Camera meets asphalt. A candid look at shooting this year’s Coast 2 Coast race: day one. How I shot the race... and why!

First, a general ‘why’: I shoot this race not for media coverage but to generate a wealth of imagery for the title sponsor - Tropical Power Ltd. - who last year produced a calendar featuring the race. Right away we all must know: shooting for the media and shooting for a glossy calendar are two very different games: the former is concerned with front-lit photographs of important race personalities, with an emphasis on the winners, not designed to sell a sponsors product or service. The latter has to stand up to scrutiny when printed large format, and needs to infer all the qualities a sponsor wants to be associated with.

Usually, when you receive a glossy corporate calendar the images are worth something. Frankly, they need to kick ass.

This leads me to the how: Bear in mind I can’t ask any racer to ‘stop’ and do that again. Sometimes I’ll set up in a location knowing that a racer is 5 minutes away. I’ll meter the light, place wireless flash heads and shoot an assistant right where I want the racer to be... all to screw up the shot completely when the racer arrives because a flash was out of range or the available light changed!

This year, on the north coast, to get the shots I wanted, it was like carrying a portable wireless studio! One moment will stay in our memories forever: a runner came down the bank at the Madamas river mouth and successfully negotiated the slippery boulders only to misjudge the depth of the water. He went down spectacularly with 3 cameras trained on him while a barrage of flashes went off in unison. To his credit, he brushed it off but we couldn’t help feeling what he must of been feeling: what the hell are these guys doing here and did they really have to shoot that?!

Even as he unfolded into the water I was able to control flash colour temperature and placement because I had understanding assistants. They also shot many of the images you see here which is how you get to see where I put myself to get the shot.

As for the logistical ‘how’... we started on foot (Toco), got into the tray of a pickup (to Matelot), launched a boat and swam ashore (Madamas, Tacarib, Petit Tacarib, Paria), trucked again (Marianne River), went back on foot (North Post, Macqueripe), boated for the kayaking (North Coast, Gulf) and swam for handful of underwater images (Somewhere outside the First Boca).

There’s no way I can do this shoot without a strong, fit, reliable crew of people who understand these locations and can handle the ocean and the sweat. Many, many thanks to Richard Voisin, Anton Modeste, Duane Kenny, Ryan O’Connor and Sean Sheppard. You guys made it a breeze. What can I say, the sea was calm this year... what a let down!!

Shot 1a: here Richard stands in as I set up lights on the point at Toco under the lighthouse. I’m hoping that the resulting shot (1b below) will do for January in the 2008 calendar.

Shot 1b: the only time I can ask a racer to model for me is before the race starts!

Shot 1c: and here’s how I shot it: low angle, two wireless canon ex flashes with gold omni bounce diffusers...

Meanwhile Anton, Duane, and Ryan are making sure the boat launches on time (below)...

...while Richard and I jump into a Tropical Power pickup tray to shoot the runners as they transition to bikes.

Shot 2a: so many nice backlit bridge shots were made like this.

Shot 2b: making room for the gnarly wood grain emphasises the conditions the racers had to deal with. Not lighting the runner actually draws your eye away from them into that environment. There’s a nice trio of runners in repetition here.

Of course it’s impossible to photograph the leader of the race when we keep stopping to set up the shots that I want. This is why my boat crew was dropping Anton out in Paria!

Shot 3a: the bridge at Shark River is one of the few structures that will give you some height and the steel is a great contrast to the forest.

Shot 3b: look carefully and you’ll see Richard shooting 3a in the shot below. I didn’t notice that and we might have to ‘shop him out!

We worked Shark River Bridge a lot - I really like the textures here and I sent Richard scrambling for the fisheye lens for this next one!

Shot 4a: once again Richard stands in for flash exposure. I really dig the low angle the light comes from here.

Shot 4b: here we go. If I’m not shooting from the truck I’ll deliberately slow down exposure to have the racer streaking through a nice still environment.

Shot 4c: and again, how it was all put together (below).

Moving on! Isn’t this fun? Below the crew (minus Anton in Paria and Richard who shot this) tanks up on Gatorade, coconut water and tuna sandwiches. Thanks Ry!

Incidentally, the above was shot with the amazing Olympus Stylus 790SW which stood up to it’s ‘everything-proof’ claims. I don’t think a camera has ever been tested this rigorously before!

Hey speaking of the 790SW... here’s Richard using it 4 inches from where it should be in Madamas River Mouth! People, we live in the Caribbean - get this camera. I’ve done a ‘first look’ here. But will review it in depth now that it’s done the Coast 2 Coast.

Shot 5a: this is a shot I really wanted to do that I didn’t get a chance to do last year.

Shot 5b: focusing on the rocks in the foreground reminds us of how far this racer still has to go. For me all of these shots are about what the racer has to deal with rather than just the racer. Sometimes, I take that to the extreme although I’ll quickly make a ‘normal’ shot in case we need it too.

Many times we laughed about how unnerving it must be to break out of the forest and start running down a beach only to find a band of photographers running circles around you popping flashes everywhere.

In truth though, I was surprised at how fast we had to run to get in front of them. Either these people have a huge amount of stamina or having your photograph taken is an incentive to get going.

Shot 6a: yeah yeah... more lying down on the job. More sand on the camera strap. My ultimate camera rig would be the fast lenses of Canon on an affordable weather sealed body like the Nikon D300 but with the full frame of the Canon 5D. All for the price of a Rebel!

Shot 6b: you can tell by now I love this angle for runners. It dramatises where all the action is where the feet meet the ground and the width wraps their head in as much blue sky as you can find!

We drove back in from Marianne River and met Anton coming out on foot, shooting runners that passed him.

Shot 7a: here we are checking out a location that’s not so pretty.

Shot 7b: still, if you get into it (literally) you can get something out of it.

Shot 7c: this is me “getting into it”.

We felt like winners finally crossing the finish line. Even though we were close to ‘last’ and at this stage had four wheel drive.

That’s it for Day One. Click here to see how we tackled Day Two!