What gear to bring to the race???

[kundalini]

Hi All,

I'm volunteering this weekend as photographer at The Great Human Race, which to my knowledge, is a fund raiser for local non-profits. If anyone has any help and suggestions of event photography, I would greatly appreciate it. This will be my first event.

Some questions ....

I'm taking two bodies (Nikon D300 & D700-gripped) and just planning to attach a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm lens (on monopod). Would there be any reason to take primes?

I have 16GB of memory cards. Will that be suffucient? The race will probably last 3.5 hours, but then there's the front end and afterwards to consider. I shoot RAW.

How do I make sure my copyrights are protected? I read in one of the e-mails that photos may be wanted to be uploaded on the day.

What am I missing?

Thanks for your help.

[kundalini]

Okay, so after talking to a friend, I'm gonna take the 12-24mm lens also.

Still would like to hear from y'all on how to think about shooting an event such as this.

BTW, it's a run/walk race. Don't know yet where I'll be on the course, but hopefully a decent spot.

[PhotoJet]

I did something similar to this last summer. It was a bike route... not really a race per se. I shot the beginning, and went to several of the rest stops along the route. It was a lot of fun! I pretty much used my 28-135mm and occasionally my telephoto.

I processed the stuff and gave them a disc of pictures. It was a strictly voluntary shoot and I donated the photos.

I'd say that if you can get a place along the route where there are water stations and such, and get to the end of the route, you should get some interesting shots!

Not a lot of help, I know, but I'll be interested in seeing your pics!

[kundalini]

Thanks Jeanette. I had not considered the watering stations. I don't know where they will be on the route.... hell, I don't even know where the route is :).... but yeah, I can see that.

How much did memory did you spend for the event? I think I could "borrow" another few gigs if needed.

[PhotoJet]

I had my 4G loaded, and took another 5G with me. But I never really had to use anything but the 4. BUT... i come from a film background, so I'm more prone to wait for a shot than to take many shots. ;)
I shoot RAW, and even then, it was not enough to fill the card. The really important thing was that I brought along spare battery packs! hahaha :)

[kundalini]

:) I've been charging all the batteries today. Although there could be up to 4 hours of shooting potential, I seriously doubt I will run out of memory..... even with a few bursts at 8fps.

Well, the big day is tomorrow and I'm a bit nervous. The biggest hurdle is getting up and leaving the house at 6:00AM in the morning, There's a lot of good basketball on tonight and my oldest son is coming into town to catch the night games with me. We've already agreed that I buy and he flies (driving my car, of course). Somehow that doesn't seem to be such a difference from the norm..... the I buy and supply transport parts anyway. :)

If I have anything worth posting (and most of you know by now that my threshold is very low), I'll have another post to show the goods.

[Aggie]

A length of cord that would tie to the bottom of your camera with a tripod mount attached. This cord then would have a loop at the bottom for your foot to slip into. Make it as long as it would be if you had your camera up at a comfortable level to your eye, but taught when you have your foot in the bottom loop. It acts as a spur of the moment tripod. It is not as good as a tripod, but in a pinch helps to steady a camera very well. It is also what cam be used in museums where tripods are not allowed. It also allows for twisting motion so you can follow the action. The secret is keeping it taught on the length of cord. That and lots of bottled water for yourself.

[vicky]

a possible shot for you is to get high above everyone at the start of the race and shoot the whole crowd with the wide angle lens. Maybe the starting gun is in a cherry picker or something like that?

[vicky]

Oh and another... shoot from low down - ie: waist height - and shoot straight back at the runner with some crowd behind them but blurred.
Shoot zoomed in at 200mm to get the compressed look, but the DOF will blur the background beautifully and really make the runner pop.

Google images search for runner, running race, walk race, athletes, athletics.
There are a few nice examples there of what to do, and also what not to do.

[Antarctican]

How did it go??

[johngpt]

Yes, how did it go?

[Alex]

I am no good at NIKON lenses, but I love primes at the races (horse races that is though ;) ) ... the quality of my primes when wide open is way beyond all my zoom lenses.

I would bring a 300mm prime and a 24-70.

oh, my answer comes too late? so where are the images?