Regional Track, Day 2...

The second day of regional track started early. I had to shoot a couple of the early field events before the running started in the afternoon. The good part about this was I'd be able to edit all the field event photos before the running got started, less to do after the meet ended. And since I had a 150 mile drive home afterwards everything I could do to save time was a good thing.

Normally there is a little bit of emotion at the end of some of the races, but the people who are expected to win their races aren't much for celebration. Either they were expecting to win anyway or have been to state already, etc. So, the few times there are nice celebrations at the end of races I make sure not to miss the shot. When it's a local kid doing the celebration I get pretty excited, mostly because I have the chance to make a nice image. So, when the Abilene High kid in the 800m made up a lot of ground after getting boxed in and moved from 7th place to 2nd in the last 300 meters there was a great celebration after he qualified for state for the first time.

Regional Track, Day 1...

I covered the Region I-3A and 5A track meets in Lubbock for the last couple of years now. It's a lot different from the state track meet in a lot of different ways. The biggest is there are both prelims and finals races over two days, at state, it's just finals. So, the first days is pretty nuts and bolts. There isn't a whole lot of emotions, mostly because even if you win your prelim race you still have to come back tomorrow and race again to make it to state. It often is time spent trying to figure out ways to make nice photos and stay creative. The one nice thing that I did have added over the last few track meets I shot, were field events. So, that was a nice change.

Another difference from past years is both the 3A and 5A meets were being combined instead of afternoon and evening sessions. This made things a lot easier for the deadlines since by the late session I was usually trying to edit from the earlier session and the late session both at the same time and send photos all at once. It made for a late night followed by an early morning. This time, though, I was finished and had everything sent by 9pm. In years past the late session was just getting finished at that time and made it for only a 12 hour day instead of 16. That helped a lot the next day.

Regional Track, the "Short Day"...

So, Saturday was the "shorter" day of the regional track meet. I say "short" because it's still a 16+ hour day between getting there early shooting field events and two full track meets, then editing, sending and driving home and squeezing in a slideshow to boot. The only big difference is all the running events were squeezed together and thank to some weeding out I didn't have nearly as many runners. However, there still were more than enough to keep me busy... plus the light was pretty nice for most of the day.

One thing that was still missing was a lot of really good emotion. There were a couple of good moments, but still, usually those who won were the favorites and usually had their sights set on the state meet anyways. But still, there was more than the previous day. I ended up getting a nice remote shot from the hurdles that I was nervous about sending given the extreme crop, but at that point you just send it in and hope the page designer does a decent enough job to make it work. After two long days I was semi-happy with what I had but am still hoping for more at the state meet.

Regional Track, the Long Day...

Last week was the regional track meet. It's a fun event to cover, but an incredibly long day. On Friday is both the 3A and 5A preliminary races. Which means that there are three races for both the boys and girls in both classes. And, since the 3A district that we cover is all local teams, that pretty much mean during the 3A meet, I'm covering nearly every race (some races have more than one runner from the same district). So, like I said, it's an incredibly long day on Friday. We left Abilene at 8am and got done around 11pm.
One thing about shooting many of the same races over and over is it starts to get rather redundant. With that usually starts to make for some boredom. Especially given the lack of emotions in these races. Most of the winner expect to be the winners, plus the winners still have to race another race the next day. So, other than just the norm I tried a few extra things. One thing I will say, is the officials at this meet are really cool to work with and give you plenty of leeway to work. I'm guessing part of it is because there aren't a whole lot of photographers to corral like there are at the state meet. So, setting up remotes wasn't a problem at all to do... other than the occasional explaining how the camera worked. I ended up making a few nice frames with the remote, but since the running events were all prelims, I ended up using a shot from the long jump instead, since like I said earlier, winning the running event only got you better position on the track the following day.

Regional Track...

The beginning of May is one of the busiest and at the same time most fun parts of the year. There is so much going on sports-wise. It starts out with the regional track meets (golf and tennis were two weeks earlier) and then moves into the state meets for golf, tennis and track (more on that later). For the last couple of years I have been sent to Lubbock to cover the Region I-5A and I-3A track meets. Covering these is always nice it helps out in a couple of different ways. First I get a preview of who is going to the state track meet and second, it makes for a nice warm up for the big event in Austin.

With both of the big Abilene high schools being back in Class 5A and there being quite a bit of speed in the two schools, the 5A events were pretty busy, at least on the prelim days. Many of the local runners were out after the first day. The 3A event, however, was stacked with both local and area athletes. With every area school in our coverage area making up District 5-3A that meant there were going to be three entries in every race. And, quite a few of them ended up making the finals. The Big Spring girls relay teams were the biggest story winning the girls 800m relay by more than eight seconds and breaking the regional record.

The finals day was a little easier and not quite as long of a day. First, I didn't have to get up so early and drive to Lubbock (I did have to drive home at the end of the day though). But all the running events were run together with 3A, then 5A. That and the field events in the morning, made for some nice images.

Regional Track Day 2...

Day 2 of the Class 3A & 5A Regional track meets was on Tuesday and I was a little more ready for this one. I got up early (and stayed late) to get there to shoot the field events and then get the running events afterwards. In 5A most of the kids running were eliminated in the prelims, in 3A though, there were a ton still running. So it was me spending all day in the sun (and getting a nice tan line on my forehead from my hat). Overall I liked what I shot a lot better than the previous day, however, the hurdles shot from the prelims was my fave of the meet.