Motocross in Finland.

[moilami]

This is a photo report of Mikkeli national motocross championships in Finland 29.5.-30.5.2010, and a lense test. Unfortunately I did not see any china bikes except mine and maybe some scooters.

I got from my friend Tuomo a bag full of old photography gear. In it was two 30 – 40 years old lenses. The wide angle lense was about 40 years old 28mm f3.5 Nikkor, and the telephoto lense was Sigma 135mm f2.8. Both work in my Nikon D50 in full manual mode only. I wanted to test the lenses and what was better than to go photograph motocross racing for the first time in my life? Here is the first picture of a man washing a small motocross bike.



Even though the competion was national championship class competition, it was not very big.



Competitors wating in a queue to get access to the starting line.



Kids ready to start racing.



Race on!





Bottomed out suspension after a jump.



A kid cornering.



There was a car parked on the rocks. I saw it driving on the road after the race.



I was testing the wide angle lense in the first day. That naturally meant to get close to the subject. The security personnel was a little bit worried of my safety. So we had a chat.

- What if a bike drives over you?
- Shit happens.
- …
- I can’t get good pictures with this wide angle lense unless I go close to the bikes and find an interesting angle of view. I want to take good pictures.
- You know you will be at your own responsibility there?
- Yes sir of course.

And he let me photograph. When I was about to change the place I waved at him as thanks and he nodded back. I wish all security personnel would be as relaxed and understand that at times man have to do what man have to do.



I found that photographing motocross racing can be very big fun. I got the biggest adrelanine hit I have got in years while I waited for the men’s national championship race to start. I was laying on the ground with the camera in my hands like a gun. The thunderous sounds of bikes flowed in my ears, getting louder and louder as the bikes came closer. I held the camera in my hands like a gun and waited for the targets to appear on sigt, my left eye watching the hill and my right eye watching through the camera viewfinder.



In the next picture you can see how skilled motorcoss drivers bend their bike sideways when jumping. They do it in order to decrease the time spent in air, thus getting quicker back on the gound for the rear tire to bite furiously the dust again to get more speed. Note how the right leg is not on the right foot peg as the driver bent his bike to left with his left leg.



This was as close as they got. Please not that I was not on the track. Never disturb a motocross race by going in the track to take pictures. I was just outside of the track pulling the plastic track route line with my hand in order to squeeze it out of picture.







Some spectators.



Sharing is caring.



The fastest drivers of the men’s national championship level.



After everyone has raced it was a time to clean the bikes.



I was quite happy of the 40 years old 28mm f3.5 Nikkor lense. For this motocross race my 35mm f2.0 Nikkor might had been a better choise though so that I would had not needed to go as close to the drivers. It is also a faster lense, which helps to separate the drivers of the background in addition to being better in stopping the motion.

The day two will include photogpraphs taken with about 30 years old Sigma 135mm f2.8, which was a fun lense too.

[euphonius]

Moilami, I'm guessing from the quality of your pix that you are not a beginner at this craft. Your images from your epic ride back from wherever it was you fetched your Skyteam 250 were marvelous. Make me feel like a rank amateur. Which of course I am....

I also enjoy your mini-dialogues. Reminds me of that epic travel book The Road to Oxiana, in which the protagonists have lots of dialogues with Persian and Afghan officials speaking in their own languages (Farsi and Pashtun). Neither side understands anything, of course, and the author, Robert Byron, simply makes up what he thinks the other side is saying. His dialogues were a lot like yours!

Thanks again for some fun images.

[moilami]

Thanks Euphonius, but well, I am a pretty serious amateur only. Meaning I try to do my best with budget gear. In other words I am a photo journalist wannabee. I used to be a computer geek. In that I failed when I went to Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden as an exhange student for one year. I happened to find photography (needed some travelling pictures) and with it a whole new world for me, which was much more interesting than computers xD

[sabertooth_buterfly]

Great to see your photos moilami, I love to see all motorcycle racing from other countrys thanks :-)

[moilami]

Great to see your photos moilami, I love to see all motorcycle racing from other countrys thanks :-)

The day two will include pictures of women racing. That I can say was great to do and I can say I could specialise on it anytime

[ChinaV]

The day two will include pictures of women racing.

Thanks for the great photo's and interesting report.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[bigmonkey]

i went to finland in june 2009, unfortunately by car and not by bike but still great. great country for motorcross with all the forests.

[moilami]

Wow funny to see I have made some content here.

Should do more lol.

[jape]

Wow funny to see I have made some content here. Should do more lol.

yeah like day 2 as you promised sabertooth butterfly
we do look at your posts you know!

[barnone]

Day one was nice but where is day two which "will include pictures of women racing"? Or you just pulling our legs?