Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon–Run

This is the last in my three part series of photography from the Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon.

If you missed the first two, you can find them here:

• Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon – Swim
• Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon – Bike

I am very happy with the photograph above.  I was able to get the runners face nice and sharp while using a small aperture to slow down the shutter speed and introduce some motion blur.  The motion blur was increased a bit as I panned with the runner causing the background to blur. The runner is the overall winner amongst the women.  I don’t recall her name, but I know she absolutely crushed the women’s field, and was only one minute off the pace of the winner for the men.

I was a bit distracted by the time the runners started coming in (by distracted I mean hiding in the shade to save some of my now lobster-red skin), so I don’t have a bunch of running shots.  However, I have several detail shots from the transition area to share.

I hope you enjoyed this little slice of the Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon–Bike

Welcome back to part two of my mini-series of posts featuring photography from the Patuxent River Triathlon.  Today’s post will focus on the bike leg of the race.

Similar to the case with the swim, the bikes and clothing are plenty colorful.  However, I believe these shots work much better in black and white.  For example, the first shot of the post has a couple of distracting elements when viewed in color; a) the green of the grass and background trees that bisect the photo, and b) the yellow of the center line cutting through his bike.  While these are not horrible flaws, when processed as black and white, they become complete non issues.

If you scroll back up to take a look at the second photograph, you can see a good example of a traditionally framed cycling shot.  The components to this composition include a) leaving “room” in front of the cyclist so he visually has a place to go (imagine how awkward it would look if the front wheel were on the right edge of the composition with a bunch of open space behind the bike), b) I used a sufficiently slow shutter speed to blur the wheels a bit – introducing a sense of motion, and c) further enhancing the sense of motion by panning the shot and introducing more motion blur to the immobile parts of the composition.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig

Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon–the Swim

Back in the day (I think it was a Wednesday), I used to go to triathlons to compete.  This weekend I went to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station Triathlon to support Chef Sue (my wife), Gunslinger Teji, and Triathlon Buddy Brian.  Back in the day, Brian and I trained and raced together with religious fervor.  Quite impressively, Brian is still racing – and racing well.  At a shade over 50, He won his age group and was not far off the leader’s time – quite impressive.  Chef Sue and Gunslinger Teji were there with the intent of finishing; both accomplished their goal.  Congratulations.

Triathlons are target rich environments for photographers, so I took advantage of the opportunity.  I do not claim to be a sports photographer and definitely tend toward a more artistic interpretation of anything I shoot.  This triathlon is no exception.

So what distinguishes my “artistic” interpretation of a triathlon from what one would normally expect from a sports photographer?  While taking the photography, I probably would not have been able to tell you.  But in retrospect, as I look through the entire group of photos, I see several trends including:

• lots of shallow depth of field
• composition that fills the frame rather than larger environmental compositions
• about half of the photographs were processed as black and white – an artistic choice
• detail shots

With so much activity and being surrounded by interesting subjects, I shot a lot.  My hit rate (shots I felt worthy of keeping) was also pretty high.  For this reason, I will cover the race in several posts.  Obviously, this post focuses on the swim.

From a photographers standpoint, triathlons are generally started in good light.  Triathlons normally start early in the day to avoid the heat of the day.  With a 8 am start, I was lucky to have some great light (relatively low on the horizon) for shooting.  It became progressively harsher toward the end of the run, but overall, light is an advantage for early morning race starts.

The choice to process photos as black and white is not always an easy one at events such as this. One of the cool things at triathlons is the rainbow of colors. Swim suits, swim caps, bright blue water, race shirts, bikes – all full of color. Still, I find that black and white works with many of the shots.

Stand by for more posts later this week covering the bike and run portions of the race.

Have fun, and go make some great photography.

Craig