The Challenge? Capture Motion With Still Frame Photography.

Marti not only collects vintage film cameras but is a dedicated film user, with no thought of “going digital”. He also enjoys a challenge, using his equipment and skills to broaden his reach into different facets of the photographic art. A recent bike race sponsored by the Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference provided such an opportunity. He chose a position in W. Jefferson near the Parkway Theater at the corner of Main and 3rd Streets. His camera du jour was a Minolta Maxxum 9 loaded with Ilford HP5+ (ASA 400) film and fitted with a 35-105mm lens. As the bikers raced by, he realized that the autofocus was too slow to react so he chose to manually pre-focus and position the shot so that the bikers would be in focus and well framed at a pre-selected distance. He used a panning motion and a slow shutter speed of 1/125 sec, attempting to blur the background while maintaining focus on the riders. For adequate depth of field, he chose f/11 as the aperture. Another challenge was the strong backlighting making it necessary to set the exposure for the shadow areas to prevent the riders’ faces from being underexposed.
All the planning and calculating culminated in the above successful portrait. The framing is excellent with “front” room for the riders to occupy. The overexposure of the foreground provided a very light gray pavement to add to the dark riders and the shadows, foreward of and leading the bikers, add depth and interest.