Beginner Photographing parkrun

Ronnie Mutch

Ronnie Mutch

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Ronnie
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While I am a beginner, I want to photograph everything and get as much experience and learning as possible. I've yet to do any sport and think that parkrun would give me a reasonable environment to do it. For those that don't know, parkrun is a free event staffed entirely by volunteers, so there would be no real expectation to produce anything meaningful for people to purchase afterwards. If any shots turned out good, then they would simply go on the Facebook page to allow people to tag themselves.

When photographing a running event, can you give me any general tips and settings to get me started? I'm guessing low f stop and fast as possible shutter speed while keeping ISO quite low. Unfortunately, in Aberdeen it can be quite grey and dull a lot though. My equipment available is limited also:

Sony a5000 APS-C sensor
16-50mm Lens
55-210mm zoon lens; f4.5-6.3
 
Hi. I've done a number of these. I've found no-one wants to buy, they want freebies, and will settle for crap from mobile phones on flickr! However, its a good thing to gain experience. set your iso to enable a shutter speed of about 1/1000th, and with your lens, 55-210 at f/6.3 at the zoom end is as good as you are going to get. I use a 70-200mm f/2.8. Find a viewpoint with a reasonable backdrop, avoid ugly clutter. AI servo, centre point focus, multi-shot. Try to get the runners with their feet off the ground. Have fun. some of mine http://photodiva.zenfolio.com/f601858819
 
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I photographed a park run a few weeks back, it was just one of those things that had to be done. I stood in front of the runners, holding my camera (D7100 iso 400 16mm F8 250th as they were stationary) up high using live view to show the crowd behind the front runners. I was very close to the front, the runners were ready for the off, I barely had time to get out of the way as they leapt forward. I then shot the runners as they went through the finishing line side on, exposures over 1000th iso 1600. That needed a fast burst. The best shots were not of the fastest runners but the strugglers with great expressions on their faces, then close ups of some of the runners getting their bar codes scanned. It was quite enjoyable.

I'll do it again when it's not spitting with rain, and concentrate on individual runners, parents with children running, some were very good and had more stamina than their parents. Then there are runners with their dogs and mothers running with push chairs.

I shot a woman I knew running through the finish. She didn't want the photo, as she thought she looked too fat. Quite a few runners were there to help lose weight. Others were very fit and always trying to beat their best time. The runners times appear on the website later in the day.

Parkrun - They're off! by Steve Bell, on Flickr
 
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Thanks for the advice all. I'll let you know how it goes.

We have a choice of two parkruns here in Aberdeen, one is in the woods and the other out in the open along the beach front. I think I'll try the beach one, as I have more chance of better light.
 
As with everything, shoot how you want to.

You could shoot everyone running towards you, in vertical orientation, with a fast shutter speed and a wide aperture. Or you could shoot wide with a fast shutter, wide with a slow shutter. Pan with the runners, move the camera in other directions, shoot dark and blurry black and white images, etc., etc.

The simple part is if you want to freeze motion, use a very fast shutter speed. If you don't, don't. The rest is the interesting part where you get to have fun and take photos, rather than act like a picture taking machine. [emoji5]
 
I take parkrun photos and hopefully i can add some info on my way.

No one want to buy parkrun photos. The exposure is however great and the experience / excercise is invaluable and i have had some pay work generated from ny parkrun photos. I use 24-70 2.8 as that is my largest apperature (would love a 70-200 2.8 but makes the best of what you have). Early mornings i need all the light i can get. I use a 7100 and a 7200. 7200 definately better focus system. I shoot iso auto 100 to max 800. I use shutter priority 640 for fast runners and 400 for the walkers. Never needed to go to 1/1000 ever.

Points learned

1) keep moving and shoot different angles to ensure background always change between pictures. People do not want to see same background photo after photo. Also consider background at all times.... If you can scout the area beforehand to see where your goid areas will be with nice backgrounds. Backgrounds for me is as important as the subject you photograph.

2) a photo have to have a subject. Shoot a specific runner. Dont just shoot at bunch of runners.

3) shoot close but also wide. Portraits, torso and full length.

4) include the area do add inbetween a few shots of where it is being run. Few nature shots.

5) include pets and when shooting pets get on your knees and aslow as possible.

6) shoot from high and low angles. Again vary the angles all the time. For kids get on your knees and at or lower then their level. Invest in a good set of scateboarding knee pads. Yes they laugh when they first see it but get used to it when they they see the number of times you are on your knees.

