photagraphy

Good lens, people often buy a 17-200 lens and are disappointed with the results, For the motorcycle to be isolated in the backgroud out of focus, use F2.8 and aperture mode and about 180mm, Fill the motorcycle in the viewfinder (do not stand too far away.

Practice panning shots. Use shutter priortiy mode and shutter speed below 125 and follow the motorcycle as they pass you.

On a cloudy overcast day use a flash to make the colors pop.

Shoot in raw mode so you can edit your images.

If you get a lot of shots where the rider is blurry or part of him is blurry, try using a faster shutter speed.

Undersand and get to know your camera (read the manual) before you try taking shots you want to keep. (Practice taking pictures of moving cars first.

Learn to hold the camera steady.

Learn what EXIF data is, how to view it on pictures on the web and learn what shutter speed and aperture settings pictures you like use and try those as a baseline.

Experiment.

Read photography books and visit websites that teach the basics on photography and photoshop.

Good luck..

Work on technique more than anything. The equipment doesn't make you a good photographer. If that was the case Paparazzi would be the best.


I took this shot with a D300 with a 18-200mm kit lens. It's a crappy lens but it still has taken one my sharpest photos.




O and learn to shoot Manual Mode. Don't waste your time with Semi-Auto modes. All you're doing is having the camera do your job. And set your camera's focussing to AI Servo or on Nikon i think it's called Continuos Focus.

You have to understand the lens and your equipment. Pros use pro lenses for a reason especially indoors.

The 18-200 is not a crappy lens is you use it right and in the right situation but can give you crappy results if you use it wrong.
A lens like a 18-200 works very well and is sharp outdoors when you have a lot of light, but if you are not using a flash and you are taking pics of indoor supercross, it does not work very well at all because when zoomed in the largest aperture is F 5.6. which will slow your shutter speed and you will get motion blur.

The 18-200 is sharpest at F8 at 24mm to 35mm but when shooting from the side of the track you are zooming in. The 18-200 is sharpest at F8 70mm and 200mm.
You would not want to shoot this lens at 135mm even at F8 because it performs horribly in sharpness to F11 which it starts to get better.

Experiment with the link below to understand what makes the sharpest image for this lens.
http://www.dpreview.com/...vr_afs_n15/page3.asp

If you look at camerons picture you can see motion blur on the wheels the front forks and the riders head. He shot this at F5.6 in full sunlight, could you imagine how much motion blur this image would have if it was shot indoors without a flash, it would be a blurry mess because there is not enough light.

So understanding how your equipment works is just another part to taking good pictures.
Your Tameron is the least sharp at F2.8 135mm. Don't use that setting (but if you are only going to post small web pictures it is probably not going to matter about sharp the lens is) As you can see in the link below, your Tameron performs quite well at all the Fstops except the one I mentioned above. Your lens in the link below.
http://www.dpreview.com/...00_2p8_c16/page4.asp

If you are going to use manual exposure mode as suggested above, most photographers then use an external light meter. That way you don't have to guess on exposure, but if you don't have a external light meter, use the Automatic exposure mode first to get a baseline exposure and note/use it that if is close then experiment from there.



Many cameras in manual mode will also show you in the eye peice display will show you what the internal light meter thinks the exposure should be which can also be helpful.