Austin Bun Run Photos 5K 10K Now Ready

One of my favorites from this morning

Well, as the title says, the Austin Bun Run 5K / 10K photos are now ready.  Schlotzsky's hosted this event and held two races, a 5K and a 10K this morning. The route started just off Guadalupe Street and headed west down Cesar Chavez at different distances for both races. Hadn't really planned on not being able to access the turnaround point over by the high school, but life goes on.

Also thought it was going to rain pretty heavily this morning like EVERY weather service predicted. As it turns out, not a drop.  Weather was perfect for running, probably around 70 when the 10K started out at 7:00 AM.  Didn't really heat up all that much by the time that race ended and the 5K started. Just perfect.

Bun Run route along Cesar Chavez at about 6:40

It was relatively dark when I first arrived on site, somewhere around 6:40 AM. I generally like to arrive much earlier, but the parking situation and the TOTAL closure of Cesar Chavez put me behind just a bit. I remembered one of the addresses I chose last night as a potential site, went to it, and it happened to be off just a bit in the GPS, however it did put me right in at the start point, which wasn't all bad.

Security wasn't heavy, but it was still present. Police officers stood guard in the crisp morning air over most of the intersections directly surrounding the start point. Drivers coming in from out of town had problems negotiating the parking arrangement downtown. Heard one lady apologize profusely to a police officer who tried to flag her down because she was headed the wrong way down a one-way street, but that was the only real challenge I saw with parking in the area. Not bad at all. The traffic flow for this event was very well organized, from my perspective at least.

Cesar Chavez with Auditorium Shores in the background

I won't say how many images I took from my position, but there were many. Way more than I'd ever planned on.  Tried to get one of you leaving near the course start on Guadalupe & Cesar Chavez and one coming back when you were headed home. Managed to get quite a lot of you, but apologize in advance if I missed some. That always happens, as there are nearly always a certain amount of images that were either not in focus or had bad composition (that's when you're covered up by someone else or I step through a storm sewer grate while I'm taking the shot!).

Seriously though, next time I'm bringing a chair.  Being a photographer on the sidelines looks like easy work, and for the most part, it is. However, doing the same thing over and over again for 3 1/2 hours gets to everyone. If you want to know what I mean, try holding your arms straight out in front of you for 5 minutes without moving them. Now multiply that by 36. You start to see how I'm feeling right now :)

It sure was great to see all of you out there today. I really enjoyed it. I see so much in each one of your faces and your expressions toward each other. Rarely do I see anything but love. And I love that.

That's it for now. Just wanted to give you a little insight into today just in case you're interested and don't forget, if you'd like to see your photos from this morning, visit the Austin Bun Run photos page or the CTX Images website.  The photos are inspirational. Trust me.

Texas Round-Up 5K photos now posted

Just got back from taking Texas Round-Up 5K photos in Austin.  Racing started at 8:00 AM as most of them do. Really thought it was going to rain pretty heavily, but that turned-out not to be the case. Looked at the weather last night and again at 5:00 this morning, both with the same result. Rain forecasted for Sunday morning but nothing for Saturday. It's supposed to be just perfect.

I totally should have walked outside!

It was raining when I got ready to leave at 7:00.

This wouldn't have posed any challenges except for the fact that I planned my first motorcycle-based shoot. Ever. For this morning.  Yep, you see how this ends.

Once I saw the rain, I immediately began shifting gear from the bike to the Jeep.  Didn't take long.  Of course, on the drive into Austin, it was dry as a bone. This is Texas after all.

Shot most of the race with a Canon F/2.8L 70-200mm lens and hardly felt the need to bring anything else even though the rest of the lenses were just a few feet away. I tried the F/2.8L 24-70mm last time out and didn't like it as a base lens for close-ups and racing. It's not versatile enough unless you're right on top of everyone and in their face. I hate when people do that to me, so the 24-70 stayed in the car this time.

One thing you really have to watch with Canon L-series lenses is THEY CATCH A LOT OF LIGHT and they're very fast. I shot for about 27 minutes this morning and adjusted ISO 4 different times. It's very, very sensitive.  I love that, but for someone who shoots in manual nearly universally, I have to really stay on top of it.

