A Sense of Speed in Sports

Sabrina's fantastic shot of this snowboarder caught our eye and takes the top prize in this month's A Sense of Speed in Sports competition. We love her clean composition with the bold colours of the snowboarder and 'Funky' text standing out clearly from the clear blue sky behind. She's nailed the timing to catch an interesting moment and expertly dialled in settings for a super fast shutter speed of 1/1250 sec to freeze the moment still and an aperture of f/11 ensured that all of her subject would be in sharp focus.

Malcolm's wonderful shot of a rider at the Hambledon Cross Country event fits our brief perfectly. Using a panning technique to track his rider and a slow shutter speed of 1/30 sec he's expertly managed to ensure his rider is sharp while the background has been turned into a rush of exciting motion.

John’s exhilarating racing shot shows Heptathalete’s running the bend in the 200m event at the London 2012 Olympics. His focus is bang-on Swizerland’s Ellen Sprunger who won the heat with a personal best of 23.59 secs. He told us, “I had originally planned to use my 400mm lens but as we were in the front row that didn't give enough of the overall scene so I changed it for my 24-70mm lens. That also enabled me to have a much wider aperture of f/3.2 for a shallow depth of field”.

Carole took this gnarly shot of a surfer coming down a big wave at the annual El Quemao competition in La Santa Lanzarote. She told us, “This surfing beach is dangerous due to the jutting lava. Photography is from a fair distance making it difficult to get details of the actual surfers”. Regardless, she’s done a brilliant job using the long end of her Canon EF 100-400mm lens to zoom in on the action and a rapid shutter speed of 1/2000 sec to freeze the action and sea spray still.

Giulio’s brilliant photograph of horses racing on ice in Sant Moritz, Switzerland is packed with action, drama and colour and culminate in a breath-taking sports shot. The muted pale tones of the snowy environment makes the perfect background for the horses and colourful jockeys to stand out. Giulio has expertly dialled in his camera settings for a fast shutter speed to freeze the five riders battling it out for pole position with incredible snow and ice frozen mid-air. His focus on the riders and horses is also bang-on. Great job!

Jean-Paul's incredible shot of this iconic Ford GT40 at the Le Mans Classic stood out to us with its vibrant yellow paint job that leaps out. The image looks like a panning shot, though with a fast shutter speed of 1/320 sec it's likely that a bit of editing was involved to enhance the movement, however this has been done tastefully and adds to the image rather than being a distraction. Great job!

Jacob's action-packed sports shot shows him in pursuit of world-beating downhill skater Dexter Manning on one of Malibu's notorious mountain roads. He's used a wide-angle to include both Dexter and the surrounding scenery to add context, and opted for a slow shutter speed of 1/50 sec to add loads of lovely motion to the foreground and skater.

Marco's sports shot caught our eye because of his creative use of off-camera flash, which has been used to both freeze this trail runner in the French Riviera absolutely still in an interesting pose mid-air but also balance the natural light to stop him from being turned into a silhouette. Great job!

Paolo took this thrilling mountain bike shot from the World Series MTB in Italy. He’s done a brilliant job of focusing on the rider then panning and tracking him with a shutter speed of 1/50 sec to throw the foreground and background into a brilliant blur. The rapid burst rate of the EOS R5 and subject tracking no doubt helped him catch this top shot. Our only minor gripe is the pole on the right hand side of the frame which is a little distracting and would have been worth moving over a little to avoid including it in the composition.

This fast and furious shot from a vintage motorcycle meet at Cadwell Park was taken by petrol-head Gary, who’s found a brilliant composition where the track snakes around so you can see riders in the foreground lifting the front wheel up as well as riders catching up in the background which adds an element of chase and excitement to his shot. Shooting at a blisteringly fast 1/3200 sec he’s made full use of his Canon EOS R6’s 12 fps mechanical shutter to rattle off a series of frames and catch this precise moment.