Photos of kids mountain biking in Moab

As part of my recent southwest US trip with the family, we spent 5 days mountain biking in Moab, UT. This was my favorite part of the road trip. We would do a 2-3 hour adult ride in the morning and then take the kids to play on the Slickrock trail in the early evening. The Slickrock trial is about 20 square miles of petrified sand dunes. Here are a couple of the best shots from these evening rides with the kids:

Canon 5D camera, Canon 200mm F2.8 lens, shooting mode of Aperture Priority (Av), ISO 200, Exposure compensation (EC) -1/3, Aperture of F4, shutter-speed of 1/5000 (selected by the camera), picture-style of 'standard', white-balance of 'cloudy', hand-held.

Canon 5D camera, Canon 200mm F2.8 lens, shooting mode of program (P) [this was an accident, the control dial moved from Av to P when I pulled the camera from my bag], ISO 200, Exposure compensation (EC) -0, Aperture of F10 (selected by the camera), shutter-speed of 1/320 (selected by the camera), picture-style of 'standard', white-balance of 'cloudy', hand-held.

Canon 5D camera, Canon 200mm F2.8 lens, shooting mode of Aperture Priority (Av), ISO 200, Exposure compensation (EC) -0, Aperture of F3.5, shutter-speed of 1/3200 (selected by the camera), picture-style of 'standard', white-balance of 'cloudy', hand-held.

Canon 5D camera, Canon 200mm F2.8 lens, shooting mode of Aperture Priority (Av), ISO 200, Exposure compensation (EC) -1/3, Aperture of F3.5, shutter-speed of 1/3200 (selected by the camera), picture-style of 'standard', white-balance of 'cloudy', hand-held.

The mountains in the background are the La Sal's. I did purposely bring the kids on this ride right before sunset because I knew this would have the best light. I also positioned myself so I would get the La Sal mountains in as many background.

I borrowed a friends Canon 70-300 f3.5-f5.6 IS lens specifically for shooting mountain biking on this trip. I used this lens for 1 day and then put it away. It produced 'decent' images, but was not in the same league as my Canon 200 f.28 prime. The 200 prime (not zoom) worked great and if my subject got 'to close', I would switch to shooting in portrait mode, if he still got closer I would go for a 'head and shoulders' shot. As always, I'm thrilled with the results from the 200 prime. Compared with the 70-300 zoom, the 200 prime delivered shallower depth of field, better colors, better contrast and better sharpness. The 70-300 still produced some pretty good results, but the photos from the 200 prime we superior.

I shot at f3.5 and f4.0 instead of f2.8 because I wanted a little more depth of field to keep the moving subject in the plane of focus. I was worried that at f2.8 I might get too many photos where the subject outside the plane of focus.

The 'ingredients' that made these photos work:

• attractive subjects
  
• great scene (the La Sal's & slickrock)
• great pre-sunset light
• subject isolation and blurry background (from 200mm lens @ f3.5-f4.0 apertures)
• white balance set to 'cloudy' 'warms-up' the images
• picture style of 'standard' makes the photos 'pop' (this picture style increases contrast and saturation)
• Using a telephoto lens to 'pull-in' the background (the La Sal's)

I carried my 5D + 200 f2.8 in my DaKine Drafter backpack. This is a mountain biking specific backpack for carrying a water bladder, tools & windbreaker. The 5D + 200 fit fine in the backpack, even with a 3/4 full water-bladder. My big LowePro camera backpack was too big and heavy for carrying on long mountain bike rides. Yes, I was a little nervous about damaging the camera from a crash and yes, it was a lot of weight to lug around -- but I'd rather take a little risk and carry some extra weight to get spectacular photos, than concede to the 'point and shoot' digital camera and just get 'snapshots'. I do concede to using the digital point-and-shoot for skiing/snowboarding because I find the risk from water damage to my 5D unacceptable.

I'll do a separate post with some photos from the adult rides.