The Tour of Britain

Stage Five of the race takes place in Stoke on Trent this year and begins at Trentham Gardens at half 10. It finishes in the city of Hanley and I am going to be attempting to catch it near Cannock Chase!

My aim is to get there for around half 10. Have my camera set and ready on fast shutter speeds, high apertures (Perhaps f/7), and high ISO. For example, 1/1000th of a second would freeze the movement. Maybe if I'm feeling risky, I could try a panning shot! The card I am going to be shooting on is my 16GB, leaving me plenty of room to shoot in RAW and giving me the opportunity to get the best quality available. I am going to make sure I have enough space on the card and back-up the images on my Hard-Drive.

The reason I chose to drive to Cannock Chase instead of Stafford is because it would be in the country side, and gives it a true British concept and background. Nothing too much to really distract your eye in the photos, just beautiful trees and green!

I need to be prepared to shoot the photos, give myself plenty of time and don't try and take photos last minute otherwise I'd have missed my chance. First begin to take photos of them coming towards me, try and get as many close up photos as I can (Continuous) and then of them moving past me. I need to take chances and have good timing, and pay attention!

Here are some images that would be inspiring to look at.

This image portrays a good shallow depth of field, great composition and the lighting is soft. The photograph indicates the bike in use and the movement, and giving the image some punch with the appealing shadows and gentle colours.




This is an image I'd most likely be getting, although perhaps from the side rather than straight forward. I'd be wanting to capture all of them racing, the expressions in their faces, the movement in the bikes and all the colours, although maybe a black and white edit would give the image a more documentary feel, unless the colours signify Britain.

If I am going to be standing outside, I will bring a raincoat in case it rains. The forcast for Thursday is estimated to be Sunny but I should pack one just in case! I will bring my kit lens and 50mm, and thinking using my 50mm if I'd like to attempt a shallower depth of field.

To give the image a bit more of a difference, I will try different angles and shoot from below as well as from above.