Cross Country Runners
Vol 3
All three of Kelly’s sons have done track and cross country in high school. Timmy is her youngest and the last of the bunch. While he may not have the raw natural talent to win any of these races, he is a very dedicated runner, and probably one of the most popular guys on the entire team.
For me, track and cross country season present an opportunity to take pictures of people, instead of mostly the animals and scenery I normally capture here in southeast Arizona.
Most of the daytime meets photograph very nicely in color. But a couple of times a years when the races take place after the sun goes down, many of the images I capture already have some motion blur and contrasty lighting.
It’s like they’re almost begging …
Please process us in Black & White.
This was especially the case with my Sony a6000 and TTArtisans 25mm manual lens combination. I’m still getting used to the exposure and metering settings in low-light with this camera. Even with this lens, I use Aperture priority, but since there are no electronic connections the F-stop is not recorded in the exif data.
The sunset shot above I believe was either F5.0 or maybe even F8.0. It was a 1/60 second exposure at ISO 250. It looks like I had a little camera shake, but there’s something about the over-all look of the final image that I like anyway.
The crowd shot below as also taken with the Sony. This one I’m almost positive was wide-open at F2.0. Also 1/60th of second, and ISO 3200.
The images below were taken on my Canon 80D with a 70-200 F2.8L lens attached. lol, yes, I was one of those guys walking around with multiple cameras around my neck and in my hands. I suppose if you count the very capable Pixel 9pro XL phone in my pocket, I technically had three different cameras.
I did of course also take some pictures of the runners themselves.
Whether it’s day or night, I like these shots of runners where there is a nice combination of motion blur from the movement of the runners, combined with a few in focus and sharp facial expressions.
To wrap things up, I’ve know Coach Bristow for 4 years now, and at every meet I always like to get at least a couple of image of him doing his thing.
Catch you next week,
Well done, Todd! I find it hard to capture sports in black and white.
Todd, you seem to have a vast interest in a lot of things and taking pictures thereof which makes for very compelling reading and seeing. Thank you so much.
And especially, thanks for showing us a picture of Damien, the winner!