2010 Bob Riccio Tour De Pitman Bike Race

The main pack climbs the hill on Cedar ave. during the Bob Riccio Memorial Tour de Pitman June 12 2010.

This morning the Greater Pitman Chamber of Commerce and downtown bike shop Caffeinated Cyclist hosted the first annual bob riccio tour de pitman bike race. The bike race was 50 miles long and followed a loop around Pitman involving two climbs, Lambs Rd and Cedar Ave., and one downhill, Laurel Ave.

A member of the Pabst Blue Ribbon Talksoft Racing team takes off during the start of the Bob Riccio Memorial Tour de Pitman Saturday June 12 2010

The start and finish of the Race took place at the Broadway Theater in downtown Pitman. The start was a mass start where everyone starts together. In track starts like this usually involves elbowing and some fighting, unfortunately for me none of this happened during the start of this race.

The course consisted of two uphill climbs and one downhill. According to my friend Charles who races this course was not that strenuous and should provide some fast times. During the beginning the cyclists were averaging seven minute laps so you as long as you were not going far you did not have to sprint to go from spot to spot. After the start I walked backwards through the course to go to the final turn from Laurel Ave. to Broadway.

Racers coming off the Laurel Ave. hill run onto Broadway during the 1st annual Bob Riccio Memorial Tour de Pitman Saturday June 12 2010

The final turn of the course, from Laurel ave. to Broadway was the most likely spot to me for a crash to occur. On Laurel racers could reach speeds of up to 40 mph and making the turn onto Broadway would be the most difficult of the course. Despite no one crashing here, though I heard two racers hit pedals here but I missed it when I was on another part of the course, this spot still made some good images. The tight turn for good leaning pictures of the racers making the turn.

After shooting at the final turn for a few laps, I continued walking i the course in reverse and shot the next lap from the middle of the Laurel ave. hill. To make the photo below I used my 300mm shot wide open at 2.8 to blur the background as much as possible. To make the foreground be so out of focus I laid on the sidewalk and shot uphill parallel to the hill.

Racers start their decent down Laurel Ave. during the 1st annual Bob Riccio Memorial Tour de Pitman June 12 2010.

After shooting the downhill I countinued to walk the course in reverse and made my way to the next turn. This turn the racers take very tight and almost clip the curb on the apex of their turn. To get a good image of the turn I used my other camera with a wide angle on it and positioned myself right on the corner to where the racers would fly by me.

Racers make the turn from Cedar Ave. onto Laurel Ave. during the 1st Annual Bob Riccio Memorial Tour de Pitman Saturday June 12 2010

I countinued walking the course in reverse and made my way over to the Cedar ave. hill. This hill was the second hill that the racers had to climb. I was hoping to get some strenous faces as the racers made it up the hill. I was lucky and got a good image of a racing sticking his tounge out as he neared the top of the hill.

A Racer makes a face as he climbs the Cedar ave. hill.

After I shot some of the hill climb I relized it was nearing the end of the race so I made my way over to the finish line so I could get the winner as he crossed the line.

Winner of the 2010 Bob Riccio Memorial Tour de Pitman J Gabriel Lloyd points to his sponser's logo, MetLife, as he crosses the finish line in front of the Broadway Theater in Pitman NJ Saturday June 12 2010

 

Pitman Baseball

Yesterday, my new lens finally arrived in the mail. I bought a sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 last week on ebay and it finally got here after a snafu with the postal service. To test it out I went to a Pitman High School baseball game. I mostly was testing it out for focus speeds and how well it works with teleconverters. Today was also the first time I have shot with a monopod in years so it took me a while to get accustomed to using it again.

The first two photos were both shot at the JV game at the high school. Both photos are shot with the 1.4 extender attached for a focal length of 420mm. I love how clean the back grounds are with this lens.

The third shot is from the varsity game at Alcyon Park. I also used the extender on this shot as well. This shot was kinda a challenge as it is backlit and I was shooting through a fence. I like how well the lens was able to blur the fence out.

The last shot I wasn’t really testing anything. I just like the look on Roy’s face.

Tomorrow, Pitman has a home playoff game against Pennsville at Alcyon Park so I get to shoot a full game and  really test the lens out but so far I love it and see myself using this as my main lens for almost everything.

Catching Up With Random Pics

One of my new years resolutions was to write more on my blog. When I started the blog last year, I would write a lot every time I posted. Around September, when School started getting into full swing, I got lazy and stopped writing more than a paragraph or two.

The following two images are from the elementary school I went to for fourth and fifth grade. I took my macro lens and shoot some pictures of the playground equipment there. I like shooting playground equipment because when you focus in close to the details you can see a lot of patterns. Shooting wide open makes the image pop where you want it to and makes it a more interesting composition.

The next two images are from Scotland Run Park, a county park near my house. I wanted to try and get some winter images because in previous years winters either weren’t that cold or when they were I was too lazy to go out and shoot them.

Yesterday, I took a trip down to Fortescue with a friend. Fortescue is a small summer community on the Delaware Bay.  The little town is one of my favorite places to shoot. I was amazed to see the amount of freeze that was still down there. The first picture is my favorite spot to shoot from. My goal is to get the same shot from every season.

The last two images are from my home town. I got bored and decided to take a photo walk. The first image is a electrical box at a park in town and the other is a telephone pole near my house.

2009 Places

For the end of the year I decided to post some of my favorite images from the past year. The second group is places.

Blizzard of 2009

Over the weekend South Jersey got hit with its first blizzard since the nineties. In Pitman, we received about 2 feet of snow. I spent the first two days of the snow shoveling around my house. By the third day I was getting stir crazy and decided to walk downtown to get some pics of the snow and the cleanup.

Random Pictures

Because I had a light amount of schoolwork and no Whit this week, I actually had some free time to myself. I decided to shoot some things around the neighborhood, some pics of my fiends dogs and some buildings at Rowan.

South Jersey Group 1 Boys Soccer Sectional Finals

ON friday Pitman played Palmyra for the group 1 South Jersey Sectional championship. Both teams were evenly matched. The second half saw Palmyra score the first goal and then soon after each team scored making the score 2-1 Palmyra. Late in the second half Pitman was awarded a penalty shoot. Eric Todd scored the penalty, tying the game and sending it into overtime. Like Pitmans other overtime playoff game the sudden death period was scoreless and the game had to be decided in a shootout. It took the 7th shooter in PKs to decide the result of the game. In the end Palmyra won and is playing against the central section champion this week.

PItman Boys Soccer Second Playoff Game

Today Pitman boys soccer played its second playoff versus Pennsville High School. Pennsville was the only group 1 team to beat Pitman this year. Both teams were evenly matched and the game was scoreless through regulation. During the two sudden death periods the intensity of both teams increased greatly increased but the score remained at 0-0. Because it was a playoff game a shoot out was needed. Thanks to good shooting and great goaltending Pitman won in penalties. They play in the next round of playoffs next tuesday at Alcyon Park.

 

PItman Boys First Playoff Game

On tuesday Pitman boys soccer started their playoff run against Gloucester High School. During the playoffs the games start early. Thankfully its was election day so I had off from school. Otherwise I would have to skip class to shot the game. Pitman ended up winning 8-1.

Pitman Senior Night

Last Monday Pitman held its senior night for both the boys and girls soccer teams. They played a double header against Woodstown under the lights on Davis field.