Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Like everyone these past two years, my usual schedule has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. For over a decade, I’d always be at the opening rounds of Supercross, capturing the kick-off of the top dirt bike series (and hopefully any Canadians who were racing.) But, with the uncertainty of everything going on and the constant flux of travel regulations, I sadly had to miss the start of SX for the second straight year.
So, for this week’s edition of Behind the Lens, and on the eve of the San Diego Supercross, Palms asked me to pick a favourite photo from one of my trips to San Diego to cover the race. A little more like the blogs I used to make on my personal website – the “who/what/why” of an image.
I’ve been attending the San Diego SX for a long time, from back when it was in the football stadium (Qualcomm Stadium), to its current location, downtown in PetCo Park. This is definitely a nicer stadium and awesome location by the water in downtown San Diego, but with a way worse pit location. Those are the trade-offs to being in a great location. Looking through my photos, my eye landed on this shot of Ryan Dungey and Chad Reed, from the 2016 San Diego 1 race (there were two San Diego rounds that year.) It wasn’t a full-on battle that year, but it was a good race, between two veteran competitors, who would never quit. Chad had switched to Yamaha that season and had struggled so far in his return to the BluCru. But, for whatever reason, he was always a threat at San Diego. He got a good start in the main, and with Dungey out front, continued to do his best to reel in the KTM rider. He closed the gap several times, but couldn’t quite make it to the front, but the crowd cheered him on around the entire track. And when Dungey took the inevitable win, he and Chad embraced – two worthy adversaries who had gone to battle plenty of times.
As far as technical specs about the photo go, there’s not much to say. When it comes to shooting Supercross, you’re extremely limited as to where you can stand, so for the most part I’m trying to find a clean background and get the peak action that I can. Looking at the metadata, the photo was taken with a 70-200mm lens at 125mm. ISO 4000, a shutter speed of 1/1250th and F4. I hope you’ve enjoyed this and I cannot wait to see what I can find next week from previous Anaheim photos.
