You don’t need expensive photographic equipment and a professional background to capture all the action on the high-speed motocross track. High-performance telezoom lenses (including Tamron’s 70-300mm Di model) are suitable, affordable choices for this type of photography that enable you to get great shots no matter where you are on the course.

In motorsports photography, a method called “panning” is usually employed, where you “chase” the bikes with your camera’s viewfinder and pan across the visual plane. Equipment performance plays a big part in this type of photography. With conventional AF devices, it was often difficult to properly chase the main subject zipping along at high speeds—photographers were often obliged to give up chasing and take pictures in “waited focusing mode.” Now, however, AF lenses featuring USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive) motor technology are available, making it easier to chase fast-moving subjects that were difficult to follow with conventional lenses. This capability is expanding the range of photography, even for pros.

Tamron launched the SP 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC (Vibration Compensation) USD Motor lens as its 60th anniversary commemoration model. I recently tested this USD-equipped lens, available at a price that’s affordable to amateurs heading to a race circuit.

Start photographing at one of the circuit’s hairpin turns. Every driver has to throttle down his bike on the hairpins, so it will be relatively easier for you to chase and capture the driver in your frame. In addition, the safety area at the hairpin turns is narrower than at other locations, since every driver has to slow down—that means the distance between the spectators and the circuit is relatively short. Therefore, you can take closeup shots of the racing bikes even with a 300mm telezoom lens. Since bikes are smaller than cars, fill the frame with your subject for impressive images.

Now it’s time to start panning. This can be a difficult technique, and time is precious in motorsports photography. Practice your technique by experimenting with panning while drivers are doing preflight test runs.

To get your panning technique down, set your camera to the shutter-speed priority auto mode and select C-mode (continuous AF servo mode, in the case of Nikon) for autofocusing. Stand up straight and “chase” the bike while capturing the driver in your viewfinder—then release the shutter button. Remember to remain relaxed: If you have an unnaturally stiff posture or are extra-tense while you’re shooting, your resulting pictures will likely be blurry due to camera shake.

Critical to panning in photography is the shutter speed. If you use a shutter speed as fast as 1/1000th of a second, you’ll be able to take sharp pictures without blur. The resulting pictures would be monotonic, however (without a sense of speed), since the background and tires would be still and the bike would look like a plastic model. On the other hand, if you use a shutter speed as slow as 1/30th of a second, the background would flow and the resulting pictures would offer that crucial sense of speed.

Because of the likelihood of experiencing camera shake at slower shutter speeds, start taking pictures in a shutter speed range from 1/250th to 1/500th of a second. As you get accustomed to panning, you can challenge yourself by incrementally decreasing the shutter speed.

Accurate focusing is extremely important for capturing impressive images through panning. Perfect your “chasing focusing” technique, which is where you try to keep the subject (the bike) sharp and in focus while you’re “chasing” it during the panning process.

In my own shoot, before a race started, I faced a signboard beside the circuit course and tested the AF function by half-pressing my camera’s shutter-release button. Focusing was done instantly—I found the response of the Tamron 70-300mm lens to be on par with that of a more-expensive telezoom lens in my equipment assortment.

Finally, the race started. I tested the performance of the lens by “chasing” a bike. I found that one way to keep the subject in sharp focus with this lens was to bring the focus point faithfully to the body of the bike as my main subject. In other words, if you wish to keep focusing on the left side of a bike, half-press the shutter-release button immediately when the front left side of the bike comes into your viewfinder. The USD motor will then “chase” the main subject, even if it’s running superfast, so you can release the shutter button while securely chasing it.

Since the Tamron 70-300mm Di lens uses XLD and LD glass elements to compensate for chromatic aberration (which often causes problems in telezoom lenses), I was impressed with its excellent resolution. In addition, the lens features the VC (Vibration Compensation) mechanism, a feature I found to be extremely helpful in dimly lit conditions (common in motorsports, like in the poorly illuminated pits). Sometimes we’re obliged to use shutter speeds as low as 1/60th of a second at a speed of ISO 400 if the diaphragm is set at F/5.6. The Vibration Compensation effect (equivalent to 4 stops, according to Tamron) is extremely useful in these situations.

At one point in my panning work on the motocross circuit, I dared to set the VC mechanism to the “Off” position. That was because, with the VC mechanism on, I thought it was difficult to chase my main subject seamlessly—I got more of an impression that each frame was being fed as a single sharp but frozen frame. This is a matter of taste, naturally. Users will likely find the function quite helpful in such situations once they get accustomed to it.

Decades ago, it would have been impossible to buy a high-performance lens like the SP 70-300mm Di, featuring an optical system using XLD lenses and equipped with the VC and USD technologies, at such an affordable price. This lens shows such high potential, even in the world of fast motorsports photography. I’m confident this lens will enable you to chase your main subject in other sporting events as well, including if you photograph your own children’s sporting events. With all of its advanced features, you get a lot of bang for your buck with the Tamron 70-300mm.

Satoshi Mayumi was born in Mie Prefecture in 1976. He naturally developed his interest in racing since his family lived in Suzuka City, where Suzuka Circuit, the most famous circuit in Japan, is located. He started to visit the circuit while still a junior high school student. He tried to take pictures of bikes with his point-and-shoot camera equipped with a tele lens, but he was disappointed to find all the pictures were blurry, capturing the track only. Later, finding bike race scenes taken by pros in racing magazines, he decided he wanted to take such pictures himself and started learning photography.

In 1999, after graduating from Nagoya Visual Art School, he started working as a freelance photographer. At present, while working as a professional motorsports photographer, he works as a contracted photographer for car and bike magazines, including such monthly magazines as Big Machines and Young Machines.