Nthfinity, I sure like your camera skills! ....and subject matter. :thumbsup
Do you mind me asking what you use? F stop, lense, film, etc...?
Bad lenses used right will work great
I've got a $1500 when new camera body.. just never really spent much more on it. So, I've only got about $200 in glass... a stock canon 18-55 f3.5-5.6, and a 100-300 f4.5-5.6 quanteray.
Some people say the 'stock' 18-55 is useless, which it kinda is if you shoot everything on auto modes... F8.0 - 10.0 is what I use for any non-macroish shot.
the 100-300 I shoot with F5.0 zooming no more then 140mm, as the glass is totally useless after that... but, when shooting panning shots, I set to ISO 100, shooting roughly F8 (depends on how much ambient light there is) and set the shutter to 1/80 of a second
Of course, when using better glass (I've rented the Canon 100-400 IS L for the race on Saturday and Sunday) They usually have a "better light gathering ability" and therefore, have a far more 'open' aperture. When the aperture is more open then another similar lens, the peak "sharpness" of the lens is a lower f-stop then that of higher aperture lens. (EG the F2.8 70-200 vs. the F4 70-200.. peak sharpness on the F2.8 would be F7.1, where the F4 would be near F10)
A general rule of thumb is heavier glass works better... but still, in the right hands a bad lens will work, in the wrong hands, a great lens wont. Practice practice practice