Velodrome CX

Wanted to catch all five races (counting the kids' race) at the Velodrome today, but — owww — my back was hurting when I woke up this morning. Must be a pulled muscle from my Tuesday crash. Took four ibuprofen and eventually felt well enough to drive up for the final two races.

A cold and blustery November day. I warmed up between races — or at least got out of the wind — in the trailer that holds all the track bikes. None of these pictures convey how cold my fingers got! Need to start using gloves with some sort of wind-stopper fabric.

T.C.Worley sought me out today. He said he'd been asking everyone with a camera, "Are you Frank?". Glad I finally got to meet him; he does some great photography.

My new super-wide lens had arrived on Wednesday, so I was itching to try it today. After a few minutes I decided to do the entire race with only that lens. Wanted to force myself into thinking super-wide. Plus I liked the way the track looked when distorted a little by the lens — those crazy swooping curves. I had thought that with such a tremendous depth of field, I wouldn't have any trouble focusing this lens, but with the sky so overcast, and with my aperture wide open at f/4.0 much of the time, and with my trembling frozen fingers, I sometimes had trouble. Had to throw away several series of photos.

Overall, though, I believe I'm going to enjoy this new tool. I'll use it tomorrow at Lake Rebecca, as well.