Scrambling

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Hi all,

Took this image quite a while ago, found it on my backup disk and thought I should let it see the light of day at least once, before it disappears once again into the deepest darkest reaches of my archive.

As always, comments and suggestions welcome.

Dave (UK)

[FrameMaker]

OK,  I'll bite.

I'm not very fond of this photograph because it's framed too tightly...there's no sense of where the rider has been or where he is going...he's frozen, but with no sense of purpose; an action shot without action.  It's very distracting that the rider is looking down at his front tire (instead of looking up &ahead), which knowledgeable people will recognize marks the rider as a beginner at this sort of thing.  Check out any motorcycle rag that covers motocross or trials bikes to see what I mean. 

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

OK,  I'll bite.

I'm not very fond of this photograph because it's framed too tightly...there's no sense of where the rider has been or where he is going...he's frozen, but with no sense of purpose; an action shot without action.  It's very distracting that the rider is looking down at his front tire (instead of looking up &ahead), which knowledgeable people will recognize marks the rider as a beginner at this sort of thing.  Check out any motorcycle rag that covers motocross or trials bikes to see what I mean.  

OK, fair comment, not my typical kind of photographic topic, so I genuinely have no measure by which I can judge this image to be good or bad, so I fully accept your critique on framing, cropping and freezing etc. I don't buy or have ever bought a motocross rag either, so again nothing by which I can base an aesthetic opinion on, so again I am happy to accept what you say. But I do think your assumption (and that is all it can be after all) that this person is a beginner and so by implication not worthy of a shot, is being just a tad OTT on your part - you may be an expert in motocross and choose not to take an image of someone you assess to be a novice and that is your right and your choice, but surely you are not suggesting that what you decide should form the basis of a blanket ban to anyone else who happens to own a camera are you?

So I'll bite right back at yer...

Dave (UK)

[FrameMaker]

I'm not trying to be insulting.  So let me go at this again.  The rider looking down adds to the sense of the too tightly framed with no where to go, which is the opposite of what's wanted in this type of action shot.  And yes I know a thing or two about riding motorcycles and you must know more than you are letting on otherwise why else would you be out in the woods watching the event?   

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Hi FrameMaker

I used to be heavily into road bikes for many years. even had one in the kitchen for one winter so I could polish it daily, and I have had many bikes over the years, from the old GT 250 Ram Air Suzuki, right through to a GSX 11, which I even manage to thrash around the IoM on Mad Sunday a couple of times at around 120/130 MPH. I've also owned chops and street racers etc (oh what happy days). But I truly have never had any interest in or followed what used to be called 'scrambling' in the UK, and is now it seems called Motocross, which again proves my complete ignorance of the subject, don't know why it leaves me cold, it just does, like speedway, which is another bike related sport I am completely indifferent about.

No the reason I took the shot was, I happened to be out in Derbyshire the other year and these motocrossers came hurtling passed me, so I followed and it turned out they were going to another section of a trial (or what ever it is called nowadays), so I followed and got out and took a few shots, I have been told since that this is a regular event and the dates when it is running etc, but I have never been back, so again I suppose this shows my entire lack of enthusiasm for the subject.   

Dave (UK)