When the Pan American Games came to town and I saw bike racing on the schedule, I knew I had to try it. I’d never photographed a race before, but it was the perfect chance to experiment with slow‑shutter panning. After some trial and error, I found that 1/50 to 1/125 gave me the most consistent combination of sharp rider with background and wheel motion blur. I shot the series with a Nikon Z8 and the Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR.