Soggy Triathlon Photos

It is not very often that an event in Arizona gets rained on. I had heard about a chance of rain for this weekend so I checked the forecast on Saturday to see if the race we were scheduled to shoot would be wet. Late on Saturday, the forecast was for 30% chance of showers overnight ending by 7 Sunday morning. I figured that was Arizona forecasters hoping for a bit more rain.

Well, it poured most of the night and was still drizzling pretty steadily when we left the house a bit before 6 in the morning. I kept expecting things to start drying out, but the windshield wipers kept on going all the way to the race.

When I got there, the rest of my photo team were there and although they wished it would be drier, were ready to take care of business. We took care of business by talking about the race plan and headed off to our jobs.

Right away, things changed. These races usually start with the kids race and after they finish, the adult race start. Today though, just before the start, I found out they were starting with the adult race and would have the kids races later in the morning after the adult race. That was a bit of a surprise as we usually regroup after the kids race and tweak our plan before the busier and longer adult race. This is especially handy when we are shooting at a new location (3rd time here for Flowing Desert) or when we are shooting with a new shooter (we had a new team member today).

Everyone adjusted fine to the new schedule and with the exception of the rain that never quite stopped, we all managed to carry on. Now the rest of the team has resumed their normal lives and I have started the fun, but sometimes long, process of reviewing the pictures and adding the keywords so that all today's racers can quickly and easily find their pictures.

I love pictures from the finish line and I usually start my review with those pictures. The smiles on many faces and the visible effort on others shows their pride at their accomplishments. I am most of the way through with the finish pictures and so far the "Flying Finisher" is my favorite photo of this race.

Talk about celebrating your finish!  So what do you think?  Have you tried the flying finish in a race or are you a "clock-watcher" at the finish line?

Skills for Triathlon

There are countless blogs and articles online about training for and competing in triathlons.  They will usually focus on how to properly train your body to be ready to handle the race and how to eat a balanced diet leading up to a race.  This is just going to be a pictorial on some of the skills that triathletes eventually need to develop.

Riding one-handed.

This is a skill that is very important to be able to wave to friends and cameras.



Riding one-handed is also very important for the next skill.

Eating.

Riding one-handed is very helpful in order to be able to eat while on the bike. This is especially important for athletes in an Ironman race that will sometimes spend 6-8 hours on the bike while riding the 112 miles that is the bike portion of these endurance races.



Storage.

Packing enough for a long bike ride is always a challenge. You need to have spare tubes and a way to pump them up if you get a flat tire. You will also want some food (fig newtons and gel packs were my choice) and maybe some other things like a rain jacket if there is a chance of rain (not usually a problem for IMAZ) or pain medicine if you are injury-prone. Bike jerseys usually have a couple pockets on the back. These are handy, but it can be a bit tricky to get things out while riding. Some racers get creating when finding places and ways to store things for the ride.



Rules

If you watch (or race) triathlons long enough, you will find out that there are rules and that when you break the rules, you have to make a stop in the Penalty Box. It seemed like things were pretty quiet this year here in Arizona, at least for this penalty box as the tent workers spent a considerable amount of time just standing around watching the race.



So what other skills are needed for triathlons?  After IMAZ last year, I posted another skill that triathletes develop on my triathlon blog.  What else am I missing?  Use the comments here or shoot me an email and I'll make another edition of this skills blog.

Feel free to stop by my sports photography site and see some of my other sports pictures.

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.

Sports Shooting - Triathlons

Triathlons are hard. I should know, I've done a few (check out my other blog for more) from short Sprint Triathlons all the way up to a full Ironman. When I attended my first race as a spectator with a camera instead of as a competitor, I had a great time cheering on my friends and taking lots of pictures. I got enough compliments on the pictures I took that I decided to do it again at another race. After a few races, I decided to try and get in with an official photographer to get more exposure.

I contacted a Race Director and after some discussion, I became his Race Photographer. This was a huge step for me since now instead of just trying to get pictures of a few friends, my goal was now to get good pictures of every competitor in 3 different disciplines. I knew I could not do it myself, so I proposed a partnership to a friend I had met a few months before at a photography workshop. Paul agreed and we planned our approach to the race. Paul has had kids in swimming, so we decided he would cover the swimming leg of the race and then move over to the finish line.

I would find a good spot to get the bikes and as soon as the last bike was past, I would get most of the runners before they got to the finish line.

Paul got a lot of great shots and I was able to find some pretty good angles for the bike and run portions. It was fun to see so many competitors with big smiles having a great time.

Now after 2 races, Paul and I have a good plan and really work well together. Sales are starting to roll in. Nothing I will be able to retire on, but at least it seems to be paying for the expenses of flyers and gas to get to the races. I am sure that the longer I do this, the more sales will take off.

Take a look at the race photos and let me know what you think. Do you race? What do you like to see in your pictures?