Shooting for a Marathon

paddylonglegs

Hi Guys,

Taking a few shots for the soon to be bro-in-law this coming weekend in the Pheonix park.

As a photography enthusiast, and also as he has specifically asked me, I'd love to go in there with some tips from those who have shot marathons before.

One of the issues I have running around (no pun intended) my head, is trying to get pics of him throughout the course.I have a map of the course and have a few ideas of different spots where i'd like to shoot from but it will be so difficult to keep up with the group and get to these different spots - so i'm thinking of bringing a push-bike and peddling my little heart out to the next location before group gets there. I'm sure there's plenty of you laughing heartily at the screen right now, so tell me straight, is that just plain impossible?Or have you come up with other solutions?

Also, for marathons, are there normally popular spots where there are better photo ops? i.e. a corner, a straight, etc? Or will all these spots be cordoned off for officials or press photographers?

I'm hoping to be able to emphasize the subject by shooting with a low f/stop to blur the background, i have a standard kit lens 18-55mm with my canon. Are there any specific settings i should use that have worked for you? I have the option of borrowing a zoom lens, but will this be neccasary?

I get great advice from the boardsies of the Photography section here so I would love to get some tips from the more experienced just to step up my game a bit and produce good shots for him. He's gone the extra mile (god, the puns are flying out today) for me as he's my Best Man aswell!Yikes!

CabanSail

I will, along with a few others here, be shooting the Frank Duffy 10 Mile race next weekend. For these races the roads are blocked for cars and bikes but you are free to walk around.

There will be a series of shots available to him for sale, but you can get a few yourself as well. We shoot at 400 ISO at >250th sec & try to get the best DOF available. You look for an interest in the background, especially in the Marathons, to give a geographic context. We also tend to pick a spot & lock the focus at that point, then shoot everything as it crosses the line.

I imagine I will shoot about 1500 frames in that race, but come to a Marathon it will be over 10,000.

Woddle

As has been said it's a 10 mile race not a marathon
You say you have a map of the route, just make sure it's current as they have just changed the route to accomadate big numbers. I shot the 5 miler and I had my bike, I shot a few pics at the start and with 5 mins to go I cycled a mile down the road and took more shots and after pretty much all the runners had gone by I cycled back up to the finish to get more shots.
I think with 6000 plus runners your biggest problem will be picking your brother in law out, so what I would advise is hanging around by the corner of Ordance survey road and Chesterfield ave, so this will cover you for the 5th mile and last as it's a loop (of some sort), ask him what his predicted time is, example 70 mins for 10 miles will have him coming to that corner at 30 mins and 65/66 mins. You will not be allowed behind the finishing line but can still get some good shots from the side of the road as he's coming down the home straight.
I'll be running this myself and it should be a good one.Best of luck

paddylonglegs

CabanSail wrote: »

I will, along with a few others here, be shooting the Frank Duffy 10 Mile race next weekend. For these races the roads are blocked for cars and bikes but you are free to walk around.

There will be a series of shots available to him for sale, but you can get a few yourself as well. We shoot at 400 ISO at >250th sec & try to get the best DOF available. You look for an interest in the background, especially in the Marathons, to give a geographic context. We also tend to pick a spot & lock the focus at that point, then shoot everything as it crosses the line.

I imagine I will shoot about 1500 frames in that race, but come to a Marathon it will be over 10,000.

Thanks so much for this info cabansail. I wasn't aware of any kind of professional photos available to the runners. He has asked me personally and I will not be shooting anyone else, so i won't be encroaching on any other photographers. I will also make him aware of this service too if he doesn't already know.

Woddle wrote: »

As has been said it's a 10 mile race not a marathon

I would advise is hanging around by the corner of Ordance survey road and Chesterfield ave,

Oops, yeah he told me it was a 10 mile race alright and not a marathon!THanks for the geographic tip woddle.

CabanSail

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Thanks so much for this info cabansail. I wasn't aware of any kind of professional photos available to the runners. He has asked me personally and I will not be shooting anyone else, so i won't be encroaching on any other photographers. I will also make him aware of this service too if he doesn't already know.

There is no problem with you shooting whom ever you like. Go for it.

