I didn't get any good quality shots from either of two locations early-final stage or by the finish line. I may be very sorry for entering this one. This is about an 80% crop of the original. These bikes go so fast it's hard to catch them. Anyway I had to submit something. This was taken on my birthday. It was really packed at the finish line from street to stores and difficult to get this close without waiting hours guarding a railing spot. Sorry about the cut off back tire, but of 3 shots I was able to get off this is the only one with over half the bike in it. Website
auto-levels in Camera Raw
severe crop
saturation +5 overall
Some USM but it got noisy really fast
Original more processed
POST: Of course I'm disappointed with the score. 22 voters thinking it's above average vs 201 thinking it's below average speaks pretty loudly. It's not sharp, but otherwise I think it's a pretty good shot. I thought I was going to get a brown ribbon with a 3.8 score. Looks like the most important aspect of scoring is having a tack sharp picture. Oh, and I thought I'd get comments on the atrocious title, but I thought all the information was needed.
Special thanks to TrollMan for giving this extra time and thoughtful evaluation.
Statistics
Place: 180 out of 194 Avg (all users): 3.9058 Avg (commenters): 4.4444 Avg (participants): 3.7536 Avg (non-participants): 3.9740 Views since voting: 1059 Views during voting: 378 Votes: 223 Comments: 9 Favorites: 0
Probably a few technical aspects here that are not spot on. But I don't think any photo that follow the book in all ways will ever be looked at as creative or exciting the same way this does.
I love the overall look. The blurry effect, the fact that the crowd is ecstatic but still not stealing from the rider makes this look very good. I could easily see this shot in a book with famous moments in the history of sport.
The image the way it is taken makes me look at it for a long time. Studying all the details and feeling the moment. The rider is also standing which makes it clear that he is giving 150% and going for gold. The crop is exactly where it should be leaving room forward.
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