I have a background of shooting a lot of athletics at Olympics, World and National Championships so when the Herald Sun sent me to this years Stawell Gift i immediately started thinking about different ways to cover the event. Thoughts of new angles and different lenses went through my head but upon arrival i quickly realised that there is not much you can do, and still be at the finish for any reaction and celebrations.
So the usual fallback of remotes was the next option. The Gift final is spread across six lanes with the handicap system designed to theoretically place all runners in with a chance of winning the race, so it is fairly difficult to judge who is in the lead. Because of this i usually shoot the finish with a Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens, allowing me to cover all six lanes if i cannot tell who the winner is, or zoom in tighter if there is a clear winner. My first remote is a backup, mounted directly in front of the finish line, this year with a 135 f2 lens focused around 4-5 metres after the line to capture and reactions from the race, the second remote only metres away on a very tight angle with a 24 f3.5 tilt shift lens, to cover a front or middle marker winning the race. My third remote i had not tried before for this race, a 50 f1.4 lens to the right of the finish and once again focused past the line to capture hopefully the winners reaction.
Shooting three different remote cameras using Pocket Wizards and cables i would be happy for one or two to fire at the right time, i was lucky enough this time to get a picture out of each remote, and here is my selection of the best image from each camera, including the hand held one. Picture credit is by Mark Dadswell of mdphotography.com.au for the Herald Sun