The people I shoot for do it on a big scale. All the images are uploaded to the USA & they then put them through software to which does character recognition on the runners numbers. The images are sorted into groups & then the runners are notified they are available. They then provide packages of images at various prices.

sineadw

I was supposed to be running this - got my chip yesterday After falling off a bar at fajitas after show graduate party (don't ask - I did the 1st in the series 5 mile a few weeks after though!) and then falling down my mate's building site steps last week I decided to surrender to the money monkey and take the offer of photog instead of runner. If I can suggest - from taking shots at last years dublin city marathon - take a LIGHT lens! Even with the provided D60 (? was it?) and kit lens my arm and shoulder were bloody killing me! I dread to think what I'll do if I have to use the 5D and sigma 24-70. I'm planing the 350D and kit if I can get away with it.

Its good fun though. And I'll be attempting to throw my chip over the line ahead of the race winner if no-one's watching Go me!

Hearvee

I'll be there with Cabansail, but it's a bit different to shooting a particular person.

I'd say have a look at the course map on dublinmarathon.ie. Like last year it's two laps, so you should be able to get some shots of him at the start, at about the 5-mile mark, and just before the finish, all from roughly the same spot! Make sure you know what he's wearing and what his estimated time is, then he'll be easier to spot.

And try and tip him off as to where you'll be standing (including what side of the road). I had a mate running last time out and because he came down the other side of the road we had about 5 runners between us so I didn't get a shot of him.

And I don't think the 6 thousand runners would appreciate someone cycling through them, and I'm sure the stewards will agree!

Woddle

Hearvee wrote: »

And I don't think the 6 thousand runners would appreciate someone cycling through them, and I'm sure the stewards will agree!

I ran this last year and if the same applies I think you'll be fine on a bike, the reason being as they come around to start the 2nd loop the runners now have to run on the sidewalk as the roads are reopened to the public, so you can use the cycle lane with no probs.

Stupid_Private

Cheers for all the pointers. I've been taking pictures at races recently. I'm still coming to terms with the camera and what different settings do - a lot of it is trial and error but bit by bit I feel like I'm getting better at it.

I'll be racing on Saturday as well. Can us runners set a challenge to see if photographers can catch us? Kind of like the red car 92 in the rally last weekend in Phoenix Park. When the official photos come out I'll post a link to my photos and you can let me know if any of the photos were taken by boardsies. Obviously anyone else besides the official photographers can try get a photo as well *cough*paddylonglegs*cough*

At a recent marathon in Germany the official photographers posted 20 photos of me - my reckoning is that they were taken at 8 different spots on the route. Only one of them photos featured more than just me in it. That's by far and away the most impressive return I've seen from the photographers at a race.

Anyway, on Saturday I'll be tall, shaved head, bright yellow vest (club singlet), with number 5048 on it. I could post a link to the photos in Germany but that'd make it all too easy for photographers to spot me.

paddylonglegs

Stupid_Private wrote: »

Cheers for all the pointers. I've been taking pictures at races recently. I'm still coming to terms with the camera and what different settings do - a lot of it is trial and error but bit by bit I feel like I'm getting better at it.

I'll be racing on Saturday as well. Can us runners set a challenge to see if photographers can catch us? Kind of like the red car 92 in the rally last weekend in Phoenix Park. When the official photos come out I'll post a link to my photos and you can let me know if any of the photos were taken by boardsies. Obviously anyone else besides the official photographers can try get a photo as well *cough*paddylonglegs*cough*

At a recent marathon in Germany the official photographers posted 20 photos of me - my reckoning is that they were taken at 8 different spots on the route. Only one of them photos featured more than just me in it. That's by far and away the most impressive return I've seen from the photographers at a race.

Anyway, on Saturday I'll be tall, shaved head, bright yellow vest (club singlet), with number 5048 on it. I could post a link to the photos in Germany but that'd make it all too easy for photographers to spot me.

I guess this is from the subjects point of view,how do you like to be shot? I had bee nthinking that trying to get the one runner as the main subject was the way to go really

Stupid_Private

paddylonglegs wrote: »

I guess this is from the subjects point of view,how do you like to be shot? I had bee nthinking that trying to get the one runner as the main subject was the way to go really

That's an interesting one that I've never really thought about. There was a nice shot taken of Mark Kenneally on sportsfile last weekend. It gave a nice feel for the speed he was going at in my opinion. He had 12 laps of the track so there were lots of oppertunities for the photographer to get that shot. You'll only see your mate 3 times max on the course making it a bit tougher.

