Steve there is no fixed approach to any shooting situation. A lot of success in
photography is experimenting and doing something different. First and foremost
keep that in mind and never worry about deviating from the norm.

but re the technicalities of recording bicycles in motion

the faster an object moves the faster your shutter speed has to be to freeze the
action if that is your objective. Faster shutter speed will mean either a
faster setting in Shutter Priority or a wider aperture setting in Aperture
Priority. I tend to use Aperture priority because there is a much greater range
of Shutter speeds for the camera to pick from in Aperture Priority than
aperture settings that can be used in Shutter Priority so there is a greater
probability of getting good exposure .


another approach would be panning your camera while using a slower shutter
speed . This results in a blurred background while the subject can be sharply
focused which implies motion. In the case of Bicycles the blur of the spoked
wheels will also imply motion.

in Many cases a good starting point or guideline as has been suggested is to
see what settings the Digital Vari program modes might pick in any given
situation and gp from there.

Hope it helps

Mike


@...> wrote:
>
> I approached a local bicycle shop about doing some "work" for them .I
> may or may not get paid for the images I produce. I am o.k with taking
> a couple of photographs for them as long as my name gets used in the
> promo.. I only have the kit lenses that came with my Nikon d50. The
> 18-55 lens and 55-200. I was thinking of sitting and getting a few
> shots and standing and getting a few shots. The ferry
> traffic,Washington state ferries, is at it's busiest around 5:00 p.m I
> thought I'd go down to the ferry terminal around 4:30 and shoot until
> around 6:00 . Just in case other ferry traffic has more bicyclists, it
> can happen.
>
> Here are the questions. Do I shoot aperture priority and let the
> camera do everything else? Do I shoot shutter priority, if so, what
> setting? Do I shoot manual 1/1000 or is that too high?
>
> If you've routinely shot bicyclists in any setting in which they're in
> motion, please chime in, thanks!
>