As I've mentioned before, this is one of my top five races to attend. Just half an hour from where I live and a chance to visit Holmfirth on the way back if need be.
Fairly late start, so no pressure to rise early and shorten Tan's first walk of the day. Relaxed breakfast with ample time to check out my gear. Just one camera on tour today, with three lenses of varying focal lengths. I'd like to splash out on a decent zoom but there are too many pitfalls with using one at running events. Landscape photography, no problem. I have an old 18-70mm which is a very underrated and can be bought for around £70.
The following three images were all taken with the Nikon 18-70mm.
Round about 30 minutes from home to parking up in Meltham. Disappointed not to be allowed to park near the club house, felt sure I'd be given priority as a photographer. (Only joking)
Quick natter to a friend about the trials and tribulations of owning a home, power off for hours ... leaking boiler and loo. Felt good to get it off my chest and finding out that other people have the same sort of problems.
So, where to snap from this year. Having plenty of time before the off, I made my way towards the half-way point. Nowhere along the route seemed to be suitable for "bunched-up" runners. After 10 minutes or so, I retraced my steps and settled for my usual three points to capture the well-honed athletes.
I was well prepared for the eventuality of cold and/or rain. As it was, sunshine prevailed and I began to strip off a couple of layers. After circumnavigating a tricky narrow path, a piddling little gate and crossing a trickle of a stream, the runners are faced with a bit of a climb. That's where I would be waiting. Ninja photographer.
Even though I was facing a low autumn sun, I managed to avoid flare on the lens. This was due to the fact that I'd placed a hood on the lens as well as pointing the camera downwards to hit the runners as they approached. The resulting halo effect was quite pleasing.
Shifted to the right-hand side of the path that the runners would take. There tends to be a sheep mentality when tackling this ascent. It just isn't worth the effort to overtake anyone, unless they're very slow. It's a long slog for the first section of the race, being patient will pay dividends later.
All too soon they'd all passed by; the sudden shower had abated, giving way to a sunnier outlook. Kept my over-trousers on, I might be crouching down at the next snapping point.
Quite a battle going on with the first three runners and a fourth not that far behind. I would have love to have hit them face on but when they are running on a narrow path, they tend to play at follow my leader.
Sideways on again and kneeling just far enough to capture full body shots. I did take a few at the stile last time, but they weren't really effective.
I hope you're not thinking of beating me.
Lonely runner.
Holmfirth out in numbers.
Leading runners - top ten
Have I got time for another lap?
A leap of faith?
I try to remember my Mozzie logo sign whenever I'm at a race. This is a very handy one, easy moved from one spot to another. Massive thanks to Shaun Mollart for making me this, it's a brilliant way to advertise my work.
Never sure at what time to move from the footpath on lap 2 to my final spot on the finishing straight. The winning time is around 40 mins. Gauged it as best I could, though I did miss quite a few starting their repeat tour of the course. Maybe I'll do better next year.
The odd runner is visible completing the downhill section.
Made sure that I avoided any heap of dog poo at the side of the track. Unfortunately, I wasn't as diligent a few years ago. Put my coat on the grass to kneel on, missing the fact that a poo had been left behind by one inattentive owner. Coat washed and ruined; it lost its fluffiness for ever.
This position is great for capturing a curved composition, if there are enough runners in the frame. I try to manoeuvre bodies towards the side or middle of the track, depending on the shot I'm after. This is achieved by parking myself in the way of the path they are taking.
Middle of the track is best, but I'm not always able to persuade them to move where I'd like them to be. Managed to avoid any sky in the composition except for a select few. This helps with exposure readings and my pet hate of "sky bits".
You'd need to blow this up quite a bit to see the raindrops.
A close-up, just for a change.
A smile and a grimace.
Synchronised running.
One for a caption competition, I think.
No respect for the photographer.
Even more rain would have improved this happy hop.
With a long gap between first and last, I kept an eye out for the sweepers. Nearly succeeded in photographing all the finishers. Just missed the last runner but captured him on the way out. I thought I'd spotted the sweepers coming down the track, they must have held one of the positions around the course.
Home or cake?
Home or cake?
I did make the effort to avail myself of a slice of wonderful fruit cake. Nattering to the finishers after a race should be part of my outing but I usually make my way home asap to start downloading the images.
That's the priority I suppose.
Really should make more of an effort post-race.
Jet propelled on Sunday. A 12-hour day and I managed to have the photos out there by 9pm.
Don't think I've ever managed it so quickly.
Editing photographs:
I have been asked how I manage to produce colourful images from my set up. I won't go into too much boring detail; I'll try to keep it fairly short.
I shoot RAW not jpeg. This allows me more control over the editing process. There are loads of You-tube videos out there extolling the virtues of both. It's my choice to shoot RAW, even though it takes far longer to load images and takes up far more memory on my external hard drive.
The RAW image can look crap when up-loaded. Jpegs have been processed in camera and don't allow the flexibility that RAW does.
Don't worry, magic can happen.
This is the "sort of" RAW image that I'm confronted with after it has been converted to a DNG - digital negative. I moved too far left of the runner and an annoying bit of sky in the top right-hand corner would need to be cropped out. I'm probably OCD when it comes to editing my photographs.
Using Lightroom, which I have to pay a monthly subscription for, I try to bring each composition to life.
Adobe Portrait for the profile appears to work best for me. Landscape and Vivid are just a bit too colourful.
I make the following adjustments for most of my photos.
The exposure hasn't changed much from the RAW image. This is due to the omission of the sky which can have a dramatic effect on the metering. I've lowered the highlights and pulled out the shadows to their extremes. This brings out the detail in both areas. I don't always use these extremes.
Whites and blacks adjustments usually depend on what the runner is wearing.
Vibrance up but not too much Saturation. Again, there are videos which help you understand the correct use of these two sliders.
If there is a predominant colour, such as very bright green grass, I'll change the Saturation and/or Luminosity of that particular colour.
Before the editing process
And after ...
The following images were all edited using the same settings as the photograph above.
There would be further tweaks, depending on weather and light conditions. It's a good starting point for quicker editing.
I put them out on Flickr as it provides me with feedback as to the number of views.
Later on, I'll load them onto FB so that people can TAG and or comment.
Yes, I do have a bee in my bonnet about LIKE. Photographers love feedback of any description, and it doesn't take too much effort to express your thoughts. A few words of appreciation are always welcome.
I pay subscriptions for Flickr and Lightroom. If you'd like to contribute to these charges, just let me know.
Massive thanks to those people who donated to my chosen charity, I'm so grateful to you for taking the time to do this.
See you soon.