7) i only shoot single shots but of every runner i try to take 2 pics. In post processing i use best one as i just never get timing 100% of time to have every runner feet of the ground. Honestly there isso many things happening i cannot consentrate on that detail and with few hundred people things happen so fast that you just try and get the runner in shot there is no time to still see if both feet is in the air. Totally different when you only have to shoot one runner.

8) post processing include some cropping to make people look good. Especially woman are very sensitive. You might take full length but that specific moment you take the stride is awkward and bums pretrude badly. Then just crop it to torso. I spend average 4 hours on post prosessing after a parkrun. The responsibility is on you to ensure you post people in best possible way. I use lightroom for post prosessing and it is realy fast to quickly select crop and adjust photos. Posting just one photo where a person looks bad is more negative as the other 100 good ones. So check and double check photos. This per se is in fact a different subject on its own.

Go through the photo albums here to get an idea. However it is important that you develop your own style so use input as guideline. It might not work for another person.

https://m.facebook.com/welliesparkrun/

Lastly. Just enjoy.
Feel free to ask for more detail
 
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steveb said:
I photographed a park run a few weeks back, it was just one of those things that had to be done. I stood in front of the runners, holding my camera (D7100 iso 400 16mm F8 250th as they were stationary) up high using live view to show the crowd behind the front runners. I was very close to the front, the runners were ready for the off, I barely had time to get out of the way as they leapt forward. I then shot the runners as they went through the finishing line side on, exposures over 1000th iso 1600. That needed a fast burst. The best shots were not of the fastest runners but the strugglers with great expressions on their faces, then close ups of some of the runners getting their bar codes scanned. It was quite enjoyable.

I'll do it again when it's not spitting with rain, and concentrate on individual runners, parents with children running, some were very good and had more stamina than their parents. Then there are runners with their dogs and mothers running with push chairs.

I shot a woman I knew running through the finish. She didn't want the photo, as she thought she looked too fat. Quite a few runners were there to help lose weight. Others were very fit and always trying to beat their best time. The runners times appear on the website later in the day.

Parkrun - They're off! by Steve Bell, on Flickr
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That made me smile, my imagination of a fat woman running hard from a man with a gun, bet she sprinted then :LOL::banghead:
 
Photodiva said:
Hi. I've done a number of these. I've found no-one wants to buy, they want freebies, and will settle for crap from mobile phones on flickr! However, its a good thing to gain experience
Click to expand...

jb_SA65 said:
No one want to buy parkrun photos. The exposure is however great and the experience / excercise is invaluable
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, I am not looking to make money off of this. Purely for experience (and maybe my parkrun volunteer points ;) )
 
No, not saying you were. Just clarifying that people will want freebies if they want anything at all. Our parkrun has a flickr site you can upload your images to, as long as you don't mind if people swipe them. When I see the appalling quality of the snaps on that flickr, taken with a mobile phone and uploaded wholesale, I just think my work is a cut above :)
 
However, there are people who will pay photographers for a day shooting athletics, and whilst parkrunners probably just want freebies, its good practise and you can end up with a portfolio of athletics shots which could earn some money in the future.
 
Or you could just do it for fun. As all the volunteers who run Parkrun do. Our Parkrun ask for people to be on photo duties every week, whether that's with a mobile phone, or whatever. No ulterior motive required, just a few happy snaps to record the event for people who volunteer or run it for fun.

(That's ignoring the fact that it's actually marketing for an organisation that do make a fair bit of cash, despite pushing the whole free and volunteer based angle ;) ).
 
3 tips:

1. Runners like pictures where both feet are off the ground. Shoot these and they will love you for it.

2. They hate people trying to make money off of parkrun. Even though as somebody has already pointed out, parkrun make money out of parkrun.

3. parkrun get irrationally angry with people who write their name with a capital P, even at the start of sentences. Apparently their style guide trumps the rules of grammar.......

Other than that, centre weighted, use flash if you fancy and get each person from head to toe and you can't go too far wrong. Just don't do the "pro" thing of sitting on a stool, shooting everybody with a wide angle pointed upwards when they get really close. You ain't marathon photos......... :D
 
Personally with running events I prefer to capture the runners going forward as this leads to a sense of forward movement. This will capture the front leg bent at the knee and rear foot pushing from them forward keeping the shot dynamic. Regards parkrun (Jonathon is right... No P.... ) There is no money in it unless its a special occasion.. Use it as practice and exposure.
 
