New York City Marathon

Welcome to the first entry to my first-ever blog!

Before I get started, I wanted to acknowledge my student advisor at the New York Institute of Photography, Chris Corradino, whose blog "Behind the Lens" was the inspiration for starting my own blog.

As a new student of the New York Institute of Photography's (NYIP) "The Complete Course in Professional Photography," I thought this blog could help both myself and other students of photography share their successes and challenges of completing their coursework and realizing their dream of starting a career in photography. 

And while I feel some small pang of guilt for "stealing" Chris' blog idea, it was only yesterday that I was listening to Unit Two's "Developing Your Eye" where Chuck DeLaney, Dean of NYIP, stated:

"Being inspired or getting an idea from somebody else's work is as old as art." 

He also shared another unattributed quote:

"If you don't imitate other artists, you'll never make any art." 

With that, I hope I can inspire my fellow NYIP students to imitate me and create their own "learning" blogs.

So today was the New York City Marathon, and given that I live right off Central Park near the finish line, it made sense to head over to try to capture the action. But heading over to the park only a few minutes prior to Paula Radcliffe's dramatic finish was not going to grant me a prime time location for capturing the action. 

In fact, I was on the west or "wrong" side of the fence which meant I had to try to address the challenges of backlighting and flare (without a lens shade). I also couldn't quite get as close to the action as I wanted given I was often 2-3 rows behind the early birds. As such, this became an exercise is addressing the obstacles and trying to get "the shot" by taking several hundred shots.

My current Unit Two assignment calls for shots emphasizing off-center placement, framing, and leading lines. And I was open to looking for these opportunities, but capturing the runners was more of a reprise of the Unit One "motion" assignment--as such, I enjoyed practicing both freeze action and panning techniques, including the photo you see above.

Today's lessons learned: Show up early, find/secure the right spot(s), use a lens shade (I don't own any as of yet).

Despite the challenges, I did manage to get a few shots I liked, especially the ones with the more exaggerated and artistic motion blur. 

You can check out the rest of the photos I took today at my Kodak gallery.

You can also see some great shots taken by New York Times photographers--Slideshow 1, Slideshow 2.