Alton 10

The Alton 10 went brilliantly today, as ever. I am in the process of preparing 760 images for upload which is a large number. So if anyone is looking for them today, I would suggest that you come back tomorrow or Tuesday!!

The weather was fantastic for it today and I had a beautiful view out across the Hampshire countryside from my first post on the 1 mile marker. The race started at 10:30am and shortly afterwards the leader of the race passed me with another guy close behind. Then there was a gap and a mass of people flooded past me. I generally just keep firing away, using the burst mode on my D300 but soon realised that this was going to eat my card quickly. 500+ runners took part, I was glad that I carry 4 compact-flash cards but I am going to put some higher capacity, fast read-write (UDMA) cards on my shopping list. The last time I attended this race as Official Photographer was 2006 when I had my D200. This leaves me wondering why anyone would want a camera with 24MP! I ended up having to reduce the file sizes set on my D300, to allow for more storage space. Anyway it all worked out in the end!!

Sorry I digressed there into technical jargon…

Once the runners had passed along with the back marker, I hopped in the car, drove on to the finish which is at Treloar’s School in Alton. Then I simply wait by the finish line for the first people to come back in. The runners had split up a lot more this year than previously, so I was shooting people almost on a one-to-one basis in portrait mode. Occasionally some crossed the line in pairs or small groups and when that happens, I flick back to landscape and capture the whole group together.

It is funny how you develop a routine very quickly in order to try and photograph everyone. I think I did manage it this time, although a few may have been missed, as I had a card switchover problem at one point. Don’t ask.

Really enjoyed it, as I always do and look forward to returning next year.

P.S. Photos will be available soon, please double check with me if you are not sure.