CampKevin Toronto Supercross

I want to thank Racer X for giving me the chance to shoot my first Supercross.

Hopefully I can make a contribution to my favorite moto mag.

3/29/08. First of all, Supercross is waaay harder to shoot than the Outdoor Nationals. Low light, inaccessible parts of the track, standing all day on concrete and $4 cans of Coke can really take a toll on a photographer here. My keeper rate for pictures is less than a quarter of what it would be outdoors. My hat is off to all the shooters who regularly cover Supercross.

Though I have my gripes, I still managed to get some good pics. Much like the riders, I used the practice sessions to feel out the conditions. I had trouble getting it together at first, the pics were looking like shit and my confidence was low. I went back to the press box, uploaded into my MacBook and had few usable shots. I talked to a few of the shooters and they told me the conditions would be harder as the night went on. The firework smoke and the disco smoke machines would create a haze that would wreak havoc on flash photography.

In the press box, I talked to Donn Maeda, of Transworld Motocross fame, about my troubles. I must have been a bit star-struck, I’m not sure what he said, I think it was something about F-stops, shutter speeds, ISO and cameras and motorcycles? What ever he said, it worked. I ditched my flash, tucked my trusty Nikon 80-200 go-to lens into my press vest and got out the fastest lens in my bag,my 15 year old Japanese Nikon 50mm 1.4 and headed down for the Lites main. It is safe to say that I had the puniest rig (the lens is only 2 1/2”x3 1/2” and my D200 w/o battery grip is no giant) of anyone on the floor. I opened the lens almost all the way up (f1.6-f2) and shot the shit out of the race. It was very easy to bang out shot after shot with the little, quick handling rig and I’m happy with the results. Compare the practice shots against the race shots for yourself, I’m really liking the race shots.

I shot over 1400 pictures, filled 9 gigs of CF cards and spent an hour deleting the garbage shots. 16 hours of work for 100? pics... whew... I’m going to bed.

BTW, CampKevin regular and Saint Marys native, Ben Ritter #395 finished 9th in his heat which was good for the 17th gate pick in the main. After a shitty start, Ben was looking strong and fast, worked his way up to 13th? and then stalled his RMZ250 in the giant whoops. 100 kicks and a bump start later, he got it going and finished a disappointing 19th. Ben will be at all 16 Nationals this summer so keep your eyes peeled for #395 on your TV and at CampKevin.

Drop me a line and tell me what you think. Kevin...

I asked 39 riders at Toronto, What is your favorite part of your bike? My favorite was Eric Sorby and his "boobies"....

22 Chad Reed... Wheels “they keep me rollin’”

14 Kevin Windham... Factory Honda Power

188 Davi Millsaps... Factory Honda footpegs “they’re expensive” said his lady.

29 Andrew Short.... Factory Honda footpegs.

40 Josh Hill... Factory Yamaha front brake.

15 Tim Ferry... “power” Factory Kawasaki power that is.

24 Josh Summey... KYB suspension tuned by Jonathan Ohler

917 Eric Sorby.... "boobies" on Hooters graphics

12 David Vuillemin... Protapers and Factory Suzuki levers

11 Travis Preston.... Factory Kawasaki motor

13 Heath Voss....DRD exhaust

43 Jeff Gibson... Pro Circuit Motor

66 Jacob Marsack... Pirelli tires

25 Nathan Ramsey.... “the number 25, just kidding” Dudley tuned engine.

395 Ben Ritter....RG3, RRP Suspension

9 Ryan Lockhart....Factory Suspension

39 Ryan Clark.... MBI suspension

921 Manuel Rivas... Enzo Suspension

100 Josh Hansen... Factory Yamaha suspension

412 Levi Kilbarger.... Pro Circuit suspension, Dunlop tires 742F 756R

39 Kyle Keast....PC exhaust and Podium graphics

133 Colt Humphrey....MDK motor

364 Shawn Marinoff....FMF exhaust Factory 4.1

713 Zeb Dennis....The whole bike as long as it runs.

748 Kyle Brown....CR1 Performance suspension

270 Nathan H. Skaggs...Motor by Spine Chillers Racing and Mike Brown

922 Jordan Martin....FCR suspension

404 Tyler Medaglia.... ProTaper bar setup, RZ450 whole thing

412 Levi Kilbarger.... Pro Circuit suspension

831 Ryan Smith.... motor by Full Travel and Bad Boy

709 Tyler Bright.... Throttle

110 Tommy Hofmaster... Enzo suspension

210 Dane Marsack... Seat “if I get tired I can sit”

78 Keith Johnson.... Gold Enzo forks

156 William Browning... handlebars “look and feel”

520 Tony Gallo....FMF exhaust

461 Dave Ginholfi... Red Devol gas cap “it just looks good”

335 Kyle Tobin... Torco gas “so I can keep running my bike”