Event Photography - Marathon

Last Sunday was another marathon. This one was much more pleasant than the last, sunny, although a little cold. But after putting on a t-shirt, sweatshirt, fleece vest, and jacket I was almost warm.  I got assigned to the finish line, which I find to be the most boring spot to shoot from.  You get some better reactions than other places, but the background is pretty much fixed.

Sports Photography - Cross Country

Last cross country meet of the season and I am barely more competent than I was at the start.  There were definitely some good positions, but I always feel like I missed more than I got.  Part of the problem, I think, is that the race is for such a short time, typically 1/2 hour, and you really only have 3-4 chances to get the runners since you are not going to out run them on the course.

I also tried some more artistic approaches, but fear of not getting anything combined with a lack of talent precluded me from walking aware with anything more than straightforward shots.

Sports Photography - Volleyball

After such a hectic month of September I am trying to relax the shooting this month so I can some other things, like finish building my house, as well as get ready for November, which is the start of Winter sports as well as conference / NCAA tournaments for Fall sports.  

However, I am finding myself getting very restless anyways.  Yesterday was just a couple of volleyball games. No lights allowed because now the team is good.  But don't worry, the lighting is much better than it was, ISO 10,000.

Event Photographer - Marathon

So let's review the glorious life of event photography.
I get up at 5 AM so I can get to the race by 7 AM, and the start at 8.  After shooting four waves of starters I run over to another section of road and shoot four mobs running down the street as things have not broken up yet.

Then I move to another location and wait about an hour for the finishers of the 1/2 marathon to start coming through. 

For the next five hours I am standing in one spot, photographing runner after runner, which my hands cramping up, my legs and back cramping up, and my neck cramping up since I don't have time to move for most of the time.  This also means no bathroom breaks, no food breaks, no nothing.  After the first hour of shooting, i.e. looking through a pinhole, my eyesight is so blurry I just put the focus square over some blurry form of a runner and hope that AF does its job.
 
Now add to this that it is 55° and the wind is blowing into me the whole time.  And it is raining, which means the front of my lens is getting coated in rain.  I can wipe it clean, but this lasts about 30 seconds before it starts to cloud up again.  So I resort to wiping the front of the lens with my hand so that the mist forms drops and falls to the bottom of the front of the lens, repeating this every few minutes or so.  The mist also throws off the AF, so I am hoping that much harder.
After 9,500 photographs I can call it a day and go home.  Luckily I don't have to edit.

Of course some people should probably pay more attention to the race instead of the technology they are carrying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sports Photography - Field Hockey and Soccer

A busy afternoon this Saturday.  Started with a field hockey game where the remote camera got shut down. I asked why cameras were not allowed behind the goal, as they are with soccer, and the reasons were laughable:

1. That's the rule
1. So the reason it is a rule is because it is a rule
2.  It's not fair to the other photographers
1. What??? said every photographer. Ever.
3. If a ball hits the lens then the glass would be a danger
1. So if I put something in front of the lens, like ice hockey, there won't be a problem? Well... no, it's still against the rules
4. No one is allowed behind the line
1. Yes, which is why it is a remote camera. I am on the side.

By the way, looking in the NCAA field hockey rule book there is no mention of "camera" or "photo" in the entire book that I could find.

After that a quick soccer game that turned more physical than you would think, five injury time outs in the second half alone.

Sports Photography - Cross Country

Another cross country meet.  You can approach these in a pretty straight forward manner, and if you motor drive enough you will get decent enough pictures.  I tried a few things on this one. Some worked, some did not.