It is now time for our middle school track. I almost didn't get out to shoot this and would have been very disappointed if I missed it. Middle school track is usually one of my better paying events and this is due to the amount of kids that participate in it. I believe there are 27 middle school in the City of Long Beach, each bringing with them numerous kids to compete. Now that is not my sole purpose to coming out. These kids really give it their all when they compete and I love capturing the action and emotion of the day.
For all of these shots I used my 300 f/2.8L with the exception of the very last shot, in which I used my 70-200 f/2.8L on. I was kneeling for all of these shot, which in my opinion adds so much emphasis and impact to the shot. Take a look at the following shots and you be the judge.
"Field Events"
These first few groups of shots are of the long jump and the three parts making it up. I tend to favor my 300 when shooting sports and pretty much used it for this entire event. For the long jump shots I was kneeling on the track to get the proper distance for these shots. I did have to tend with runners warming up for the track events, which followed the conclusion of the field events. I just keep both my eyes open and keep my head on the swivel to watch for people coming.
"The Approach"
For the approach shot I look for the athlete's that are very animate in how they run and facial expression add to it. Being low on shots like these are a huge plus. If you were to stand on these shots you wouldn't notice the height of their run. These shots almost appear as if the girl is running on air.
"The Jump"
When shooting this portion of the long jump it is very important to get a low perspective. By being low you add a lot of impact and height to their jump. This perspective visually add height to the jump by getting below them.
"The Landing"
My favorite shot in the long jump is the landing. I try to capture the landing just as the dirt is splashed upward. This creates a lot of impact and gives great facial expressions.
For our middle school track meets we have two different high jump locations depending on the division the school is in. One being at the north end and the other being at the south end. During the morning hours the sun is coming from the south side of the field which give great lighting for one high jump position and some rough back light on the other. Since I try to capture as many of the athlete's as possible I will shoot both locations.
These first two shots were taken from the north end with me shooting slightly into the sun, but due to some cloud cover the lighting wasn't too bad for me today.
The following three high jump shots were taken with the sun behind me, which gave me some great morning light. This high jump located at the south side of the field and is my favorite high jump position as the sun is always behind me or over my shoulder.
These were shot from across the corner of the track to allow me some distance while using my 300.
"Track Events"
One of my favorite shots of track runners is the corner. Now there are two different positions for this shot. The first being on the outside of the corner and the other along the inside of the corner, which is what I used for this first shot. I like either of these positions as they capture the turn and angle of the runner as their going around the corner. I love the tilt you achieve with these angles and feel that add a lot of impact to the shot.
When I'm shooting track, especially the finishes, I like to show depth by adding other runners in the background. As the runners approach and you see their positioning, just position yourself in such a way to get other runners in the background such as the below shot.
The following three shots were taken from the finish line. This first one is the of the 4x100 relay with the next two being from the 400. What I do in this situation is take some shots of them starting their run and then reposition myself about 10 yards off the finish line directly in front of the runner winning.
The two following shots were taken from the side of the finish line to provide me with an angled shot of them coming towards the finish line.
As you can see this young lady took a fall during the 400, but what you don't know is that she got right back up and still beat the young lady coming up behind her. Great effort after taking such a hard fall in the dirt.
I do realize that I need to broaden the look of my photography and try different things with my sports shooting, so here is something different from the meet.
