The fantastic action shot above got first place for Jim O’Neill in our recent competition, themed ‘Motion’. This is how he made the shot:

This was taken at the first “motocross” I was at and the last, for now at least, to be held in Kilva, Cloyne.

I had only touched on “panning” shots before now and with the speed these bikes were taking the jumps, it was the perfect and mostly only way to capture the action.

I used a Nikon 70-300 lens on Nikon d5000 body at focal length of 70mm (105mm on crop sensor) f/14, ISO 200 and 1/60th Sec shutter speed.

In post processing I cropped the image to suit and straightened the horizon, reduced highlights for the sky. I also sharpened the image and increased the vibrancy slightly to give the bike and rider a bit more punch.

Brilliant shot Jim. Well done.

See also:
How I took that Shot – Zane Llewellyn
How I took that Shot – Sonja Eisenberg
Competition Blog
Competition Gallery
Winners Presentation Photos
Competition Results and 2016 League Table