for the Monster Enegry Supercross season. I was super pumped as now living in SoCal I can attend Anaheim 1 every year. My father-in-law and I braved the chilly 54 degree nite at Angels Stadium. Yes, that is chilly for us! LOL We had great seats and went early to watch the practice. I brought my 70-200 lens and a teleconverter to get some extra reach. I ended up with 1800+ photos! It was a great nite with some surprises. Above is the first photo I processed. I’ll have more in the future and will try to put an extra kick on them. Ken Roczen is my favorite 250 rider….he finished second last nite in the main event. A nice corner action shot from A1!

Los Angeles, CA – James Stewart

One last Supercorss shot from Dodger Stadium.  The shot above is a wallpaper version of one of my photos.  Although I am a Dungey fan, tough to not give credit to Bubba (James Stewart)…he is the fastest racer these days.  Tough to beat.  He just won Anaheim 2 this past Saturday and leads the Supercorss points in 2011.   I wanted to create a cool wallpaper of JS.  What I did was simple…

1) My Original shot  2) In Photoshop CS5 – selection tool to select JS and the bike…then Inverse…to focus on background   3) CS5 – Filter-Blur-Motion Blur  to background  4) onOne Software Photo Tools 2.6 for sharpening  5) onOne Software Photo Frame (added the circular texture/smoky edge frame)  6) Added the JS Logo

Thats it!   Pretty easy!   Have fun!!

Los Angeles, CA – Supercross at Dodger Stadium

January 22, 2011was the first ever Supercross event at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA.  I was lucky to attend and arrived at 12 PM for practice and was there till about 10:30 PM when the race ended.  What a great day!  My father-in-law and brother-in-law enjoyed their first race ever!  What a race it was at nite!  I took tons of photos.  All from the stands using my 70-200 lens.  During the day I added my teleconverter to get the extra reach and shot most at f/4.  The stadium shot above was during the LCQ…using a fisheye hand held.   A great view of the course!   I still have tons of photos to go thru and will just post them as is.  It would take forever to re-work them.  You can click this link…Supercross and you can see more shots.  It will probably take me another 2 weeks to get the rest up!  My daytime practice shots were the best.  The nite shots using the D300 at 3200 ISO…just ok.  Enjoy!

Pictured above… #20 – Broc Tickle, #1 – Ryan Dungey, #2 – Ryan Villapoto

Supercross 2011 – Ryan Dungey

This Saturday nite in Anaheim starts the new 2011 season of Supercross….I am super pumped!  I became a big fan last year after photographing a few Motocross races and this Supercross event in Houston.   If you have the Speed Channel…tune in at 9 PM eastern time Saturday for the first race of the season.  Above is my fav rider and defending champ…Ryan Dungey.  His rook year was the best ever for any MX/SX rider combined.   This year will be no easy feat to repeat.  Bubba is back, Chad Reed, Villapoto, etc…  Should be the best season ever for SX!!   I plan to photograph 2 Supercross races this year.   The pic above was created using 3 textures.  Enjoy!  Good luck Dungey!!!

Austin, TX – Del Valle Motocross Park (HDR)

As a photographer…it is tough not to take on the challenge of shooting sports.  Especially as I enjoy most all sports.   With the recent purchase of the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR lens….I shoot my daughter’s soccer games just about every weekend.  So skills have been growing.  I have shot high school football, high school baseball and a Supercross event.  I wanted to try outdoor motocross.  I just happened to google local MX (Motocross) parks in the area…maybe I could go shoot a practice?  I found the Del Valle MX Park.   It is only minutes from the Austin airport.

I checked and this Sunday (23rd) was a PONCA qualifier.  So race day at the track!   Practice started at 8 AM and racing was at 9 AM.  I arrived at 8:15ish and practice was underway.   What a great track!  The big bikes were out practicing and I started taking a bunch of pics.   I was shooting raw (most sports should be in Jpeg)..as I wanted to convert my shots into HDR.

