After a year and a half of including a ‘pic of the week’ at the end of my weekly training summary, I’ve decided to let it stand as a post of its own.  I’m also implementing a rule that the Friday Foto needs to have been taken sometime in the last week.  No recycling.  I am doing this to keep me engaged in building my photography skills, and to make me work harder to get fresh shots.  Click here to see my previous Friday Foto posts.

My daughter needed some hours behind the wheel to fulfill her permit requirements, and I suggested that we drive up  to Brighton and shoot photos of the cyclo-cross race up there.  With all of the other errands we did she ended up with 4 hours of driving time, and I shot 901 photos.  Good day all around.

The junior races (10-14, 15-18) were a blast to watch and photograph.  Their facial expressions were so dramatic.

As the men were warming up before the last race of the day, I spotted this rider and told my daughter – he is going to win.  I hadn’t even seen anyone else in the race at that point.  I could just tell by the way he dismounted his bike to speak to a friend.  He had ‘it’.  The ability to go from being on the bike to off the bike in one fluid motion.  Almost like some sort of shape-shifter.  Very important in ‘cross.

Of course it was mostly a lucky guess, but it was fun to watch the prediction play out.  He started in the back of the pack and was up to 5th place by the end of the first lap.  Then it was a couple of laps swapping leads with one other rider, before pulling away for good.

After a dark and overcast afternoon, the sun popped out at just the right moment and I snagged this shot at a fully-extended 300mm from a different part of the course.  My favorite element is the little cloud of dust that is lit up by the low-angle sunlight.

YE FTW
1/640, f/8, 300mm @ ISO 200