By Joe Berk
We’d been on the road for about a month, riding a big loop through most of China. It was the ride of a lifetime, Zongshen was picking up the cost, and we were having a ball. It was me, riding compadre Joe Gresh, and Sergeant Zuo, our fearless retired Chinese Army Sergeant Major. I’d be hard pressed to identify any other single month in which I’d so much fun. Great riding, great companions, great roads, great food, and great photo ops. My book , Riding China, is about that ride and it included a chapter on Luoyang; here’s a quote from it leading up to the photo above:
It was dark when we walked home, and I watched people riding by in the sultry summer night air on their motor scooters. I knew I had to capture at least some of it for the blog and for this book, so I went back to the room for my Nikon and the 24-120 lens. I cranked the ISO up to 3200 and let her rip. It was great.
The technique is called panning; you swing the camera to stay on a moving subject, which freezes the subject and blurs the background to convey a sense of motion. Not every photo turns out using this technique, but when one does, it’s spectacular.
We stayed in Luoyang for two nights, and it was a well-earned rest we all needed. Those were good times. I miss the guys we rode with.
The above photo is one of many included in Riding China. If you would like to read more about that ride, pick up a copy!
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