Runners World Mag
Time to Run
13/04/11 16:13
I've been hoping to get out and shoot some more stuff for Runner's World magazine but the March weather has just been rubbish hasn't it? Would things improve in April - you betcha! A whole two weeks of fantastic warm sun and crisp blue skies - all I need now is a handy runner or two. Fortunately my good friend Georgie Lowrie and hubby Matt (I've only just started running - can I be in the magazine?) seemed able and willing. Kentmere looked a good bet with evening sunshine lighting up the top end of Green Quarter, only ten minutes from the fell road - lovely.
OK, this is not the shot that will make into the mag - they like colour and nice views but I couldn't help notice what a strong sky I had with this shot. I was pretty sure it was a candidate for some Lightroom/darkroom work and couldn't resist. I have a bunch of black and white filters in my pre-sets that do a pretty good job at getting the basic high contrast look with just a click. I liked the idea and the sky looked great but what else could I tweak? I thought about isolating Georgie and keeping Matt in the background using the Sharpness and Grad Filter tools - basically trying to get that "short depth of field/differential focusin" look you can achieve with a large format camera and camera movements...I think it turned out OK in the end, not sure what Matt will say though!
Runners World "Rave Runs"
31/01/11 10:07
Runner's World magazine
feature one of my winter shots as a double page spread in this
months Rave Runs column. The view over Derwent Water with a snow
covered Skiddaw in the background was shot on a cold but sparkling
clear winters afternoon from below Cat Bells, on the Grange road in
Borrowdale. My fell-running pal, Steve Crook, himself a keen and
talented photographer helped out by running for me. If you're doing
this sort of thing yourself be sure to take a willing model with
you to work with. You have almost no chance of "coming across" a
runner, in the right place at the right time. And since you are in
control of everything, make sure you dress your model in colours
that will stand out and contrast nicely with the background or
landscape. I used some off camera flash for most of this shoot but
not with this actual image which was photographed with a 70-300mm
Nikon VR11 lens, set to 110mm at 1/250, f11, 200 iso on my Nikon
D700. I chose to shoot with a small aperture to retain the
landscape detail which was a vital element; Rave Runs is all about
great places to run, not so much about great action shots of
runners, so it's a landscape shot really. The detail is sharp but I
think I got lucky here because I really ought to have shot this at
400 or even 800 iso on the D700 to get a higher shutter speed -
something I did as soon as I realised my error. however, I got away
with this and it turned out to be the best body
position.
