Street Racing

The bicycle races moved to the streets on Sunday in The Grove neighborhood. Much easier to shoot - wide open spaces, no in-and-out shadows and I could get closer to the riders. I got tons of pictures. This is just a sample. I also have material from a sound and light laser show at the botanical garden over the weekend and the St. Louis Fringe Festival starts Wednesday night. And I still have to work. No risk of boredom.        

Velocity

There are some big time (by our standards) bicycle races in Tower Grove this weekend. I've shot this event before when it was run on city streets. Much harder to do in the park with limited areas of open sun and lots of mottling by tree shade. No good for auto exposure and focus.

I took too many photos yesterday, cleanly into four figures. A lot of that was shooting in burst mode as the pack went by. But there was another event yesterday evening that ran up the score. We'll get to all of it.      

Black Lives Matter

Look at the sign in the window. To whom? The riders?

On Manchester Avenue in The Grove. Remember, Ferguson is in St. Louis County.            

Back In The Pack

You see this in bicycle, horse and automobile racing, and sometimes with runners. Someone else is clearly out in front. How do you break out of this without injury to someone or smashing your bike?             

VELO-city

Big time bicycle races in The Grove neighborhood. There is a kind of closed-course street bike race called Criterium. No, not criterion. No idea how the word was made up. But then I'm not much of a cyclist. The last time I got on one I needed a steroid shot in my knee a couple of days later.

I was amazed at the riders speed. Having a tripod helps capture it.

    

Hot Wheels

There was a series of bicycle races in four neighborhoods over four days. This one went around Francis Park in St. Louis Hills (which is actually pretty flat). The Tour de FRANCE-is. Ha. Get it?

The problem for the riders was that it was bloody hot. I shot this at noon when the temperature was 95 F / 35 C and it was worse as the day went on. The pace got slower and slower with each lap.          

Bicycle Race

Unlike our lucky CDPB colleagues in places like Paris and New York, I have to get out on the streets every weekend looking for material to feed this monster. So I went out cruising Sunday, taking local roads through Webster Groves, the suburb where I live, into the city proper and ran across this. Eeeerkk, into a parking lot and whip out camera bag. I have no experience in sports photography. This is what I came up with - could have been sharper. Keep that shutter speed fast.

TOMORROW: Bull's eye.