Its been couple of months since my last blog so I thought it best to keep everyone up to speed with my photography. Its been a crazy few months with lots of jobs coming through keeping me busy on nearly every weekend since April right through to August.
Ive done multiple corporate events alongside SWPS for the Royal Marines Charity, private functions and sporting events and have family portraits and model portraits all ready booked in and I love every single job!
This weekend saw me at the beautiful town of Dartmouth where I photographed The Dartmouth Triathlon for Sportiva Events. This race is brilliantly organised and becoming increasingly popular due to its idillic settings of Blackpool Sands and Slapton Ley. Slapton Ley is a lake on the south coast of Devon and is the largest natural freshwater lake in South West England spanning 1.5 miles long so makes for the prefect bike race!
With the event to start at 7.30am I sorted my kit for the day out and commenced with some preparation images before the first swim wave got underway. The first element comprised of a 750m sea swim (400m for the super sprint) so I took a few briefing shots and water entry images. I had a little time to spare before the next wave started so positioned myself ready for the first wave to exit and capture a few of them entering transition to start their bike race. I did this a few times to ensure I captured all 4 waves before moving onto the next element.
The bike race was a 20k route around the beautiful sands and with only one major hill is the prefect circuit to get those pedals moving. Unfortunately the clouds swiftly grew over us and what I would describe as a winters pour down ensued. The road built up areas of water on it and the last few bends of the track claimed its first victim. Known as ‘crash corner’ it didn’t disappoint. Good news though is that the athlete involved only had minor injuries and after a quick look over from the first aid team, all was good! For the bike images I positioned myself near the final few bends and caught the riders approaching T2. The last 2 bends were spaced like a chicane so made for some great images as the riders manoeuvred their way through the tricky wet bends.
The final element consisted of a 5km run (2.5km for the super sprint) around the Blackpool Sands resorts. As this section of the race was fairly enclosed this allowed me to capture the vast majority of athletes as I walked around the course. It also gave me an opportunity to be creative with my images from panning, close ups and group images being both loosely and tightly shot.
Once the event had finished I used the opportunity to approach the competitors and get the medal shots with beaming smiles and silly face before the presentation began. The presentation area was tight so I opted for the wide lens and flash to remove some harsh shadows and make sure I can fill the frame with the podium.
Finally the job was done so back home and the editing began. From 1200+ images I managed to work through the collection and deliver my client the necessary image all before 11pm the same day.
Thanks for reading and hopefully I won’t leave it too long to post again!
Kind regards
Jamie
