Gerald Emmerich Jr, HonFPSA, GMPSA/P  

4 Bikers Downtown by Gerald Emmerich Jr, HonFPSA, GMPSA/P

July 2025 - 4 Bikers Downtown

About the Image(s)

Title: 4 Bikers Downtown

Each year the “Tour of America’s Dairyland” series of bicycle races spends one day of racing in East Troy, the small town near our house. I spent the day at the races in 2022 and 2023. This photo was taken on June 17, 2022. For this photo, I was sitting on the ground at a curve at the “town square,” where the racers have slowed to make the turn. I selected the corner for the pleasant buildings in the background.

There was a fence between me and the bikers, but I set my wide angle zoom lens to cover a wide area, and I held my camera about 3 inches off the pavement and shot up --"blindly"-- at the bikers when they came into my predetermined field of view. The white fence behind the bikers is like the fence I had my camera under. When four bikers came to the corner, I waited for the bikes to separate and made the shot. I like the low angle to capture the expressions on the faces of the racers, and I was fortunate to have all eight wheels separated with no overlap.

I took the photo with my Canon 7D Mark II, a crop-sensor camera, and a 17-40mm zoom lens at 32mm.
The settings were f:8, ISO 500, at 1/5000 sec under an afternoon sun.

7 comments posted

Bruce Benson   Bruce Benson
Gerald, I like how all the riders are separated, the bright colors on their shirts, and the way you can see the muscle definition. The buildings and wires in the background take away from the impact for my eye. I included a 16x9 ration which eliminates much of the buildings for your consideration.
Bruce   Posted: 07/06/2025 21:48:51
Gerald Emmerich Jr   Gerald Emmerich Jr
Hi Bruce, Thanks for your comments. You mentioned that you included a 16x9 ratio crop, but your alternate crop did not show up. Gerry   Posted: 07/08/2025 03:50:52
Bruce Benson   Bruce Benson
Sorry Gerald, Getting old sucks. Here is my 16x9 version. I like the version from Isaac even better, the buildings , especially the one on the left really seem to take away focus on the the riders.Bruce   Posted: 07/09/2025 14:55:25
Comment Image
Dr Isaac Vaisman   Dr Isaac Vaisman
Gerald, indeed your vantage point was perfect, creating a good peloton with separation of all the riders. I am also curious to see Bruce's crop suggestion. My guess is that he would eliminate some of the wires above. This is a tighter version than 16x9.
The image is sharp. Perhaps giving a little more space in the front would have additional space to ride into.   Posted: 07/09/2025 00:15:45
Comment Image
Don James   Don James
Agree the photo is sharp, great vantage point, and I like your crop, Isaac. It helps contain it a bit more and draw the eyes to the action. Fantastic photo!   Posted: 07/10/2025 19:02:24
Ronald Davis   Ronald Davis
Hi Gerald. This is a fine bicycle photo showing the action from a low footpath position. This gives us a chance to see the environment the race exists, like Andre's photo they have a streetscape or landscape perspective. IMO this is a great variation from the tight perspective closeup style many including my own exist. Tour de France is the same much of the TV coverage is about the French countryside cyclists just an excuse for travel advertising. The bright colours of the buildings are fine by me, fence annoying but it is a race. Photo has travel possibilities as well, can't quite read the red sign on the shop but good advertising for them. A marvelous photo.   Posted: 07/10/2025 00:31:38
Andre Magarao   Andre Magarao
Hey Gerald

Like everyone said I also agree that these lower angles are the way to go when it comes to bike racing and maybe even most sports for that matter. My tip it would be to shoot a wide open f stop specially on these wider lenses. I think for a 17-40 it would be 4. that might help create more separation from the riders to the buildings on the background and that might have been enough to blur out the wires Bruce was bummed about.   Posted: 07/11/2025 21:13:28

 

Please log in to post a comment