Downhill Run

Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm, Tv Mode, 1/500s, f14, ISO800, +0.67EV, 92mm

If you do not participate in Togchat, the Twitter conversation about photography on Wednesday afternoons (3PM Eastern), you  really are missing out. Each week a photographic topic is selected and participants submit both questions concerning the topic and related pictures for critique. It's great discussion and the group who participates is both knowledgable and friendly. It's a great time!

This week's topic was action photography and one of the questions was concerning focusing techniques and preferences. In most cases, I will set the center focus point, put the camera in AI-Servo, or focus tracking, and pan with the action. Today's image is an exception to that, however. Why? My line of site and vantage point.

Being at the bottom of this particular hill, it was difficult to pick up the skater when you had no idea where he would appear over the top of the hill. So I picked a spot on the track, probably at the boards, and focused on it. I was shooting in shutter priority mode to make sure I could freeze the action (1/500s) and cranked the ISO up to 800 so that my aperture would be small enough to bring in a large depth of field. When I spotted the skater, I press and held the shutter button while holding the camera still.

I used both modes while watching the Crashed Ice event depending on my location. It was a ton of fun getting to use these techniques, too, being that most of what I take pictures of is pretty still! Next week's Togchat will be on aerial photography. You can see and pics and questions for it in the Flickr group here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/togchat. Hope to see you there!