TRL XC

Today I was assigned to shoot the Three Rivers League district cross country meet. XC is a fun shoot sport to cover as the opportunity to create a nice image is always there, you just have to look for it. The main story in the boys race was going to be the team standings, with Clackamas (in the red) and St. Helens (stripes) neck and neck. The paper wanted a photo that showed that it was a close race as far as team points goes. In Cross country you can't always just hang by the finish line and get a photo finish, because usually runners finish at least a few seconds apart and usually minutes apart, so no good action is there and the background and environment is crowed and cluttered and ugly. So you have to find a spot or spots where you can shoot the leaders 3 or more times during the race. To find a spot to do this, you need to get there early, walk the race route and state out a spot that 1) has a good background 2) has good environment to show "Cross Country" and 3) that the runners will pass you a few times, or so you can move a small distance to another location so they will pass you more times. While checking out the route today I found a perfect spot with leaves all over the ground for a good foreground and trees in the background so the background would be clean and best off all, the runners would run out of the shadows and into the great light of the setting sun. I shot this early in the race to show the two teams battling it out.