JonathanRyan said:
3 tips:

Just don't do the "pro" thing of sitting on a stool, shooting everybody with a wide angle pointed upwards when they get really close. You ain't marathon photos......... :D
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Huh?
 
One question that springs to mind. Is a park considered to be a public or private space (you would suspect public however this would need clarifying) if its not a public space you may not have rights to publish photographs taken at a park run. Just something to check.
 
jamesev said:
One question that springs to mind. Is a park considered to be a public or private space (you would suspect public however this would need clarifying) if its not a public space you may not have rights to publish photographs taken at a park run. Just something to check.
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Unless it's a Royal Park (when different rules apply because Queen) I can't see how a regular park wouldn't count as a public space. It's certainly one in which people should have no special expectation of privacy as the legal chaps like to say.
 
Unfortunately, virtually every park is private land with public access. That means it's down to the bye-laws and conditions of entry.

Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, Wimbledon and Putney Common all come to mind.
 
DemiLion said:
Unfortunately, virtually every park is private land with public access. That means it's down to the bye-laws and conditions of entry.

Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, Wimbledon and Putney Common all come to mind.
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Suppose that makes sense really. I bet most of the bye-laws were written in the 18th century and have to do with wearing top hats :)

I'd still argue no expectation of privacy. Also, in tests, I can run faster than the Parks Police :D
 
A lot if park runs are at national trust, forestry commission, etc they aren't all actually parks
 
big soft moose said:
A lot if park runs are at national trust, forestry commission, etc they aren't all actually parks
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Interesting. I'd still argue that if they don't charge for admission (and AFAIK no parkrun place does) and don't have clearly posted notices that it's actually a "public" place in the general sense. I.e. people would have no expectation of privacy. But I've been wrong before ;)

Also.....there's actually an official post at parkrun for photographer. Join up and volunteer. They will make you very welcome and even give you a T-shirt and stuff. Then you can practise in a grateful environment before attempting to sell pics. I only mention this because the official pics from the ultra I did at the w/e are just terrible...... :)
 
JonathanRyan said:
Interesting. I'd still argue that if they don't charge for admission (and AFAIK no parkrun place does) and don't have clearly posted notices that it's actually a "public" place in the general sense. I.e. people would have no expectation of privacy. But I've been wrong before ;)
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this is true - however thats not the only issue, for example if you are engaging in commercial photography on National Trust land you'll need a licence from them (the cost of which will vary depending on what you are doing), and i think forestry commision are likewise (probably most landowners in fact including many district councils) ... ergo you can rock up and take pictures of a park run for your own ammusement without a problem, but start selling those shots and there may be issues..
 
Resurrecting an old thread as I covered first Parkrun last weekend. Struggled a bit with focus and judging DoF but it's good fun, a great atmosphere and once they see even your crap shots are better than the phone shots they're used to, you get positive vibes.

My tips from making loads of mistakes:

200mm shot from waist height seems optimum perspective.

AI Servo. Check your case settings. I didn't....

Manual exposure. Lots wear mostly dark or mostly light. Save yourself editing time. Likewise with white balance. Makes batch processing easier. I ended up with 1200 raw files whittled down to 200 (lots of mistakes lol) Keeper rate can only improve and runners don't care how and why images need processing, you won't win brownie points.

F/4 - F/5.6 for isolation of runner. They love having a dedicated image.

1/500 minimum. Shoot short bursts to help buffer and no one wants embarrassing facial expressions or unfortunately redistributed body fat displayed on the web.

Look out for the extroverts. Easy to miss opportunities when glued to the viewfinder.

It's a few hours of your time on a Saturday morning. You owe it to photography to improve the standard of shots typically found in Parkrun Flickr groups.

It's a dubious but vaguely credible excuse to buy a new lens...

It's also a good way to redress the paranoia a lot feel when they see us out and about.

If you're considering turning pro you will already have a network of potential clients who trust your work.

Just my thoughts mostly repeating what others have said.
 
Flatulent Flamingo said:
If you're considering turning pro you will already have a network of potential clients who trust your work.
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I'm not sure park run photos are a good starting place. The reason being (I think this has been mentioned) that initially you are doing it at sub cost. If you are a pro covering any sporting event you would generally have a couple of bodies one long lens for action and one short lens for post / closer shots. That means you're on about 7K of kit once you add on all the extras, camera related kit and other costs.

