Savage Race 2013-10-19 Dade City, Florida [Part 2]

Savage Race

About a month ago my services were requested for covering a very popular OCR event: Savage Race.  Race Pace Photos hired me to join their team of excellent photographers.  In this post, I will go over the obstacle I covered, Shriveling Richard.  This is Part 2 of a 4 part post.

Shriveling Richard

Before we go into details of this experience, here is the setup:

Setup for Shriveling Richard

Setup for Shriveling Richard

Looking at the diagram, runners came from the top, jumped in the pool, swam underneath the wooden divider, and emerged from the other side.  My task was to photograph them as they came up from the frigid waters.  I placed my 4' stepping stool diagonal to the pool which enabled me to shoot two runners at the same time, per instance.  This is because a runner can come in from the right side of the pool, blocking the view of the runner on the left.

It was as cold as you would expect

Shooting Shriveling Richard

For this task I used my Canon EF 24‑105 mm F/4.0, and I opened the lens to the widest setting (f/4.0).  To ensure that the runners stayed sharp (and avoid motion blur), I bumped my shutter speed to 1/3200 and my ISO to 1600 to compensate (although sometimes it went down to 1/1250 because there was a shade for the first few hours).  Although Av mode (Aperture Priority) was the preferred mode by some photographers, I could not get away from M mode (Manual).  Runners would come in with different colors, throwing my exposure off.  The idea was to have setting that will separate the runner from the background and other runners at their most emotional state.  This means I have to be as close as possible to the action, so the longest lens was the preferred option.

Cry some more!

Confusion.  Chaos.  Anguish.  Struggle.  Ecstasy.  Ascension.  These were the feelings that the runners and I experienced.  More so the runners than me though.  They cursed, they cried, they gasped for breath.  This was the first obstacle they faced, and it was a brutal one, a frosty omen of what is to come.  Some of them knew; they were smiling before and after their air-sucking plunge.  Others were completely taken by surprise and some even elected to skip the obstacle altogether (where is the fun in that?!).

My favorite shot of the race

STROBIST
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Strobist:
- Environment light, sun blocked by trees

Lightroom 4.0:
- Contrast +25
- Vibrance +25
- Temp and Tint +12
- Aqua and Blue Luminance -25
- Clarity adjustments on skin and water

Camera info: 
Camera: Canon EOS 5dmkii
Lens: Canon EF Zoom lens - 24 mm - 105 mm - F/4.0

Sv : 1/1000 seconds
Av : f/4.0
ISO : 1600
F.L.: 105mm
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The elite crew was amazingly efficient in this obstacle, they were prepared.  It was all business all throughout.   They did not stay in the water for long, nor did they wavered.  On contrast, the casual runners were shocked the most, they could not believe Savage would really fill 4 pools full with ice cubes. My recommendation for these obstacles is to do it as quickly as possible, it should not take you more than 20 seconds, and the sun will warm you up in less than 5 minutes.  Walk off the shock in the first few minutes, evolve to a jog and start running after 5 or 6 minutes.  Additionally, the water gets murky as runners go through the obstacle.  Therefore you should do the course as early as possible to minimize the amount of dirty water that you would have to go through.

 We were working at this obstacle from 8:30 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.  We got hungry and thirsty, like any other human being would.  I brought my own food and water ahead of time:  some bananas, protein bars, 5 hour energy shots and a large purified water bottle.  Sadly, the sun melted most of this food (should have placed the food in the shade).  Brad Easom was kind enough to bring food for the group, but he had so many hands and could not bring water for the group.  I volunteered for water for our local group.  I started thinking where I could get some water, and it was suggested to me to go to the finish line.  However, the finish line was quite away, and after some more moments, I realized that the staff should have some water.  I asked one of the staffers, and he showed me his ice chest bursting with water bottles.  I was relieved, grabbed 8 bottles, and handed 2 for each photographer in our local group.  They were quite pleased.

Part 3 will be available by Thursday