This past weekend I went to my first NBL BMX state championship race in Florida in St. Cloud. I didn’t race - I think I’m still too slow to compete - but I got to hang out with my friends from the Audiobahn BMX team and take a few photos. It was a very hot and dry day, but that didn’t slow down the racing at all. Anyone that thinks bicycle racing isn’t a dangerous sport should see how fast some of these racers go - the skill set required to race BMX surely is underestimated by most people.

:: Mike Powers leads in the first straight - click on image to enlarge ::

I used my Nikon D300 and Nikkor 70-200 AF-S 2.8 VR lens to take a few shots, but with all the dry, fine dust being thrown around, I wanted to limit my equipment’s exposure to that kind of abuse. In mid-day sun, it was very bright and I dialed in my exposure a bit too hot for this event, but not so hot that I blew out highlights. I appreciated the D300’s extra dynamic range in this situation, and shooting 12-bit RAW files provided all the headroom I needed. Again, another perfect performance from this combination, though I don’t think I’ll be shooting much BMX in the future, unless I feel like sending my equipment to Nikon frequently for cleaning and recalibration.

Taking photos is fun, but riding is more fun, and I need to get to it. I want to attend Interbike and I may go to the NBL Grand Nationals, but we’ll see. I have so many projects in the pipeline at this point, that two months seems like a light year away right now.