Ohhh What a Feeling!

I have been having fun taking pictures of triathletes. It is fun to see the variety of expressions on different people's faces. Some intense, some relaxed and having fun. Still others celebrating as they cross the finish line.

Sharing the joy with family and friends is often a part of the finish line celebration. These heartwarming moments make shooting the finish line pictures very rewarding.


Every once in a while, one of the pictures just jumps off the screen. These are one in a million shots that make photography so much fun. I think this is my favorite triathlon picture since I started shooting triathlons.


What about you? What is your favorite sports picture?

Why do race pictures cost so much?

I have heard this question and it is a fair one. I even asked it myself when looking at my own race pictures. You may also wonder why a 4x6 picture is being sold for upwards of $10 when you can take your own pictures into many retailers or upload them on your own and get the same size picture for way under a dollar.

There are many factors that impact the prices race photgraphers set an I thought I would share some of them here to help people understand the prices on race pictures.

One area that greatly impacts prices are the costs involved:

• photographers time. Typically 10 photographer hours shooting for even a short race with only a few hundred
• photographers equipment. High-end cameras and their lenses can run upwords of several thousand dollars
• indexing needs to be done so you can find your pictures. One recent race involved reviewing almost 3000 pictures to identify race numbers and select the best pictures for each competitor. Typically around 10 hours of work or more.
• other expenses like internet hosting company, business insurance, transportation, advertising and more

These costs mean that the last couple races we have shot has brought in an average hourly rate of under $10/hr. Remember, you get what you pay for.

If you compare race pictures taken by friends to ones taken by some professionals, you will often see a difference beyond the improvement in quality that comes with a more advanced camera. You will see that the professional shots will often have a background that highlights the best features of the race area (nice tree lined streets) where the friend snapshots are likely to have cars or crowds in the background. A professional photographer understands how to use the available lighting to maximize the quality of the photograph. Faces in dark shadows or washed out from over done flashes make a less memorable race picture. Furthermore, a professional can edit the final image and bring out the best possible image.

While many times a friends picture of a race will be a nice souvenir, a professional race photograph can be framed and displayed proudly for years to come to celebrate your achievement.

Flowing Desert Photography is proud to try and keep the prices as low as possible, while still being able to be profitable enough to keep professional photographers on the team.