Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon Race Event

Hmm... it is a tiring day on the 4th of December 2011... it is the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon Race! And I am up at 0400hr to prepare for it... well... I am not one of the runners though. But I am there to capture them in my camera (not literally though).

Anyway, I was up at 0400hr, prepare my camera and stuff... then get out of the house at slightly more than 0500hrs.

Reach my venus at 0600hrs... just in time to shoot some runners...

ISO: 2500
Shutter speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/5.6


Because I am not allowed to use flash and the sky was still dark, I have no choice but to shoot at very high ISO speed. Thus the amount of noise, but I still managed to capture the expression and details pretty well.

ISO: 2500
Shutter speed: 1/250
Aperture: f/5.6

Because the runners are moving quickly and I did not have my tripod with me... I am relying heavily on my 70-200mm f4L lens' IS system. It works as advertise, but I would not go so far as to say that I got all my pics sharp and blur free... but to be fair, my techniques might not be world class and there are therefore some user issues here too.

I am taking photos at the last lap of the runners and so it is very important to capture the facial expression of them... you will be amaze by the number of different expressions I have seen that day.

ISO: 640
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/4

(Hmmm... whats up there, was it a bird? Was it a plane? or...)
ISO: 500
Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: f/7.1

ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: f/10

(Not forgetting to text (whoever) at all time and all occassion).
ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: f/7.1

ISO: 320
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/6.3

(Hello dear, I am near the finishing line, see you in a couple of minutes)
ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/6.3

(Charge! AHHHHHH!)
ISO: 250
Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: f/4.0

(Oh my... look at the time! It is wayyyyy past breakfast)
ISO: 250
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/4.0

All in all, it is a pretty nice shoot... however I would have hope that I know the place better so I can select a better location to take the shot, instead of selecting a place randomly.

So the lesson here was to scout the area one day before, that is when all the barriers would already be up and we could get a good idea of what to expect, rather than going there on the very day of the shoot, and notice that there are areas that are not passable to us.

Plus with knowledge of all these, we would know what equipment to bring... For me... I would have brought my 300mm lens or at least my teleconverter with me... and mount my equipment on a tripod or monopod.