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.