Now as I mentioned before, HDR sports shots most of the time should be a single RAW image converted.   Any movement will create a blur.  MX would be a mess!  I stayed until 11:30 AM and grabbed about 700 photos.   I am in midst of processing my shots…I want most to be in HDR….you can see my gallery here…Talke Photography.  I have 20+ photos up now…by weeks end…hoping to have about 30+ MX HDR’s from Del Valle.    I will not come close to HDR’ing all shots, but if you were at the race and were a racer, Mom or Dad that talked to me during the race…email me and I can check if I have your son or daughter’s shot in my files.  I would be glad to make them into a MX HDR!!

I enjoy shooting Motocross!  I am becoming a big fan.  I will be at the Wortham, TX AMA MX race on June 5th.   Hope to grab some cool shots there as well!!   HDR & MX = sweet!!!!  Also, another race at Del Valle Motocross Park on June 12th!!  See you there!

Talke Photography Settings:

• Camera:  Nikon D300
• Lens: Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR
• Setting: Aperture  Mode
• Focal Length: 200.0mm
• ISO: 200
• Exposure:  1/641 – Single RAW HDR  (+2 to -2)
• Aperture:  f/4.0
• Gear:  Hand Held
• Post Process: Adobe CS4, Photomatix, Viveza

Houston, TX – SuperCross – Ryan Dungey

From a few weeks back in Houston, Texas at Reliant Stadium…my favorite racer Ryan Dungey in selective color!  The race over the weekend in Seattle is over and Ryan did not win, but locked up the title!  So congrats to Ryan Dungey the 2010 SuperCross Champ!! A few races to go for the year, but Ryan had enough points to secure the Championship.   A great sport!  …and sweet to photograph!!!   Can’t wait to hit another race next year!   Hoping in Anaheim!  You can check out the SuperCross.com site for schedules and info.   Ryan was the first rookie since Jeremy McGrath to win the title…nice!   Kudos rook!  Go check out a few Motocross mags at your local bookstore…if you like shooting sports…you will enjoy!!!

Talke Photography Settings:

• Camera:  Nikon D300
• Lens: Nikon 70-200 f/2.8
• Setting: Manual  Mode
• Focal Length: 160.0mm
• ISO: 3200
• Exposure:  1/1000 sec
• Aperture:  f/2.8
• Gear:  Hand held
• Post Process: Adobe CS4, Viveza, Silver Efex Pro

Houston, TX – SuperCross Event (HDR)

This past Saturday I brought my wife and little one to our first ever SuperCross event.  It was held at Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX.  This past year I have become a fan of SuperCross..I watch the events on Speed Channel.   A few of the big name guys have been hurt this year…my instant favorite this year has been a racer named Ryan Dungey.  A competitive dude and an excellent motorcycle rider!  Going into the race he was the point leader for the season.  We had great seats….about 11 rows back from the track.

This sport is one I was dying to photograph!  If you have read my blog in the past…motocross is perfect for HDR as the riders wear colorful uniforms and helmets…and the  dirt is a nice contrast to the riders.  A great sport to freeze in time!   I had no experience shooting motorcycles, so trial and error was my style in the beginning.  I had my teleconverter on at first…but then took it off.  I shot in manual as I wanted to control the shutter and aperture.  Shots were coming out ok..but were not light enough.  I cranked up the ISO to 3200 and magic!!! (the arena was indoors…so it helped big time!).  My final settings are below.  As I shoot with a Nikon…I had it on Continual mode.  I’d say about 35% were blurry.    They key was to pan with the action…this gave me sharper pics.  Then there was an issue with timing.   A fun learning experience!

As for the race…awesome!  These guys are talented and crazy!!!   I took about 800 photos and still have 99% of them to process!  My initial guess was this shot would look sweet in HDR.  It is now my current screensaver! Dungey did not win this nite…but finished 5th (his bike stalled out for a bit and cost him a few spots).  Thumbs up to SuperCross…I am now officially a fan!  Can’t wait to photograph it again!!

This shot was also Photo of the day on www.vitalmx.com …link can be found here SuperCross HDR.   Thanks GuyB for the kudos!

Talke Photography Settings:

• Camera:  Nikon D300
• Lens: Nikon 70-200 f/2.8
• Setting: Manual  Mode
• Focal Length: 116.0mm
• ISO: 3200
• Exposure:  HDR from Single Raw (+2 to -2)  1/1000 sec
• Aperture:  f/2.8
• Gear:  Hand held
• Post Process: Adobe CS4, Photomatix, Viveza