Justin Kosman Photography

Olypmic Gold Medalist Cover Shot in UK Magazine

One of my favorite ways to enhance a client relationship is to submit images from a campaign for editorial distribution - and getting a cover shot for a client is a great value for both of us.
This cover shot of BMX Olympic Gold Medalist Maris Strombergs is no exception.  Working on a long term project with BMX brand Free Agent, gave us both opportunities to do our best work.
This photo was shot at a UCI Olympic points race in Phoenix, Arizona where we were also shooting a video commercial with Maris as well ( to appear later this season post 2012 Olympics).
Shot on the Canon EOS 1DMKIV and Canon 70-200 IS MK2 lens, this is a true test of a lens’ focus tracking speed and this set-up performed flawlessly. Usually this would be a situation where we would pre-focus and shoot through one focal plane for the whole pack and get one images per moto. Setting up a pre-focus works great, but only when riders go directly through your focal plane, which isn’t always the case in pro racing. Using this particular MKIV and 70-200m set-up we were able to catch the lead rider diving into the turn and 5-6 tack sharp frames throughout the turn. At 9 frames per second, the Canon combination was great and adapted on the fly, even with eight riders coming directly at the lens at 30mph.