The thing about being a sports photographer is that you know when every annual event is coming up.
Sports seasons are always the same time of year, every year. Most of the time, if you shoot in the same city, games/matches/meets/championships are always in the same location, and the schedule is mostly the same. Sounds predictable and repetitive, right?
Texas Relays is anything but predictable.
Well, that’s not true. I can predict there will always be traffic, there will always be trouble with parking and there will always be plenty to shoot.
Texas Relays is a track and field meet at the University of Texas that includes high school athletes from all over the state and college and university athletes from all over the country. That means lots of athletes and lots of action.
This year I only covered one day of the four-day meet for the Statesman. To my surprise and delight, it was perfect weather for shooting track. Cloudy and cool, so I didn’t have to bake in the heat, covered in sunscreen and topped with a floppy hat.
Usually I have a specific list of schools or athletes to cover, but this year, no such luck. I kept an eye on the schedule and tried to shoot as much as I could, running from event to event. There wasn’t a strong stand-out athlete or school from the Statesman’s coverage area, so I just did my best to cover everything.
The problem with trying to cover everything, at least for me, is that I get wrapped up in “basic coverage” mode. That means pointing the camera at the athlete, just trying to get an action shot in focus where I can see his face and what he’s doing. I don’t worry about trying to get something different or unique or artistic. Just basic.
That’s not a terrible thing, it gives newspapers something clean to print and I know they appreciate that, but I come home at the end of the day not completely impressed with myself.
Anyway, lamenting aside, I did come away with some decent images. These are some of them:
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