STOP! And buy Maclennan’s book.
Sure, we see flashy photos of international motorcycle racing in magazines and online all the time, but what about our Canadian racetracks?
Well, photographer Rob MacLennan (who sometimes contributes to CMG), from Brampton, Ontario, has put together a book of his top racing photographs of 2010.
MacLennan, a.k.a. "MorallyAmbiguous," collected on- and off-track action at Shannonville Motorsports Park and Mosport International Raceway for the book, titled MorallyAmbiguous 2010 Yearbook.
You can preview and buy the self-published book here. Prices are $38.99 for softcover, $52.64 for hardcover with dust jacket, and $55.94 with image-wrapped hardcover. You can also visit his website at www.morallyambiguous.net.
Most of my track shots, last year, were shot with the E-30 prosumer body. No pre-focus necessary, including when shooting bikes accelerating hard towards me.
Sure, physics dictates that the low light performance will likely never come up to the CanNikon standards but then again we’re working with better performance than we got from film, at this point. Also I have a depth of field advantage and F2.0 professional lenses available, so I’m not generally shooting at as high a ISO as those same CanNikon shooters. Also, all of my lenses are effectively stadilized 😉
Friend has E-3, so I kind of do know that the later models do focus and track better in general. Good to hear that pre-focus method is not the only game in town anymore.
I think the high ISO will never be as clean as with Canikon (I personally don’t need it, but I shot more indoor I’d definitely might), so these guys can always cheat on a bit larger scale …. 🙂
You’re thinking of the old Olympus. If you gave a E-3, E-30, or E-5 body a try, you might be pleasantly surprised. I haven’t had to use pre-focus tricks in years 😉
I’m also well set up for indoor sports, if I ever have the need. My 35-100 F2.0 would be perfect for hockey or basketball.
I still shoot RAW+JPG because there are times that you really want that original file, if only because it provides concrete proof that a specific shot is yours (as a digital negative). The .jpg provides for a quick method of getting the shot online, if it’s acceptable, so that the client can see it or Rob can have it for a deadline. The shots I sell are cut from RAW.
If you were shooting indoor basketball or hockey frequently, I’d really say you are shooting the wrong format. But with outdoor racing stuff, where you can pre-focus a lot of times or go for the panning shot, I’d never trade Oly gear for something else. To come up with great color images without religiously playing with huge raw files is great, at leats for a a lot of amateurs and semi-pros.
Thanks 🙂
Yup, still resisting the CanNikon standardization in the motorsports world. I’m a fan of the Olympus .jpg colours. I did trade my E-3 for a E-5, for this season though.
Looks good.
Still using exclusively your Oly gear?
Thanks Mike. The orders from the first 8 people are already on their way out to them. Hopefully I’ll start to get some feedback on the book, once they have it in-hand. This is my first time doing something like this, though I submitted shots to a previous compilation book, so it’s been quite a learnign experience.
i for one will be getting a hard copy’
always great pics rob,see ya at the race track
mike