PCPhoto

for anyone photographing this:

*Ensure camera focus is in Servo mode - if possible select a single focus point and through the viewfinder aim at your target and .......FIRE !!! (oh and keep the power/motor drives on)

if anyone is panning - to try get the Mark Keneally shot on sportsfile (mentioned above) ...... *move the camera at the same pace as the runner try to use a shutter speed of approx 1/60 and it might be handy to have a flash.

*actual settings may vary due to light/camera/lens and style of photograph you want to achieve.

best of luck to everyone. (if I wasnt playing a footy tournament at the weekend I would be there taking pics - my running days are well over)

Stupid_Private

PCPhoto wrote: »

if anyone is panning - to try get the Mark Keneally shot on sportsfile (mentioned above) ...... *move the camera at the same pace as the runner try to use a shutter speed of approx 1/60 and it might be handy to have a flash.

*actual settings may vary due to light/camera/lens and style of photograph you want to achieve.

Thanks. I'll have to get practicing on this as I think it could work quite nicely once the cross country season starts next month - The athletes will be back doing laps (albeit longer than 400m) so there'll be more oppertunities to get the photo right.

PCPhoto

after the first attempt just adjust the shutter speed to get the desired photo that you want.

remember to change the settings after you've done that pic (made that mistake a few times)

Stupid_Private

I think there's going to be record numbers of photos of me available from this one - the official photographers were all over the course, double teaming at places! Fair play to you, it wasn't the nicest of days to have to stand around for a few hours.

I got sent a link from a friend of mine who got a few snaps of me on the day. I met him at the finish line but he didn't mention that he'd seen me on the route. I was delighted to see them. My guess is the first was from around mile 4 and the second is at the same place on lap 2 (mile 9)





His flickr

CabanSail

We were all in teams of two doing the shoot. I was on Ordinance Survey Road, near the Duck Pond. I shot about 5000 images on the day. One or two of the could be you!

Stupid_Private

CabanSail wrote: »

We were all in teams of two doing the shoot. I was on Ordinance Survey Road, near the Duck Pond. I shot about 5000 images on the day. One or two of the could be you!

As I said above, I'll post the link to them when they're available and you can stake claim to your work. I imagine you'll be able to tell which ones are yours based on location and the side of the road you were on - even if you did take an incredible number of photos!

paddylonglegs

wow that was harder than i thought. Maybe as I was only looking out for one subject, but trying to locate him in the crowd and then being ready to shoot him,hoping he wouldn't be blinking in the shot(alot of those), the position of his feet so that he didn't look awkward. Managed to get some shots he'll be happy with anyway.

Think I may have seen you stupid private, were you running with the elite runners near the front?Or am i mistaken?

paddylonglegs

Stupid_Private wrote: »

My guess is the first was from around mile 4 and the second is at the same place on lap 2 (mile 9)

Yeah the 4 mile was a great spot to get shots as it was close to the start line, a quick stroll down furze rd to the junction, then back to the finish line made it alot easier to get a multiple chance for shots

paulusdu

CabanSail, were you one of the two photographers down there ? One on the left the other on the right, with the fancy plastic bag rain equipment
i tried to do a smile at the photographers, but didn;t have the energy, and that was the first lap.
Funny thing was, everytime myself or the folks around me saw a photographer up ahead, we tended to put the boot down and pick up some speed, then drop back as soon as we had passed you.
Maybe all the photographers should be positioned at 100m intervals along the route to encourage world record times

CabanSail

I was one of those Photographers, but we did not have the Rain Covers on, so you must be thinking of another position.

You get a lot of runners seeing the camera & then waving, but they have already passed the point at which we take the photo's. Some also wave their hands in front of the camera as they pass, causing the next group from getting their photo's taken.

paulusdu

In fairness there seemed to be a lot more photographers from two years ago when i last did the adidas runs. I only rememeber 2 or 3. This year i lost count, athough that could be down to lack of oxygen also !

Stupid_Private

paulusdu wrote: »

i tried to do a smile at the photographers, but didn;t have the energy, and that was the first lap.
Funny thing was, everytime myself or the folks around me saw a photographer up ahead, we tended to put the boot down and pick up some speed, then drop back as soon as we had passed you.

Kind of like when you're out for a run and you see a cute girl... pick up the pace a bit, hold breath so no panting noise, suck in the gut and go effortlessly past!

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Think I may have seen you stupid private, were you running with the elite runners near the front?Or am i mistaken?

Near the front, yes - but still a fair whack behind the winner so I wouldn't say I was running with them.