A Frame Of Mind?

It was time for the Guildford centre criterium racing again last Wednesday.

I'd missed it last year so was keen to go and shoot it again this year.
The short course is very good as the field spreads out fairly well and quickly meaning there's always someone coming at you.

However, you know those nights when it's just not working right? I had one of them: The sky was flat and white, there was scaffolding in the way, the crash barriers were big white blocks, it was busy, the marshals were all day-glo and reflective etc etc Basically, all the excuses I could think off were blamed on the location and circumstance. It took me ages to knuckle down and get some stuff out that was working. Even then it was still feeling a bit too formulaic...
That's where this little chap helped me out; all decked out in his GB kit and with a permanent "race face" on for all of his laps. I figured if he can enter a race like that at his age and enjoy it as much as he obviously was, then surely I can stop grumping, get my shit together and do the riders some justice by getting some decent shots.

So, by the time the main event came around I was in a much better frame of mind. Just as well really as it was getting pretty busy at the corner for photography (90deg left-hander on cobbles on to the main street)


I didn't have time to sort and process my shots until Saturday (See the next post for details on that little adventure) and I was surprised to see that I had managed to get way more "keepers" than expected. Which just goes to show that sometimes it _is_ all in your head.


(but the sky was crap, right until the last 15mins, and even then I had to pull two different exposures out of Lightroom and Photoshop them back together ;o)