I was wandering around the USGP race course at Bend Oregon I was getting down on the ground because the low angle makes the riders appear more heroic when I noticed the tree and the dramatic sky in the background. Every camera I have, even my compact carry around camera, has a quick, manual adjustment for exposure control. Most cameras will over expose the sky so I almost always shoot ⅔ to 1 full stop under when it is a bright sunny day. In this case I realized that I could produce a pretty nice silhouette with a beautiful sky behind the rider. I underexposed 1 full stop and took a few shots as the next riders came by. I noticed the lines that the vapour trail (1) and the clouds (2) were making as they drew the eye towards the rider. I took a few exposures with the rider dead centre but you couldn’t tell what was going on with the tree in the background. It might have been nice to have only the rider on the horizon but I couldn’t find a spot where I could get that shot and I like the fact that the rider is taller than the tree giving him a stronger position in the frame. As well the tree gives us a sense of place.
-Russell Berg