Photos at a Disney Marathon

This weekend I traveled with my family to the Walt Disney World Marathon and Half Marathon.  

Walt Disney definitely puts on a great race.  They do a wonderful job distracting runners from the fact that they are running 26.2 miles.  Disney has fireworks, characters, lights, and music around every bend.  There was also  a large number of runners and spectators wearing costumes.  Fun for all- photographers especially.      

I knew I wanted to document the event but also knew that it would be very crowded and a lot of walking would be involved.  I decided to scale down the equipment and just carry the camera an extra battery and an extra memory card.  

The races usually start at an extremely early hour.  A flash may be desired, for the first few hours of pictures.   If you chose not to carry a flash or don't have one to use, it will be necessary to set the iso higher to obtain a shutter speed that is hand holdable and will provide a properly exposed photograph.  The trade off with using a higher iso will be a photograph with greater noise (grainier).

The shutter speed will have to be set based on the speed of the runners and the focal length of the lens.  To avoid camera shake the shutter speed must be set faster than 1/focal length.  To freeze the motion of the runners, it will be necessary to take a few trials photographs of surrounding runners using different shutter speeds.   

Taking photographs at a Disney marathon can definitely be a magical experience.  

 
Today's take-aways:

1) Taking pictures of a specific runner in a congested race will be difficult.  It is best to have your camera on, ready and on continuous shooting mood.  


2) As the sun rises, you will be able to lower your iso and reduce the amount of noise in the picture.


3) Don't forget to take pictures of the surrounding area.  Being up that early has its advantages.  You will most likely see the sunrise (which makes for excellent pictures).


4) Don't forget to cheer for the runners when you aren't photographing.  A marathon is a long way to run and they will appreciate it!
                                                                                                

Happy Photographing!

 

Here are a few of my favorites from the day: