Motor Sports is one of the most challenging activities to shoot. Over and above aperture, shutter speed and ISO considerations, there’s also safety – yours and your subjects’. In an attempt to get the most captivating photo, you can end up staring at a hospital ceiling or send the driver / rider into the ditches.
I got to hear about last weekend’s event at Jamhuri Park a couple of weeks back but it got postponed due to weather considerations. I thought the mud would have provided spectacular fun but the organisers put safety first and pushed it forward to yesterday.
The last time I was at Jamhuri Park for Motor Cross was last year when I really enjoyed myself but lost some of my equipment in a car break-in. This time, I lugged all my equipment with me around the track, including the DJI Phantom 2 Vision which I was using for the first time to cover a sports event.
These two shots I took using the drone. It was quite challenging finding the right place to hover it because I didn’t want it to be a distraction or have one of the riders crash into it on one of their aerial stunts.
I got called in for this shot. It wasn’t until I positioned the drone and gave the thumbs up sign that the riders were flagged off.
After the races were over, I headed over to the Polo grounds were there were UAV enthusiasts flying their craft. I joined them in the fun and first took this selfie…
…then the photo below. I managed to fly the drone to 280m above ground and still had a steady FPV on my phone. It was just amazing.