p pol The Adventures of Carboman: Photo Essay: BHP Orange Run '09

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Photo Essay: BHP Orange Run '09

My goal to run this morning's race was weak even though I like this race quite a bit. Besides being a free event hosted by the petroleum company BHP, the post-race festivities was quite good - a just reward after tearing through a hilly course. Since I wanted to get my feet wet with a sports shoot in preparation for next month's NB 15K, this was the only chance to test some ideas out.

I wanted to balance the typical posed shots with some which are usually not seen on the blogs and the results for the most part were OK to me. I carried just 2 lenses - the Sigma 18-200 and the highly rated and very fast Tokina 11-16mm wide angle. I'll put some links on this on my next post.

A mistake was lugging the pods. I'd feared that weak light will hamper the starting shots. But the comments of seasoned shooter, Chan Wing Kai turned out true. It was bright enough and after meeting the guys for a brief chitchat, I quickly returned the pods to the car. Lesson learned: You need to be very mobile out in the field especially when covering a sports event. So let's not wait any longer and proceed with some of the resulting shots. Click on any to enlarge.

Emerging from The Curve carpark, I saw this interesting shot. The parallel lines on the road, the lightening sky and the silhouette of the 2 girls.


I like these 2 shots. In fact I shot in bursts in this sequence. I kept the runner in white cap as the subject as there were no human obstruction surrounding him and his gear provided good contrast. Well-built too I must say. Daniel Tan is on the right in yellow.

I shot close to 10 frames in this angle and this is the best. I just wanted to catch the interesting shoes and this green/black adidas provided it providing strong contrast to the desaturated surroundings.

The lead pack was simply awesome. Made me want to join in! The eventual winner on the extreme left looked very relaxed. Shahrudin is the one in vermillon vest. If you want to know one of the secrets of running fast, see the 2nd shot. Notice the legs and form. All demonstrates the strong push-off, no energy wasting "sitting" position and long strides made possible by high knee lifts and high kick backs.

I like this shot as the yellow and red garbed runner stood out against the "typical" dull colours. I isolated just the legs as I felt that including the faces and upper bodies will dilute the shot. I wanted to focus on the contrast. I was on both knees for many shots in this stretch of the route.

A mildly successful shot. I'd wanted to catch long shadows and it wasn't easy as I was shooting into the sun.

Focus on the cop and blur out the runners.

Again, a very low shot and the result was quite surprising. I didn't notice the girl on the left and it turned out very well - she was smiling and in focus. The timekeepers on the right provided an interesting sub-topic while anticipating the return of the men's champion.

The run-in. You gotta be sure-footed as you wouldn't want to slip on the tiles storming towards the finish line.

A mountain of nasi lemak awaits

This uncle was nice enough to wait for my shot before covering the large container of teh tarik

The volunteers getting ready for the onslaught of finishers

I didn't know there are non-alcoholic versions of Kampai. Told you this run was happening!

He wasn't the champion but I like this shot of Shahrudin kicking to the finish

Michelle Tan who is training to qualify for the SEA Games moments after crossing the line. Her face said it all. And she lays it on the line at every race she enters. Talk about grit.

I shot this sweet girl so many times I felt like a stalker! Actually I was fighting the lens flare. The sunlight was creeping into the lens on the top left corner and only a crop took it off. She gave me 3 packets of the snack as I think she was eager to see me off! Bug off photographer man! Heheh!

Large, Medium, Small and Small

Not quite the Paris sidewalk cafe but the tables were well spaced out.

Runners coming in. Notice how sunny and hot it was.

Other than the building corridors, this small stretch after the finish line was the shadiest spot in the Piazza.
An overall view of the Piazza. From this angle it seemed to be nestled in between 2 building and an oasis. Wait, it is! Well, not the oasis bit.

That's it folks. A little debut photo essay. Your comments are most welcomed. I gotta hit the sack as it's been a loooong day.







Labels: , ,

10 Comments:

  • i really enjoyed this photo essay :)
    gives a new perspective on the run!

    the first pix is pretty cool..the lines and then the clouds plus the silhouette of the girls.

    and u captured runner 5550 checking his stopwatch :)

    shadow shot - nice too. can be improved, but pretty nice for now :)

    the low shot works really really well...esp the girl on the left

    nasi lemak...hmm...i think if you cropped it more would be good too

    the isotonic cup shot - that's my fav!! all those cups and the bottle. good stuff :)

    and the parting shot, the white tent covers stand out nicely.

    By Anonymous Yin, at 10:54 AM  

  • Nice blog!

    Have you ever considered taking low shots with camera on the floor literally, sport shooting the hundreds of feet at the starting line?

    :)

    By Anonymous laymank, at 12:04 PM  

  • hi hi...u were at the bhp orange run too? i was there too...do check out my blogsite...

    do u mind i take some of ur event pics for me to post in my blog...just the event pics only

    By Blogger vialentino, at 12:41 PM  

  • Nice photos Carbo, the low shot on the girl and the sunlight shooting through the runners legs are good. Keep up man and btw, a good photo essay.

    By Anonymous PM25, at 1:01 PM  

  • Carboman becomes Photoman liao...Would love to see more play in the DOF, something that my camera cannot do much.

    By Blogger RunWitMe, at 1:45 PM  

  • great creative shots.

    By Blogger C-CUBE, at 5:03 PM  

  • thanks for all your feedback guys. the shots could all be better. i don't know why but i'm quite critical of my own work. i thought of several more shots i missed as i was driving home. grrrrr!

    By Blogger Jamie Pang, at 12:35 AM  

  • Wah, nowadays very serious about shooting! Anyway, nice shots, in the sense that you captured the un-cliched moments, esp that almost aerial view one on runners coming back. I'd say you've the "eye" la...something most of us are trying very hard to find. I think it's more important than having state of the art equipments.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:56 PM  

  • Haza, I'm a newbie only *blush* and in learning I adopt the very critical approach of my own work. But thanks for the nice words. Hopefully can elevate my quality more.

    By Blogger Jamie Pang, at 10:08 PM  

  • Awesome shots! You capture the moments we don't even know about!

    By Blogger cRAzYtoMatOmaN-D, at 11:05 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home