6/16/2005: Office Chair World Championship

[glatt]

Funny picture. I like it. The guy looks so intense.

I don't think the technical skill of the photographer is really anything too special. If there were 64 participants, then the photographer could set up shop at this one jump and have 64 tries to get a good shot. It's a bright, sunny day, so the aperature of the camera can be closed down pretty small, creating a large depth of field. The photographer can pre-focus on the center of the ramp, and still have much of the foreground and background still in focus to allow for the different paths the racers will follow. The participants are not going all that fast compared to a car race, so the shutter speed can be a little longer to create a sense of motion blur. Maybe a 60th of a second or a 30th of a second or so. The previously mentioned small aperature will allow such a relatively long exposure. As each racer goes over the jump, the photographer can hand hold the camera and pan with the motion. That keeps the racer relatively crisp, and blurs the background. Panning isn't so hard. You can't get a good shot every time when you pan the action, but with 64 tries, you will have several that will come out well.

I don't mean to say that the photographer has no talent. It's easy for me to sit here and figure out how the picture was taken. Quite another thing to set up the shot in the first place.