How to Shoot a Great Triathlon Photo - Context, Composition and Competition – Tri This!!

As is pretty common this time of year, my weekends are filled with shooting. Last week it was three soccer games, one each night and this weekend, it is soccer, a sprint triathlon and fixed gear cycling on a 250 meter track. This week I have been shuttling between soccer games and bike races. Trust me soccer in the rain is a lot safer that bike racing in the rain.

I received my initial national attention shooting triathlons and I have many friends in the tri community, and as such shooting a tri is part work and part social. Either way, I always enjoy the spectacle of it. I enjoy the competition and there are some days that I think, if I just trained a bit more, I could do that again! But then, I regain my sanity.


In spite of the existence of a strong triathlon community and the social aspects of the races, competing is a singular effort. It is the athlete and the clock. Of course, being first across the line is important, but with wave starts, it is possible for your key competition to still be out on the course after you are sitting at the finish. The effort is intense, alone and often painful.

From a photographic standpoint, a major challenge is how do you get a photo, without having it just look like another guy out riding is bike? Albeit a very fit guy, but still just another guy out on his bike.

• How do you make it interesting?
• How do you create an emotional connection between the viewer and a two dimensional photo?
• How do you convey the intensity of the effort, the anguish of the athlete, as well as the competition?
• How do you evoke an emotional response from the athlete viewing the photo subsequent to the race?

For most events, there is a mass start of sorts or at least in waves. My favorite starts are where the athletes run into the water. This kicks up a reverse rooster tail of sorts and creates in image that can only truly be appreciated in a still photo. I typically shoot this with a 28mm to 70 lens and get as close as practical without getting soaked.




The high stepping start techniques, shown here by top ranked Triathletes Hunter Kemper, David Thompson and Craig Walton makes you wonder if they really are swimming or running.


For large races (Ironman, etc.) with water starts, if you can get some height for the shot, you can see patterns that can convey the feeling of the crowd.



The closer you get more you will convey the feeling of actually being part of the race.


The swim exit is another great spot to for dramatic shots. I admit, I am a long lens guy and shoot with a 400 mm f2.8. I always try (or tri) to get a head on shot if possible, which means that I am usually tucked away at the end of the exit on the way to the first transition (T1). From my prospective this is the most intense shot.


If possible my favorite is to shoot as the athletes are rising up out of the water. Here is my friend Dan Cohen (the Incredible Hulk shot), coming out of the water. A shutter speed of at least 1/500th is needed to catch the sheeting of the water.


Running into transition helps convey the intensity of the event.


Once on the bike, assuming that I am not shooting from a moto, I still prefer a straight on shot. Here you have the opportunity for both context and intensity. The first shot is Chris Lieto in the lead of the first Ironman Wisconsin. The moto on the right gives the context that whoever the rider is, is video worthy. The second shot is Minnesota based elite amateur Cathy Yndestad, coming up over a rise. (Think rule of thirds for composition.)



The Chris shot is from a moto, the Cathy shot is not.

Still using the 400mm I can get in the athletes face and show how hard they are really working.



If I am working from a moto, I can get up close and personal! As they say don't try this at home, etc. Seriously, shooting backwards from the back of a moto takes a great driver, the right bike, lots of practice AND I always wear full protective gear.



The transitions, in this case T2 also gives a chance to show how the athletes are prepare to move to the next stage - here is Tonya Miller trying to cool off before heading out on the run.


By know you know that I am shooting head on and that my preference is to try to establish eye contact between the athlete and the camera, but for the run, there is another trick to shot selection. I don’t care how lean and fit the athlete is, if you show them at the bottom of their stride, they will have a defeated look and their body will sag. Today’s amazing cameras shoot at such high frame rates, shoot in bursts! This will give you the opportunity to select the shot when the runner is at the top of their stride. Here is a photo from about the 16 mile mark of the Wisconsin Ironman in 2003. This is the critical pass where Dave Harju is overtaking Torbjorn Sindballe, notice that Sindballe looks almost defeated, mostly because he is at the bottom of his stride and Dave is at the top of his stride.


Here are two other shots from the recent Manitou Sprint Triathlon as winner Kevin O’Conner of Gear West, is coming into the finish. Again the difference in stride position is noticeable in the message that it conveys.




Similar to Kevin, Hunter Kemper looks great at the top of his stride (with a certain air of Toyota Hybrid efficiency).




I started this blog entry with a finish line shot and I will end it with one. Sometimes if you get lucky, one shot can be more that the proverbial thousand words. In this case, you can tell the weather (rain), the event (Ironman), the nationality of the winner (German), the time and the sponsor (Ford). Notice that I have shot from a very low angle in order to get the finishing banner in the top of the frame.


One final image - no matter what the level of competition, for the most part people are glad to be there and competing. Here Becca and Julie show that their game face is much different than the level of the effort once the gun goes off!



