Photographing College Track Again

This was probably my only chance to get some track and field in this year. Purdue will not be home again this calendar year, and I can’t see a break to get somewhere else to make track photos. That is too bad. I do enjoy capturing these athletes doing amazing things.

Slowing Down The Shutter

Part of the draw of this meet was to try and really slow things down. I made some images that I liked, and then I kept going lower. I ended up making images at 1/8th of a second for most of the running events. At that speed any little deviation by the runner or you as the photographer will ruin the photo. There are not many keeper, but when it hits it can looks pretty cool. I found some interesting ghosting along the way as well. I may break this technique out at the basketball game today. It would be a good way to break up the normal action in the gallery.

Working The Photo

The high jump can be a hard event to cover. You usually don’t have your full attention to give to it as there is a track meet happening. You have to be in many places at one time. You don’t have the time to study the athlete like you would like to. Here I was able to see this athlete jump a couple of times. With that knowledge I picked a spot where I could get the most Purdue signage in the frame. Having just a little time to see what the athlete does can make all of the difference in the world.