I got a second chance to catch some track racing at the velodrome in Trexlertown after rain postponed Friday night’s race to Saturday. Though we’d soon find out the rain wasn’t quite done yet:
If you’re not familiar with track cycling, it’s a fast-paced race with riders on sleek bikes that have one gear, no brakes, and no freewheel: you stop by slowing down gradually - or crashing. There are team relay events and longer races where some laps count for team points and others have cash prizes announced mid-race.
The velodrome is only about an hour from Plymouth Meeting, so our small group was there with plenty of time to grab some food and beer while watching the warm ups. The Breakaway Cafe had a surprisingly wide and inexpensive selection, including turkey and black bean burgers! As the race got under way, I did my best to recall some techniques from pro sports photographer Mark Rebilas, whose blog I’m going to shamelessly imitate here. I started high in the stands:
Shooting down onto the track provided some nice, clean backgrounds:
The setting sun also lit up some clouds on the far side of the track:
Then the clouds turned ugly and it started to pour:
Being at the top of the grandstands, I was fortunate to be able to duck into an empty end of the pressbox and shoot some scenes of the deluge and evacuation:
When the rain cleared, the staff and competitors quickly went to work drying the track:
They also used a car to speed the drying, which looked a little comical on the small, banked track:
As Joe and Ben demonstrate here, the spectators took it all in stride:
The action resumed with the kids’ race:
Just as the regular race program was about to resume, the weather teased us with a few more drops of rain before stopping for the night. On with the race!
One of the great things about small venues like this is great access; you could shoot from the grandstands on both sides, all around the outside wall, and even from the infield! Here’s the view from in the infield bridge down the final straightaway to the finish line:
Since the stadium lights are all on the outside, shooting from inside the track meant stronger back lighting. With the shadows and a slower shutter speed I got some interesting effects:
Zooming with a slow shutter was much more hit and miss, since I was also panning, but I did get one to work out:
The races kept up a fast and furious pace, so there was no shortage of opportunities:
One of the neat moments was the handoff between teammates, who would grab hands to slingshot each other ahead:
After a while, the riders took notice of the photographers camped out in the turns:
Without a longer lens, I didn’t get many head-on shots, though the back-focusing made this one stand out:
The other real challenge here was shooting at night and getting a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action. Instead of throwing on a flash with limited telephoto range, I uses noisier 1600 ISO to get 1/500 on the 70-200 F4 and 17-85 F4-4.6. The nifty 50 once again showed why primes are so great; at F2.8 and beyond it had a much easier time at ISO 800. Sometimes, though, the stadium lighting hit the riders just right:
Overall, it was a eventful evening between the rain and the fast-paced racing. As a sport, there’s certainly a lot to keep up with. As a photo subject, it’s a real challenge to be fast enough on the shutter to catch the riders and to use light, position, and timing to capture great shots. It’s an inexpensive and exciting night out, though, so definitely check out a race if you’re a cycling fan!
See more photos from the Velodrome
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