I hope you have enjoyed this post - just go out and tri it!

How To Take A Great Soccer Photo - Part I

I had planned to sit and write general overview my thoughts on the critical elements of sports photography and some basic rules that I use, since I shot soccer the last three nights, I have soccer on my brain! So we are going to try to skip over the basic rules, which I will get to in time, and go right to – How to Take a Great Soccer Photo!














As the Team Photographer for the Minnesota Thunder (USL - First Division Team) and their Women’s Team, the Minnesota Lightning, I get to shoot about 25 high level games each season. In addition I typically shoot a few of the US Men’s National Team Games. I also spent last September in China with the US Women’s National Team at the FIFA World Cup, shooting for our book Portrait of Passion.

Bringing it down to a more practical level, there are over 80,000 kids registered with the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association. Doing the math, there are an almost unimaginable number of parents out shooting photos of their kids each week. Let’s guess that about one quarter of the kids have parents who are shooting 20 photos each week – hmmm that works about to be about 400,000 photos each week in Minnesota! Good thing all those photons are free!

There are lots of reasons that soccer parents have difficulty getting a good soccer photos, first of which is that Soccer Photography is HARD! Youth soccer is especially hard since the movement of the ball is fairly unpredictable and if you are trying to shoot the player with the ball, there are 19 others, not counting the goalies, who are trying to get in the way of your shot.

Here are some of the most common problems and some simple solutions that are guaranteed, well almost guaranteed, to improve your soccer photos!

Problem #1 - The image of the players is just a speck on the photo! Lots of field, not much detail of the action –

Recommendation - Mentally divide the field into quadrants and only shoot when the players are in your quadrant of the field. Just be patient, the shot will come to you!

Problem #2 - The image of shows the players, but not much of the action –

Recommendation – Again be patient! Only shoot when the players are coming at you. In doing this you will capture the expressions and the intensity of the game. If you are shooting a game where the players have reasonably good skills, one of the prime spots to sit is at the end line. As the forwards and midfielders are moving the ball do the goal, there are often great opportunities to get some head on shots! If you are trying to get goalie shots or defenders, somewhere between the top of the goalie box and midfield works really well.

Problem #3 – My photos are blurry!

(shot at 1/200th - f4.5)

Recommendation - The image stabilization technology that is being built into many new cameras and most high quality lens is really terrific; having said that, there is nothing that can replace a high shutter speed for stopping action and getting a clean crisp photo. The general rule of thumb on the minimum shutter speed that you should use to handhold a tele-photo lens is the reciprocal of the focal length. In other words, if you are shooting with a 200mm lens, your minimum shutter speed should be 1/200th of a second. And yes, image stabilization technology does reduce that.

1/200th of a second is not sufficient to stop action in soccer. Even at a youth level, I suggest no less that 1/400th and as the age of the players and speed and their skills increase, so must the shutter speed.

All of this means that you will have to shoot with your camera set on Shutter Priority. For those who are accustomed to shooting in a program mode, you will need to change the Mode setting on your camera from P to TV (on Canon) or S (on Nikon).

What you may notice, particularly if you are shooting in the evening, is that your images are appearing too dark. Increase your ISO setting to the highest practical level. This will vary greatly depending both on the camera model that you own, as well as the age of the camera. Some of the newer cameras from both Canon and Nikon, have extremely high ISO ranges, but some of the older models are more limited. For example, my older Canon 1D can be set to 1600 ISO, but has a fair amount of noise at that level, my new Canon 1D Mark III can shoot at 6400 ISO and give a fairly clean image. The new Nikon D3 has an amazing 25,600 ISO!!

(Shot at 1/400th - f 4.5)

If you are shooting a night game with poor field lighting (which is pretty typical at anything lower than a professional level), you may find that you only have three alternatives:

1. Lower shutter speed which will probably give you a blurry image;
2. Higher shutter speed which may not provide sufficient light; or
3. Put your camera away until you can get close enough to take a celebratory team photo after the game using your flash.

A brief story and a final recommendation - while shooting a Minnesota Thunder Soccer game one evening a couple years ago, a fan walked by my son Jonathan (now in his final semester at Columbia College Film School in Chicago), and the fan asked are you getting lots of good shots? Without hesitation Jonathan turned and said You will never see the bad ones! The moral of the story is, if the shot isn't good, delete it! Your friends and family would much rather look at 10 really cool shots of your favorite team than 100 mediocre ones. As a side benefit, they will think you are a great photographer!

I hope that my recommendations are helpful to you and that you will indeed get a few great soccer shots. As the season goes on, I will add to this topic and include things like shooting a great team photo, lens length selection, working with two cameras, the three shooting zones, and workflow.

In the meantime - have fun, after all, that is what is all about! Check out our Competitive Image website, if you get a chance!