Le Tour de Yorkshire

Firstly, apologies for posting something photography related . Secondly, I've just spent a magnificent weekend in Oughtibridge (Sheffield), a place I know very well and also a place that hosted part of Stage 2 of the Tour de France. We camped out on my Parents in Law's field, which was directly alongside the route and afforded us an elevated view.

What a day it was on Sunday! Thousands upon thousands of people, massive excitement and no bad behaviour at all. Just wonderful. These are all taken on Jawbone Hill, the penultimate climb of the day, apologies for the number of images, but this was a 'once in a lifetime' event and worth sharing. I've got a lot more, shot with the K-5IIs and K-01, wider lenses attached, but not processed yet.

These ones are all with the K-3, DA*300 and 1.4TC combination which was used for crowd details and more distant shots of the race. BTW, I've named them and don't apologise for doing so, I think this adds some context.

Pushing Hard





Nail Biting Drama





In Formation





Rear of The Peloton





Bob-Bobbying Along - An explanation may be required for this one! The road was approx. 6 feet below the level of the field and all I could see were two helmets bobbing along as the policemen walked down the hill!





Waiting for The Racers





Leaders Approach The Climb





High Fives





From Behind the Peloton





What The Crowd Were Doing





Faces in The Crowd





Starting To Climb





The Rear





Occasional Nikon Shooter





Around the Bend




I'll post another set with different equipment, once I've had the chance to review and process them.

Regards
David

Very nice set David, i really like the 12th image.

Fantastic set of images of a fantastic event. The use of the 300mm lens+1.4TC has enabled you to pick out close detail and also bunch up the perspective to highlight the drama. With such a long lens combination did to rack up the ISO or did you use a tripod? I would have done the former as I find tripods an encumbrance and they inhibit mobility and quick reaction. To be honest I've not used a tripod in years and don't even own one now. That's not such a problem for me as I don't do bird pictures or macros.
The colour is just great and so is the variety which includes crowd reaction plus sporting action.
I'll not tell anyone you sneaked a photo of a Nikon into this first class set.
David

PS: Cycle racing is my favourite sport (I used to do a bit in my youth) and I'm glued to the live TV coverage of Le Tour every year, but never more so than the Grand Depart from Yorkshire.
PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout

Thanks David, I appreciate your comments and to answer your question, some of these were on a tripod and some hand-held, from memory I think possibly 50/50. ISO was kept at 200 throughout the day. I had to use a tripod because I was shooting with 3 cameras simultaneously, this one, a K-5IIs with a Siggy 17-70 lens and a K-01 again on a tripod with a DA*50-135 set to fire automatically on the interval timer at 5 second intervals. The K-5IIs was hand-held, so I could only use the K-3 hand held for a few shots in between the main action.

Thank you Gareth, much appreciated, I hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did mine!

Regards
David

Its hard to do sports with Pentax..
Good stuff David

Your standards are slipping, David. I can't believe you had only three camera bodies on the go simultaneously. Surely most normal people would have used four or five?

That apart, these are absolutely great and capture the sense of occasion wonderfully - I look forward to seeing the next batch.

Thank you Simon and Stuart, much appreciated

Regards
David

Really excellent set David, great skill here to catch all this action given how quickly they flash past. I was looking forward to seeing your TdF efforts

Difficult to pick a favourite, but Faces in the Crowd just edges it - a wonderful capture of the excitement in the crowds.

Great set David - really captures the mood.

If I had known you were there I would have waved on my way past - I was in a black Renault Espace that said Team Europcar VIP car on the side.

What a fantastic weekend - I was at the start and finish on both days and covered the entire course in the team car on day one and day two (except for the brief periods in the helicopter) - I feel so incredibly lucky to have experienced it (and proud to be a Yorkshireman).

A once in a lifetime opportunity indeed - the only downside for me was I only experienced the atmosphere from a distance to some extent (except for at the start and finish and that was in 'corporate' enclosures - not the same) Not in any way a complaint but I did pass many a Dales pub that we all desperately wanted to stop at and join in the festivities

I may post a few with a different slant on the spectacle.

Carl

Cheers Tim and Carl, memorable is the word that springs to mind for what we experienced this weekend, I hope we get the opportunity to see this event in Yorkshire again, we really did it proud!

Best wishes
David

You've really captured the atmosphere, I really like 'High Fives'

You've certainly captured the atmosphere David in addition to excellent action

Ditto to the above comments, look forward to seeing more.

Regards

George

Wonderful set these David, well done!

I like all of these - nail biting drama certainly has a comedy element to it

Wow I have managed to comment on Carls and David's without any men in lycra jokes or protruding helmet insinuations

More seriously great shots guys and I do like the bob bobbying along shot