The large swatches of red, white, and blue paint at the Circuit of the Americas are a great visual addition to an already fairly scenic track.
Throw in a bit of elevation change, and the colors provide endless possibilities waiting to be explored.
With smooth armco and solid stripes serving as a background, a motion blur was easy to achieve. This came with a caveat, as this particular composition was also only possible with the fastest riders.
The reason for this is that the armco abruptly cuts off mid-corner, followed immediately by unsightly plastic crash barriers that required a substantially slower shutter speed to smooth out.
Slower riders didn’t get their bikes down at full lean until they were past the armco, which yielded very different results.
I tend to gravitate towards abstract compositions that intentionally obscure the location on the track. Any educated guesses as to Dani Pedrosa’s whereabouts?
With the new format of the two races split between Saturday and Sunday – at precisely the same time of 3pm – and a warm-up on Sunday morning, it opens up interesting opportunities to capture lots of close action on track.
Individual photographers have a chance to take a breather, study their work overnight, and get back on track with new plans and possibilities.
Autumn in Phillip Island is a fabulous time with some beautiful sunshine and light often changing to brief spells of cloud and rain in mostly windy conditions.
Combine that with a gently rolling topography, the blue backdrop of the Bass Straits, a fast, flowing and twisty circuit with bikes leaned over for most of a lap and crowds very close to the edge of the track – and you have a photographer’s dream.
Infinite possibilities to combine breathtaking light, shadow, colour, texture, lines, curves – into drama, emotion and surprise.
Well, it’s that time of the year. A rather warm goodbye to winter for motor racing fans – with the season opener of the World Superbikes season at Phillip Island, Australia.
Being exposed to the spectacular Bass Straits, the reality is the weather changes so often at Phillip Island that you can have all four seasons in a day.
This did indeed prove to be the case on Friday and Saturday, and it resulted in some pretty special light – which every photographer is on the lookout for. Cloudy skies, spots of sun, and micro-climate.
The green machines with Rea and Sykes seem to have picked up pretty much from where they left off last year. Chaz Davies, who had a terrific second half to 2015 was brimming with confidence – and it showed in his times.
And for American fans, there was of course the welcomed sight of Nicky Hayden’s #69 to look forward to. Welcome to the season opener of World Superbikes 2016 from Phillip Island – where questions outnumber answers.
