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Need a photographer Sun Sept 14th...

M38A1

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Scott
I've again been asked to shoot the Colin's Hope Kids Tri here in Austin this Sunday. Need a shooter from about 6am to noonish. Maybe 300 kids doing a super-sprint of a swim/bike/run in a neighborhood. Shoot .jpgs, try to get it right in the camera for zero processing if possible.

Pay is zero as it's a non-profit, but it's a heck of a lot of fun to shoot. All participants sign a photo release waiver so there's little issue with you building your portfolio. There will be myself and one other there, but its tough with just two of us. So..... anyone out there locally want to shoot kids, practice sports shooting for swim bike and run?

Post up here ASAP if interested.....
 
Wish I was closer and had time. :doh:

Sounds like a great event and would be fun to shoot.

Bump!
 
Well, I again 'winged' it. The event started with heavy overcast and remained that way through the last finisher and a few more hours.

Same basic Finish Line setup as last year by the event organizers - a huge red structure that was really wide and a different banner which was much larger this time.

I started out with an SB900 behind a white shoot thru umbrella about 20' to the side and 7' up camera right. This was typical of what I was able to shoot:
i-2zFLf7w-L.jpg


At some point the SB900 died or got hot. Took a shot or two chimping to see that happen.

With the SB900/Umbrella inop, I dropped back to an SB700 on top of the body and finished the event with this kind of shot:
i-kPx7Hxj-L.jpg


So, anyone care to comment on what I can do next year? Or is this about it with what they give me to work with? Portrait vs Landscape? or would that be dependent on the banner size/placement? There's little doubt the flash helped the contrast and overall image presentation. Not sure I can really tell the difference between the two shots/approaches either.

Thanks.

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I think the flash on the camera worked pretty well.

For composition sake, I wonder what the frame would have looked like if you had used your 200 and got further back. I am thinking you would have been able to get the banner and the participant, but it would have filled the frame with less distractions maybe?

For an event shot like this though, you did fine, and I am certain the family's will enjoy the images.
 
I think the flash on the camera worked pretty well.

For composition sake, I wonder what the frame would have looked like if you had used your 200 and got further back. I am thinking you would have been able to get the banner and the participant, but it would have filled the frame with less distractions maybe?

For an event shot like this though, you did fine, and I am certain the family's will enjoy the images.

I basically agree with all of this. I wouldn't have worried about the umbrella.

What was the assignment, just finish line shots?
 
I pondered the compression of the 70-200, but sitting back I'd be behind the folks giving the medals to the participants and that would create some 'traffic' problems to shoot/deal with. I also gave thought to using a wide angle and be a LOT closer, but I chickened out thinking I'd have a bunch of distortion. As it turned out most shots were about 32-35mm focal length on a FF body.

The assignment was to simply shoot the event along with two other shooters. I could have done anything I wanted, ie: shoot the pool, candids, transition, bike course, run course or finish line. Thinking the finish line was kind of boring I thought I'd like to try the run/bike with my off-camera strobes. In the end, I decided to just setup on a stool with the camera on a monopod and just let TTL do the work. I have to admit, it really does a good job for down and dirty stuff like this.

Then Duke sends me a couple links of shots I did and he reworked. Primarily, going to a portrait crop instead of the landscape as shot. Not knowing what really works or looks best (remember, the shoot/post is all volunteer and the images are uploaded for free downloads to anyone who wants them) he presented a different view I kind of like. Not sure I'm ready to spend all day tomorrow in post doing nothing but portrait framed crops on 325 or so images.

Here's a shot I did followed by what Duke came up with for orientation and a post B&W for grins
mine/original:
i-xHzsZzm-L.jpg

Dukes work:
i-CrXBNSt-L.jpg


i-KqCzt3x-L.jpg
 
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I definitely prefer the cropped in version cutting out as many distractions as possible. With trying to get the sign in the photos, it's definitely the best option. But, going through that many wouldn't be fun to try to convert them all.
 
Well it wasn't that bad . Maybe 90 min to create a collection in LR from the landscape files that had been run thru post. Then take the first image and apply a portrait crop to it and sync that across all the files. Then one by one simply click the crop button and frame it better. Once that was done I created a watermark for the bottom of each shot that said Colin's Hope Kids Triathlon, and exported as a .jpg. When that was done, I uploaded them to SM and burned a disc for the organizer. Then I did mostly the same on the landscape shots but only putting the event footer on them, exported and burned. Now, 1000 athletes would be a different matter.

Here's the gallery. The portrait shots start about page 14
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/44323234_Ns4kvM

.
 
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Here's what the Portrait crop set looked like with the watermark "event" inserted at export. I'm kind of liking how the transformation has occurred from last year to this point. THANKS DUKE for the help! (that's what makes this little corner of the forum so dang cool - everyone helping others where they can)

i-3ZG4gSf-L.jpg


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Team work my friend. Team Work.

Have you gotten any feedback from your "customers"? Or anyone with Collins Hope?

Nothing back from CH yet. Yes, of the 'customers', a couple have replied with some good feedback for next year.
 
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