Police Motorcyle Rodeo

[ahightower]

I've never heard of a motorcyle rodeo, but saw a sign on the side of the road this morning and decided to drop by with the kids. It was pretty cool! Basically a timed road course with cones set up in a parking lot. Very challenging course, several PD's participated. Here are some of my favorite shots. There were some other photogs there packing more professional equipment, maybe someone else from the forum? I was able to get fairly close to the action and the officers working the event seemed very pleased to have such interest. I was very impressed with their skill, and at the variety of motorcycles represented.

Love the paint job on the NRH bikes.


Colleyville P.D. officer gunning it on the straightaway.


The Coppell officer on the "Beemer" got a few snarky comments from the peanut gallery.


Grand Prairie officer on a H-D. The Harleys scraped the pavement quite a bit in the sharp turns.


This one's from Irving.


This Southlake officer laid it over.


The sport bikes handled the turns better, but it was a Harley that won. This is a Wautauga officer.


Roanoke officer on a Honda.


Experimenting with panning and slower shutter speed. Not very good at that yet. This is an Irving PD bike.


This is an Addison officer on another Honda, I believe.

[toverman]

Great shots!

The Addison officers rode BMWs, too. You can barely see the emblem next to the red reflector on the black case. The BMWs from Coppell seemed smaller. As far as snarky comments, anyone who knows bikes thoroughly know that they are among the smoothest and quietest bikes around (direct opposite of Harleys).

I was there, too, and will post a few in this thread later on. Your panning shots are a lot better than mine. I think I needed to be using a monopod or something because I had too much camera shake to get the bikes in focus as I panned.

[toverman]

Here a few of mine ...









Santa needs to bring me a circular polarizer.

[Jeffery]

I seem to quite often be at the same places at the same times as toverman.

Originally Posted by ahightower

This Southlake officer laid it over.

That was during practice. He laid it over again during the competition. Do you see the guy with the black shirt and yellow wrist band in the background? That's my buddy from the Irving PD and I'm the one standing to his left.



Here's another practice drop.

[ahightower]

Cool! I saw you guys and wondered if I might see some of your work here. I was the guy in the green shirt with the three little boys and the Olympus. I set up on the East side of the lot nearest to the Michael's store at first, and then moved to the north side where they had to do those little figure 8's. I also got a few other rather unflattering shots of the hefty fella' trying to get his bike back up but decided not to share it here ;)
Todd, I like that last shot of yours and wanted to get something similar myself, but didn't have the chance to go over where they were parked.

[a2rob]

Nice photos!

It takes a lot of talent and practice to make those tight turns....

[toverman]

Jeff, we ought to plan to shoot together sometime!