Photographing A PEV Race Event.

Recently I got invited to photograph Camp Shred this year at Horns Hill Mountain Bike Park in Newark, Ohio and it was an amazing adrenaline fueled experience! This yearly event is a Race and Street Style competition for Electric Unicycles (EUC’s) and Onewheel’s. I have friends that have been riding Onewheels for a long time, and I myself ride, but I had never been to an official event, let alone photographed one, so this was a new experience for me. 

With this event, I knew that I wanted to shoot it just like any other event. I wanted my pictures to tell a story and I wanted to make sure that I captured good, clean action and podium shots. I also knew that I would be camping for this multi day event so I wanted to make sure that I brought a way to charge my camera batteries and my laptop. The kit that I brought with me was the Canon R5, RF 24-105mm f/4, RF 28mm f/2.8, and my RF 70-200mm f/4.

I arrived at the venue a few hours before the scheduled practice started so I could walk around and get a scope of the event. I also wanted to meet with the event organizer before the event started so that I could get a copy of the schedule to better plan my approach to capturing the event. After meeting with the organizers and scoping out the venue for good shots and angles, the racers started showing up and practice was under way for the different activities of the event, which gave me an opportunity to test camera settings and locations.  

The first events to take place were the Race events. I was able to set up at the end of a straight just off the trail with my Canon R5 and my 70-200mm f/4 and capture images of the racers as they were racing down the trail at 20+ mph. I knew from testing my settings during the practice runs that I could run my 70-200mm at f/4 and my shutter speed no lower than 800. As for ISO, I chose to use Auto ISO with the camera set to underexpose by a ⅔ ‘s of a stop. I found this to be the sweet spot to keep the highlights from blowing out, but keep the shadows light enough to recover them in Lightroom. 

Not only was this a great opportunity to capture action filled shots of the racers blowing through the dust filled trails, it was also a great time to capture the action portraits that I wanted. The riders were very expressive and photogenic on the trail. With a few of these shots I was able to extend to the full 200mm, capturing some riders getting air on the gnarlier sections of trail and then rack back to 80-100mm all while maintaining focus as the riders.

  The Street Style/Trick Comp was a different type of an event and I had to change up my gear and approach just a little. I kept the R5 but switched out the 70-200mm f/4 for the 28mm f/2.8. The Canon RF 28mm f/2.8 is a pancake lens that I felt was perfect for the look I was trying to achieve. I wanted that, in-your-face, fill the frame, skateboard shot that I grew up looking at in Thrasher mags and CSS catalogs. This means I had to get close and with 30 pound boards buzzing around, sometimes riderless, I didn’t want to use a large profile lens that could easily get damaged. I chose to open up my aperture to 2.8 and keep my shutter speed at 800, I was also able to take my camera off of auto ISO and keep it around 640 due to the event being out in the open and having sufficient natural light (the weather was beautiful all weekend).

This was the most exciting and adrenaline filled experience that I have had shooting an event, I felt like a hockey goalie with a camera! I would grab focus on the rider as they approached the obstacle and then I would start firing in High Speed Continuous while maintaining focus, I would back pedal to keep them in frame, while making sure to stay on guard for any careening boards that may come my way. I shot the majority of the day exposing for the highlights in camera and bringing up the shadows and midtones in Lightroom. 

When it came time to do the podium shots, the light outside was pretty harsh and we opted to take the shots in the shade of the pavilion. I kept with the same formula that I used while shooting the racers in the woods. Expose in camera for the highlights knowing that I can bring the shadows up in Lightroom. My exposures in camera were made easier by utilizing the Histogram on the R5, and I only had a few images that I was unable to save in post. The podium shots in general were good with the provided lighting, but I will be implementing lighting on future events to help manage the harsh light/shadow situation that I ran into.