This race was shot with a Canon 50D, which I still believe to be one of the finest cameras in the world for sports shooting. Mine is just superb in almost any condition.  It wasn't initially my first camera of choice, but it is now. Keep in mind that I'm not talking about portrait work, although it works really well for that too. Just talking shooting sports. At more than 6 frames/second and burning 15.1 mp images, you can't beat it for versatility.

What would make this setup just absolutely perfect is a 1.4x or 2x extender, ranging this lens from 98-280mm or 140-400mm respectively.  Still great for semi-closeup work, but gaining the advantage of really reaching out there to capture a face or an expression from a good distance away.

If you'd like to see what the 70-200mm and 50D combo are able to produce, check out the Texas Round-Up 5K photos when you get the chance.

Schlotzky's Bun Run Photos

Scholotzky's Bun Run Photos will be available on our main site Sunday afternoon following completion of the 5K and 10K races near Auditorium Shores. The 10K starts at 7:00 AM and the 5K starts a bit later at 8:30 AM on Sunday morning.

Course routes are a little bit different for both races, so you might want to visit the Bun Run website if you're interested in registering for the race or just simply watching.

I don't know about you, but after all the Schlotzky's sandwiches I've eaten in my life, I should probably be running in this one instead of photographing it. Oh well. Maybe next year. For now, I'm pretty content to be providing the best Bun Run photos possible.

It just simply makes people happy, and that's what we're all about :)

Texas Roundup 5k Photos

Excited to be taking Texas Roundup 5k photos in Austin Tx this weekend. The race starts tomorrow morning (April 27th) at 8:00 AM and winds through the Texas state capitol and UT campus areas.  Wouldn't say that the weather for this one is going to be excellent. We've seen it threaten to rain all week and should see some thunderstorms early tomorrow morning ending with a high of 82 degrees in the afternoon.

At least it won't be 115 degrees or below freezing.  Anything in the middle is preferable.

Look at this. The sun's coming out while I'm writing this.

Figures.

We should start processing all photos sometime around noon tomorrow and you'll start to see those hitting our servers early in the afternoon. If you'd like to make sure you don't miss them, be sure to bookmark the Texas Roundup 5k Photos page so that you don't forget where they're at.

Until then, have a great Friday and hope to see you out there tomorrow morning!

Austin Event Photography | Your Portfolio Matters

 

Austin Event Photography | Your Portfolio

It seems not a day goes by without hearing some mention of the word "portfolio."  Sure, portfolios exist in a number of different fields aside from photography. Architects, artists, designers, graphics peeps, the whole nine yards.

I suppose that if you're not in a field that requires them to get hired, you probably don't notice the discussions. As a photographer, I constantly overhear portfolio conversations and find them interesting.  I guess most potential clients and customers would want to see what kind of work you've done in the past. That makes sense. It's easy to judge someone's ability even by just taking a brief look at a few photos or photo treatments. Some may be excellent, some good and the rest? Well. Maybe they should've been left out.

As a Cedar Park event photographer, I really only have the event photos I've taken to display the quality of the work I do.  That places me right square in the middle of a Catch 22 at times. Do I leave out the photo that was just a little off because no one will want to hire me if they see it?  Should I leave out the inappropriate gesture here and there for fear of reprisal?

At this point, I'd say no.

I occasionally leave in photos that might not be the absolute highest quality, even though you may not. My thought? I don't want people to miss out on their photo because someone in the background was doing something like this...

 

Truth be told, I can edit that right out of the photo in Photoshop or some other editor. No problem. I left it in the shoot for that day just in case #3690 there wanted her photo and will make the editing offer if I see her come through the catalog. Until then, it remains up and it's part of my online portfolio in a way. I don't have a problem with it, but I can see how others may not want this in theirs.

Some togs have a totally different website that houses much of their portfolio. Perhaps that's what I'll move to over time. It's not like every photo in here is representative of the work I do. I leave them here to perform a service more than anything else.  I leave them here because I feel they're important to the individual.

If you have portfolio stories that you'd like to share with us here, we'd be interested in reading about your experiences and by all means, provide your recommendations and mention the type of work that it applies to.

What have your portfolio experiences been like?

