M38A1
Admin
Edit to Add: Title changed to reflect Finish Line shots too
I was part of a three person team contracted to shoot a sprint/olympic distance triathlon a few months ago. Rusty (Woodbutcher) was also part of the team and I had one other shooter I took on as a recommendation. The tri was out at Lake Pflugerville and when it came to assignments, I seem to gravitate towards the swim/swim exit and finish line. That's where the fun or cool shots can be created IF the sun is in the right place.
Sports shooters are at the mercy of the venue for location, and then the sun position after that. The swim and finish line are probably the most difficult for sun position as they are generally fixed in one place. In simple terms, you can't really change the angles to your benefit with the sun much if it's in the wrong place. The bike or run you can swap sides of the road for the most part, find a cool hill rise and a bunch of other little tricks to really frame and isolate a subject.
Shooting 600 people with the goal in mind of providing two or three 'keepers' is a challenge, not to mention a lot of shots/culling/processing. When the pace of finishers allows you to wait and frame, you can get some shots like the following. But most of the time it's the most hectic hour of shooting multiple targets in a fairly large area where they come out.
I use a floating ISO and shoot these at f/8 or so to give me some 'fudge' room on focus with a shutter speed North of 1/500th. Focus is "continuous" mode.
If you have any questions, let me know!
Here's the 'straight on' shot where you get the swimmer coming right at you. You can see the sunlight is in my favor in addition to that "BayWatch" look.
Here's another one but from a quartering angle. Nice arm strides and the leg lifting, not planting. Water off the face also brings motion to the image.
Here's one that has it all... Determination on a face, water off the face, water droplets frozen, leg stride vs plant and the BayWatch stride.
Finally, getting shots with reflective goggles still on is always kind of fun if the sun works to your advantage.
I was part of a three person team contracted to shoot a sprint/olympic distance triathlon a few months ago. Rusty (Woodbutcher) was also part of the team and I had one other shooter I took on as a recommendation. The tri was out at Lake Pflugerville and when it came to assignments, I seem to gravitate towards the swim/swim exit and finish line. That's where the fun or cool shots can be created IF the sun is in the right place.
Sports shooters are at the mercy of the venue for location, and then the sun position after that. The swim and finish line are probably the most difficult for sun position as they are generally fixed in one place. In simple terms, you can't really change the angles to your benefit with the sun much if it's in the wrong place. The bike or run you can swap sides of the road for the most part, find a cool hill rise and a bunch of other little tricks to really frame and isolate a subject.
Shooting 600 people with the goal in mind of providing two or three 'keepers' is a challenge, not to mention a lot of shots/culling/processing. When the pace of finishers allows you to wait and frame, you can get some shots like the following. But most of the time it's the most hectic hour of shooting multiple targets in a fairly large area where they come out.
I use a floating ISO and shoot these at f/8 or so to give me some 'fudge' room on focus with a shutter speed North of 1/500th. Focus is "continuous" mode.
If you have any questions, let me know!
Here's the 'straight on' shot where you get the swimmer coming right at you. You can see the sunlight is in my favor in addition to that "BayWatch" look.
Here's another one but from a quartering angle. Nice arm strides and the leg lifting, not planting. Water off the face also brings motion to the image.
Here's one that has it all... Determination on a face, water off the face, water droplets frozen, leg stride vs plant and the BayWatch stride.
Finally, getting shots with reflective goggles still on is always kind of fun if the sun works to your advantage.
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