So your potential client base assuming its a sports only client base and you're not going to be contacted to cover a runners wedding will associate you with the sub-cost prices. Once you up your prices to reflect the true business cost of being pro they will be wondering why they are now being asked 3 times the price for the same photo. Its unlikely they will recognise the difference in photo quality between your work as a hobbiest and that of a pro.
 
You really don't understand the spirit of parkrun.

You're applying cold logic to a warm, friendly opportunity to network with people on your doorstep. It isn't work at sub cost, it's volunteering. There is a big difference.

You make photography sound like a dark art only the chosen few can earn a living at. It isn't. The photography is the easy bit.

iPad somehow remembered my old account btw.
 
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Have found my local parkrun over the last week or two. Was out walking my local lake that I do pretty much twice a day and found the parkrun going on. So I thought i'd go back at the same time the following week with my camera. I really like people photography and this was a good way of satisfying that passion, locally. A few people I know were out there doing their stuff. Fair play to them. I will go back again and try something a little more adventurous. I like portrait style photography, so generally shoot tight.

Andover parkrun by Gary Kinghorn, on Flickr

Andover parkrun by Gary Kinghorn, on Flickr

Andover parkrun by Gary Kinghorn, on Flickr

Andover parkrun 4th Jan 2019 by Gary Kinghorn, on Flickr

Andover Parkrun New Years Day by Gary Kinghorn, on Flickr

Andover Parkrun New Years Day by Gary Kinghorn, on Flickr
 
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Gary Kinghorn said:
Have found my local parkrun over the last week or two. Was out walking my local lake that I do pretty much twice a day and found the parkrun going on. So I thought i'd go back at the same time the following week with my camera. I really like people photography and this was a good way of satisfying that passion, locally. A few people I know were out there doing their stuff. Fair play to them. I will go back again and try something a little more adventurous. I like portrait style photography, so generally shoot tight.
Click to expand...

This is a 'Talk' forum.

Pictures is one section lower.
 
A freebie from a park run isn't going to be much of a help in a professional environment. You could be part of a photo team covering a race, but the photos are either pre-sold, or the agency is doing the selling, you're just the photographer, shooting to a specification and handing cards in at the end of an event.

But if you want to volunteer to park run (who posted a profit of £1.8 million before "admin expenses") for free, then they'll love you for a bit.
 
Running jobs are one below american football for photography IMHO ...... Absoloutly boring to do for little or no return.... Glad I just did the start and first 3 past the post for the local paper (who paid) and not have to stand there all day...The ones I did do all the race I got paid for... Can't see any pleasure in doing a whole race myself... boring boring boring haha .... But then each to there own :)
 
DemiLion said:
This is a 'Talk' forum.

Pictures is one section lower.
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Also, it's a beginners' forum so maybe s little latitude might be nice.

Nice pics. I went to parkrun on new year's Day. There are over 1k pics of it. Tbh I can't even be bothered looking through them for mine. But the ones I've seen aren't as nice as these.
 
KIPAX said:
Running jobs are one below american football for photography IMHO ...... Absoloutly boring to do for little or no return.... But then each to there own :)
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I've found American Football actually being one of the better paying clients, when they really need images.
Guess it depends on where one lives?
Going a bit off topic of Parkrun....

But liked the different ones that mr Kinghorn posted above there!!
 
Steturn said:
You really don't understand the spirit of parkrun.

You're applying cold logic to a warm, friendly opportunity to network with people on your doorstep. It isn't work at sub cost, it's volunteering. There is a big difference.

You make photography sound like a dark art only the chosen few can earn a living at. It isn't. The photography is the easy bit.

iPad somehow remembered my old account btw.
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You're right. I read the OP and it didn't mention anything about doing it for profit, I must have got caught up in later comments that suggested no one wants to guy such photos. I recant any comments relating to commercial aspect of it.
 
running.jpg
 
Gary Kinghorn said:
Have found my local parkrun over the last week or two. Was out walking my local lake that I do pretty much twice a day and found the parkrun going on. So I thought i'd go back at the same time the following week with my camera. I really like people photography and this was a good way of satisfying that passion, locally. A few people I know were out there doing their stuff. Fair play to them. I will go back again and try something a little more adventurous. I like portrait style photography, so generally shoot tight.
Click to expand...

Try and avoid the ugly downward stride, like in images 3 and 5. Instead aim for the upward stride, or when they are in the air, like in image 6.

When you get people on the down stride everything looks bad, the legs, the belly, the boobs, the face. No one wants to look like that! The upward stride is so much more complementing.

This goes for any sport where someone is running really.
 
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