Capture an action shot of a rider on the course

Timing is really everything in photography, and perhaps never more so when you shoot moving subjects. Modern digital cameras make getting a good shot more achievable than ever, with sophisticated autofocus systems and the ability to capture many frames per second in continuous drive mode.

Although it’s tempting to think that the ‘spray and pray’ method is a failsafe way of capturing a decisive moment in fast-action photography, you’ll be filling up your capture card, only to spend more time afterwards binning shots rather than editing them. A keen mountain biker himself, Matt had the benefit of knowing how the riders would most likely tackle the course. For this shot, Kate was riding a short straight section of a downhill incline: we estimated her speed at around 10mph. The background was looking dark, so Matt used some off-camera flash, plus a slight panning movement at 1/60 sec. To freeze the action of a subject moving at this speed, you’d typically be looking at around 1/1,000 sec.

Expert opinion

Matt channelled his action photography smarts well here, keeping his camera primed and firing as Kate approached the target area. Using flash meant that fast continuous drive mode was redundant, so this shot was really all about the timing – and Matt has nailed it. The vegetation on either side of the course provides some visual interest, and the colours of nature contrast well with the man-made colours and geometry of the bike and rider, which the flash has made pop.