Cedar Park Photography | Post-Processing in the Digital Age

 

Okay, so this Cedar Park Photographer admits that taking the shot is only half the the skill and art we know as photography.  Well, it's actually way more than half, if you consider the time it takes to pull some of the shots we pull. Really all depends on the shoot. 

This said, taking the shot isn't where the ball stops.

I'm about to say one word that makes a ton of photogs cringe, especially those who are just starting out...

POST-PROCESSING IMAGES

That might actually be two words, I don't even know.  Maybe just one compound word.  Okay, who cares.

Post-processing.

What is it?  Well, it's everything that happens after the shot's taken and prior to actual delivery to the client.  For someone like me, that involves retrieving the images, sending them through processing procedures in Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom, adjusting them, judging them, selection, communication with the client, getting some valuable client feedback, performing final mods on the individual photos, and somewhere amongst all of this, lunch.

Yesterday afternoon, I overheard someone say "Everything is photoshopped these days. Nothing is real."  I stopped for a moment to think about what that meant before deciding that the exclaimer, in this case, was probably right.  Seldom do I send out photos without doing anything to them, even if I'm just adjusting contrast or brightness.  I mean, why would I?

People are fallible, and I'm no exception.  I commonly adjust exposures, brightness and vibrance. A lot.  Why?  Probably because every photo is a bit different and I want them to look as good as they can.  When I first starting shooting with film, I did the same thing, only it was in the darkroom and not with a computer.  Of course, it's not as much fun to fumble around in the dark looking for the  film cannister you just dropped on the floor in complete darkness, but it's akin to the same exact process.

If you're a novice or the family photographer, your film labs used to make those corrections for you. You did it too.

Now that we're mostly a digital image world, we spend a lot of time on this important aspect of photography without really thinking about how much time it really takes. If you're good at it or hire it out, it doesn't take much time, but you do spend your own personal time performing these tasks or paying for someone else to perform them for you.

MY LATEST PORTRAIT SHOOT

The photo above was taken down at Gruene Hall yesterday on the northwest side of New Braunfels. This was a somewhat challenging location due to the heavy canopy tree cover (higher ISOs) and the equally opposite heavy direct sunlight out in the open areas. Lots of chances to make mistakes related to exposure.  I found myself having to adjust on nearly every single shot.

Once the shoot was complete, I naturally moved first to Lightroom and then to Photoshop. I've seen photographers who profess that if you use one, you don't need the other.  I don't really agree, but I don't really care either.  They can do whatever it is that they want. Personally, I use Lightroom to adjust nearly all of the photos even before I take a real close look at the best shots.  I'd call that Round 1 of post-processing. After I cull the obvious errors, I'll seek feedback from the client on which photos they like before putting them into Round 2 - Photoshop.

Trust me, I don't use either one of these programs to their full potential and I can promise you that they're always going to be way more intelligent than I'll ever be.   I have, however, found different aspects of them that I really like and I tend to use them for what I consider to be their strengths.

And this is from a guy who doesn't like to process at all.

I really don't.

But I consider this to be a mandatory part of my practice now and besides, the client deserves the best photo they can buy that fits the budget.

It's that simple.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

I don't think a single day goes by where I don't learn all that I can about something new about photography. I love the exposure to so many different concepts and ideas and almost always use those ideas to make my photography better.  That's what life's all about right? To leave things better than you found them?

A good post-processing plan brings out the best in your photos and just simply makes  a better product. We don't have to spend all of our time in the stage of production, but it shouldn't be ignored either.

How does post-processing fit into your plan?

Dash for Dawn Photos

Had a great time taking 2013 Dash For Dawn photos in San Marcos recently.  I don't know the official number of participants, but probably around 400 or so. Started at 8:00 AM, as most all the weekend races do and lasted for a couple of hours. Luckily, I was very familiar with the course. I lived around the corner from where it was held for almost a decade.

Dash for Dawn Event Details

The course started at Crockett Elementary School in San Marcos, wound around through the San Marcos City Cemetery and through some other side streets not too far away from the elementary school. The race was sponsored by Angel Drops in the Memory of Dawn Breihan. Dawn was the physical education instructor for 3 of my children while attending Crockett Elementary and it was nice to be supporting such a great cause. She passed away some time ago and she's still missed. Every single day.

