I believe this was the fourth time that Mundo Sport Images (mundosportimages.com) has done the industrial scale photography at the Ontario Provincial (OFSAA) High School Track and Field Championships, one of the three largest school meets in North America. There are about 2400 competitors, of whom we aim to get a photo of each in an ideal year. This year only two of us were shooting, so we aimed for about 70% coverage -- site logistics mean we just can't do everything. I've pulled nine photos from my take.
I am deeply out of practice shooting sports, but can cheat with track and field thanks to a long history of coaching and thanks to the focus system in the 1Dx. Tech specs are listed with a special thanks to Canon who provided the 300 f2.8 that I was using -- Qantas carry on regs meant my 500 stayed in Australia. Fortunately, the 300 was perfect for the horizontal jumps even if the back grounds were irretrievably horrific. Then there was the shot put cage. Plus... cold rain on the Thursday. Enough prattle... pictures. Comments and critiques always welcome.
Sean
#1 You have to celebrate defending the 100m crown (1Dx, 300mm iso 800, 1/2500 f2.8)
#2 Textbook stick passing in the open girls 4x400m heats (1Dx, 400mm w 1.4x iso 800, 1/800 f4.0)
#3 Big bark in the shot with seriously good technique for a midget (1Dx, 300mm w 1.4x iso 1250, 1600 f4.0)
#4 Loading up to exit the step in the senior girls triple jump (1Dx, 300mm iso 1250, 1/1600 f2.8)
#5 Cruising through the 800m heats (1Dx, 300mm w 2.0x iso 1250, 1/1600 f5.6)
#6 Nice clean technical release in the midget boys discus (1Dx, 300mm w 2.0x iso 500, 1/1000 f5.6
#7 Classic hurdle photo recalling the film days when a 300mm f2.8 was about as long as you could dream for … showing my age … (1Dx, 300mm w 1.4x iso 800, 1/1250 f4.0)
#8 Clean and simple 100m qualifying round photo (300mm w 1.4x iso 800, 1/1600 f4.0)
#9 Shutter drag of the lead pack in the senior boys 3000m (300m iso 50, 1/80 f6.3)
Nice set of images here Sean, good catch on the tj,also like the hurdler,although I like to shot them coming straight at you,good to see you shooting t&f.
Gents, as much as I adore OFSAA and will shoot it on marginal terms, flying trans-Pacific just for the meet is a stretch. I had a conference (I'm an academic) in the Northeast and so stuck around for an extra couple of days. Plus, I coached for a long time in Canada so OFSAA is also a bit of a quick catch up with friends.
Glenn, I'm with you on the head on hurdle shooting -- my partner had that angle. The idea was to shoot across at about a twenty degree angle to catch something of the spirit of the race (the shot is from the finals. Usually the infield at OFSAA is totally empty, which makes setting up that kind of shot easy. But, for some unknown reason the infield was crowded with wandering bodies this year, hence the throw-back photo. Sadly, I suspect this is the last track in a while for me.
