Iditarod Qualifiying Race

[Canyon Hiker]

I spent the weekend taking pictures of these races. This was by far one of the most challenging photography I have ever done. The track quickly went from bright white snow to shaded snow, Getting the exposure correct, with the right DOF, and stopping the action all in one made for some experimenting. I used good glass and that helped tremendously.((EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM). Here are a few of them. Any critiques appreciated.











Darin

[mEasy27]

Nice pics..

[SmartWombat]

Definitely a sport I'd like to see more of ...
When you're done with the critique, please can we have some of these in the sports forum, too?

[amorton1437]

I love huskies Good pics! The middle dog in the top one looks mean, but its interesting to see the faces they make while pulling like that.

[armando_m]

Very nice! even the photos in high contrast situations look great, you managed to freeze the movement , and everything looks sharp, good composition too.

So ... not much to critique, on the contrary, thanks for sharing these, very interesting series.

I was curious about iso, aperture, speed but I wasn't able to see the exif

Some non photo q's:
what breed are the dogs in the first picture? they seem to be making more of an effort than the huskies
What's with the dog socks ? Owner caring to much of the dog's feet ?

[Canyon Hiker]

Thanks everyone for the response.

PAau, not a problem at all. I was going to post them there as well, but wasn't sure if I was overdoing it with too many pictures. I will add them tonight.

armondo, I thought I saved the EXIF, sorry about that. Below is the data for a couple of them to give you an idea of what I was shooting. I did some testing with my dog to get an idea of what I was up against the day before the event. That really helped me dial things in for the two day event. I was paid to do these so I made sure I knew what would and wouldn't work before the opening day.
The socks on the dogs feet are basically "rookies", new to the sport. They train on grass most of the time so there is a chance they can get frostbite on there paws from the snow after the 16 mile race. The ones without socks are the dogs that run and train in the snow on a daily basis. Not sure on the breed of those dogs you speak of. They sure do look like there trying to look good in front of all those huskies though.

File Name IMG_2844.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Shooting Date/Time 3/13/2010 8:34:37 PM
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/800
Av( Aperture Value ) 11.0
Metering Mode Spot Metering
ISO Speed 200
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Focal Length 73.0 mm
Image Size 4272x2848
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Servo AF
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness 3
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Color tone 0
Color Space sRGB
Long exposure noise reduction 0isable
High ISO speed noise reduction 1:Enable
Highlight tone priority 0isable
File Size 14628 KB
Drive Mode Continuous shooting


File Name IMG_2839.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Shooting Date/Time 3/13/2010 8:34:34 PM
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/800
Av( Aperture Value ) 11.0
Metering Mode Spot Metering
ISO Speed 200
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Focal Length 73.0 mm
Image Size 4272x2848
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Servo AF
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness 3
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Color tone 0
Color Space sRGB
Long exposure noise reduction 0isable
High ISO speed noise reduction 1:Enable
Highlight tone priority 0isable
File Size 14447 KB
Drive Mode Continuous shooting

Darin

[Canyon Hiker]

I forgot to add this:

I found that f/8 would keep the dogs and musher sharp. Any bigger aperture (f/8 or below) the musher would sometimes be soft if I didn't hit the front dog with AF point. If i hit the second or third dog with the AF point and a larger aperture the front dogs would be soft and blurry. I wanted to try and keep the backgrouns somewhat blurry, otherwise I could have just shot at f11 all day and not had to go throught all of this. I metered my camera on the bright snow and then on the shaded snow and then picked the shutter speed that met them both in the middle. In this case it was always over 500 so I was able to still stop the action of the dogs. I found this to work best for me. I also checked the pictures I had just shot between racers on the histogram and would fine tune it by what the histogram was telling me. If I needed a faster shutter speed i would bump up my iso to 400. Otherwise I tried to keep it at 100.

Darin

[r.spitz09]

Wow absolutely love the first shot, I think its the expression in the lead dog that does it for me. You captured it perfectly! And for what its worth its my 3 year olds favorite pic now lol

[Lava Lamp]

These are too cool!

I'm sure you wish that you could have caught the intensity of the dogs that you got in the first one in some of the other shots that include the people (musher? sled driver? sledist?). The last photo kinda does, but is a little blurry.

[MarcusK]

Well these are some very interesting photos... and I am sure the experimentation was more fun than the event.

For me it's the first and last photos that are the best of the lot... they are great with the dogs, you can feel the power of the pull, and... are they happy to be running in the snow?... I like to think so... I used to have 2 Huskies... they're great...

The last however, is the best of the lot, for it captures more of the sport (what I think it is anyway)... nice capture of the dogs, nice image of the musher's position...

They all are technically good photos... but the last one certainly has lasting appeal... thanks for sharing!

[Singletracklovr]

I forgot to add this:

I found that f/8 would keep the dogs and musher sharp. Any bigger aperture (f/8 or below) the musher would sometimes be soft if I didn't hit the front dog with AF point. If i hit the second or third dog with the AF point and a larger aperture the front dogs would be soft and blurry. I wanted to try and keep the backgrouns somewhat blurry, otherwise I could have just shot at f11 all day and not had to go throught all of this. I metered my camera on the bright snow and then on the shaded snow and then picked the shutter speed that met them both in the middle. In this case it was always over 500 so I was able to still stop the action of the dogs. I found this to work best for me. I also checked the pictures I had just shot between racers on the histogram and would fine tune it by what the histogram was telling me. If I needed a faster shutter speed i would bump up my iso to 400. Otherwise I tried to keep it at 100.

Darin

Hi Darin,
I really appreciate you posting your thought process during the shoot. I now have some idea of what to try if I ever get to shoot a large moving subject. Did you try any panning shots with a low shutter speed?

I know you put these in the critique forum and I am sorry I don't have any suggestion on how they could be improved.

[yetishot]

Man what a great collection! Are they technically sound? I dont know but they tell a story of sorts so it doesnt matter to me. I love the first shot the most, it seems to be the best shot of the bunch. The others, maybe a little selective lighting on the dogs to brighten them up a bit? Just beautiful IMO