Panning Action

I took a trip out to Mission Raceway to See the Westood Motorcycle Racing Association's Fifth Round of racing on July 1st, to take in some action of the races, and do some more work in the "Action" photography realm. This was a great place to hone some skills, as the riders are flying by lap after lap all day, so you have a consistent model for your shooting all day long!  I've read up on the subject of panning action and motorsports and its reccomended that you shoot as low as 160 to get the background really blurred out. While that may be a great place to be, it turns out its not a great place to start!!!  I had acceptable results panning as high as a shutterspeed of 400, with aperture at F4.   I found I could get decent results as low as 250, but I think it'll take some practice to get any lower.  This is a great technique to practice, as it really comes in handy for when your trying to capture the feeling of motion in your shots. Your kid riding a bike, a dog jumping for a frisbee, wakeboarding, or other sports where just a fully freezed subject is going to loose the sense of motion in the photo.  And if you spend some time practicing the art of panning you'll be ready to capture those get it before its gone moments!   One tip, REMEMBER to adjust your shutterspeed to a higher value when your not doing a pan, otherwise you'll get motion blur in highspeed subjects. I had a quite a few fuzzy shots after forgetting to adjust the shutter speed after my panning sequences!!