Stalking bicyclists

Had an assignment this week to illustrate a story we were working on about a new Colorado law that will go into effect on August 5. Motorists will now be required to give at least three feet of clearance when passing a bicycle. I had seen several other photos illustrating this, but they were all shot straight on showing a car passing a bicycle. I definitely wanted to do something different, so I thought the best route to go would be to shoot with a wide angle from a car as it passed a bicycle.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? But I would need to mount a camera to my car and position it in a way that it would show both my car and the bicycle. And I would need to find someone riding along the highway, not on a bicycle path. Actually the first thing I did was call a couple of friends to see if they would be doing any road biking--they weren't. So I would have to rely on coming across a cyclist by chance. Here is how my set up looked:


I clamped the Magic Arm to the handle on the door and ran a safety cable through the camera strap, Magic Arm and PocketWizard just in case anything would come loose. I would rather it dangle alongside the car than hit the pavement at 45-60 mph.

I was in the western part of the county, but didn't find any bikers, so I headed back towards Winter Park where I thought there might be a better chance of coming across some riders. My only worry was that the weather looked like it might take a turn for the worse. But it didn't take long for me to find someone and I was fortunate enough to pass him once, then pull over and let him go back by, then have one more pass.

Looking at the results, I wish I would have been a little closer, but that's where I wish I was photographing someone I knew, so I wouldn't cause the rider to panic. But considering on how quickly I had to get the shot done, I'm pleased with the results.

Click here for the story.