Dash for Dawn Photo Lens Recommendations

Lens choice this morning was the Canon 70-200 F/2.8.  I also used the 300mm F/4 at times, but really only to catch facial expressions and whatnot. It wasn't suitable for use as a "go to" lens, but was nice to have on site. The 24-70 also wasn't suitable as a go to for me, but I can see how it might be right for some. It's wide-angle view was perfect for large groups as they walked by, but I really liked the 24-70 overall for capturing both facial expressions and whole-body shots of individual runners.

The photo to the left is a good example of the kind of shot the 70-200 is famous for. It also took the shot above, so you can see how great it is for catching whole-body shots as well as facial expressions. All while giving that great blur in the background. Really brings out the detail of individual runners.  This was actually one of my favorite images of the morning, mainly because of the Come and Take it shirt.  All in all, the 24-70 is just too broad a shot for me to use in most cases. It's really excellent up close when you're taking a portrait-like shot. Great for pre-race photos when you can really get up close. Not so great while the race is ongoing and not versatile enough to do what I really want it to do. On the other end of the spectrum, the Canon 300mm doesn't zoom at all, so you're left with whatever you think you can get at the distance you're at. Of course, you can go back in and edit the photo in post-processing, taking time to zoom on the features you're really trying to capture, but that isn't really feasible when processing more than 400 photos at a time.

Especially between events.

2013 Dash for Dawn Photos

If you participated in the 2013 Dash for Dawn 5k, you can always visit us at the 2013 Dash For Dawn Photos page to see if we captured your image during the race.  If you're thinking about running it next year, know that it's a more-than-worthwhile event. Very friendly and very well organized.  Thanks so much for taking the time to visit us here at the CTXImages blog and we hope to see you soon at your next race.

Austin 10/20 Photos

Well, this is the first many posts to come and everyone has to start somewhere right?  Of course we have our blog over at Austin 10/20 Photos but I thought I might expand on some of the events we cover and how we cover them.  So, here we are and welcome!

Recently had the good fortune to cover part of the Austin 10/20 race recently, held near The Domain just on the north side of Austin.  This is the first year I've covered this race and really had a great time doing it. For those of you who have never been to the race, it's quite a production. 10 miles. 20 stages. And the runners are fast.

Very fast.

In fact, they were so fast that I missed part of the lead pack as I ran to catch them at the half way marker. Parking was almost impossible on nonpriority parts of the track, so you just have to do the best you can. That's the way it is with every race. Of course you try to setup in the most productive areas where you can really catch the action on a moment's notice. I'll keep the area I actually set up in on a sidenote for now. I don't know that it really makes that much difference to most of you, but I'd like to have that spot again next year and setups (to me, at least) are like your favorite fishing holes. You don't go blabbing about 'em.

But I digress.

I'll tell you, that morning was a real challenge for me. The weather was really overcast and although there appeared to be more than enough light to get just the right photos, it was difficult to make them appear bright and cheery. Had a set of brand new lenses to play with - a new Canon F/2.8 7-200, Canon F/2.8 24-70 and a Canon 300mm F4. I shot with all of them, each with something different to offer.

For most of the morning, I shot with the 70-200 and found this to be my favorite lens for shooting this race. By far. It was heavier than I thought it would be. It doesn't seem like much until you try to hold it in one place for 2 1/2 hours. Steady. Shot after shot. I'm not going out next time without the monopod. It's not overly necessary just to get a few shots, but it would have been really helpful for the length of time I was out there.

Not really a fan of of the 24-70 this morning. Just too much going on to get close enough for great photos without interfering in the race. This photo to the left was of my favorite couple of the morning. It was shot with the 70-200 at approximately 50' or so. Really enjoyed being able to capture this moment for them during the race and I hope that they find it one day. It's not possibly to let everyone know who you are as the race is progressing, so I'll have to leave it up to them to find it. For now. They'll want it when this baby is born :)

Austin 10/20 Photos

If you haven't seen the photos yet, you can stop by the Austin 10/20 photo page or visit MyRunPics.com or just go straight to the Austin 10/20 Photo Album to see if I might have captured your image that morning.  Still working out some of the mechanics for getting our message out while we're out on site. I'll get a little better at that in the future.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave those here. Discussion is good. Hope your week is off to a good start and see ya on the track.