Panning

The goal of this photo was to focus on a near rider while imparting a feeling of movement and speed. The technique is called panning, or ‘action panning photography’.

Technical info:
Set a slower shutter speed than normal.
Allow the camera to auto focus. Set the camera to continuous shooting.
Point your feet at the middle of the “pan” area.
Turn to face the direction where the subject will enter your field of view.
Start shooting before the subject is directly in front of you.
Keep steady as you follow the subject…and as the subject leaves the frame.

The closer the subject is to you and the faster the subject’s speed, the faster your shutter speed needs to be. In this case the downhill skateboard rider was about 8 meters away on a wide corner (not wide enough for some who crashed though the hay bales…).

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The long downhill straight section speeds were measured by the RCMP (they would just say “exceeding the speed limit”); the corner speeds were somewhat slower and estimated to be 50 kph.