I photographed the first 5k to Fight Human Trafficking held at my alma mater Cornerstone University. It was organized by a friend I met there, Katie McNabb (who was also a guest on the show), and a couple of her friends.

This was an event to raise funds for their former youth pastor who’s now a missionary in Thailand with an organization that works to free people, mostly young girls, from being trafficked and sold, so I was glad to be a part of it.

This is another event where I’ve been trying to learn to take photo and video at the same time, still struggling with getting proper exposure. Another new thing that I tried for this was shooting with two bodies during the race.

These were both good experiences, but I want to help you bypass the hard parts with what I learned from this experience. Take a listen and level up!

Thanks for listening this week,
Dylan

My Personal Notes

• Welcome to Live Life Creative, I’m Dylan Kraayenbrink, thanks for spending time with me
• First sports photography experience
• At my alma mater Cornerstone University
• Organized by a friend I met there, Katie McNabb (who was also a guest on the show), and a couple of her friends
• This was an event to raise funds for their former youth pastor who’s now a missionary in Thailand with an organization that works to free people, mostly young girls, from being trafficked and sold

• Before I jump into that, I’m still taking suggestions and ideas on what the podcast should be named since it’s focused on photography and not creativity in general
• Maybe a subtle change to Live Life Creative Photo podcast or Photo Show?
• Maybe the DK Photo Show? Feels a bit arrogant, but that name plays off my personal Instagram handle
• Let me know, send me a message on Instagram @livelifecreativepodcast

• This is another event where I’ve been trying to learn to take photo and video at the same time, still struggled with getting proper exposure
  • Always seemed too bright and too high of an ISO, could only stop down aperture to darken, but that only went so far until auto-ISO kicked in to brighten up again
  • Part of the problem is that I couldn’t get auto ISO to turn off to be able to control it properly
  • When I take video, I use my U1 setting for 24 fps and U2 for 60 fps
  • I didn’t realize at the time that when I set up U1 and U2, I was in aperture priority mode instead of manual, and at least for the d750 auto-ISO is always on in video mode if aperture or shutter priority is set
  • Only can control ISO in video with manual; have since changed U1 and U2 to use manual
  • I’ll talk more about how well taking video went in a minute
• Another new thing that I tried for this was shooting with two bodies during the race
  • On my Nikon D750 I had my 24-70 f2.8 for wide and close shots
  • On my Nikon D7000 I put my 70-210 f4 for the telephoto and long shots
    • The D7000 is also a crop sensor camera, so the 70-210 is equivalent to 105-315mm on a full frame camera
  • Worked out fairly well, it was nice to have a second camera to switch to when the buffer filled on the first
    • That was important with the D7000 because the SD cards in that camera are pretty slow to write photos to and clear the buffer
  • It was cool to be able to be able to cover a runner from far away with the D7000 and then all the way in close to me by switching to the D750

• Before the race itself started, I made sure to spend a few minutes around the check-in area
  • There was a small display about Ben (the missionary) and his family and Zoe International, the organization he works with
  • Got detail shots of that, the different bracelets and tshirts and a few things they were selling to raise support
  • Shots of the volunteers checking people in, the people and families running the race, the type of thing to help tell the story of what’s going on
• The missionary Ben talked for a few minutes about the work he and his family has been doing
  • This was indoors in the student union, orange lighting, used 24-70mm
  • Ben talked from a short stage area, and behind the stage were floor to ceiling windows, he was completely backlit
  • Kept checking the histogram and chimping to be sure that he was still properly exposed
  • A few crowd shots to show that there were quite a few people, around a hundred or so, to emphasize that this was a well-attended event
  • Other than that, pretty normal indoor shooting, ISO about 1600

• Back outside, getting ready to start, just a dripping hot day, glad I wasn’t running in the 5k, no clouds and no cover from the sun
• For metering set “spot metering with protect highlights” 
• Aperture priority, ISO 50-200 depending on whether shooting into shadows or in sunlight
• The course started at the cafeteria and made a big figure 8 loop that the runners would have to run twice
  • The start and finish lines were right by each other in the middle of the figure 8, so I had up to four opportunities to photograph each person
• There’s a giant rock in front of the cafeteria that’s a landmark for Cornerstone, and Rex who was one of the organizers, stood on that to give the racers instructions so I was sure to get a photo of him up there
• When the race was about to start, I stood about a hundred feet beyond the start line so the runners would come toward me
• The race started, and I was using the D7000 with the 70-210, just trying to get as many people as possible in at least one photo
  • When the buffer filled there, I switched to the D750 and the 24-70 and kept going
  • I was kneeling on one knee, so I got some cool wide shots of people running or walking by that I like a lot
• Once most people had gone by, jumped back by the starting line but pointed toward the campus clock tower where they’d be running under
  • This is where I used the 70-210 and the racers were back lit, quite a bit of chromatic aberration 
  • In post I isolated the magenta aberration in the color zones module and desaturated just that color, hid most of it
  • The sidewalk leading under the clock tower back to the starting line area is lined with foliage, so created a nice tunnel perspective, especially with the lens compression at 210
  • As they got close, switched back to 24-70, some nice wide shots with the clock tower in the background with the sun shining through the leaves of the trees as people ran by
• After this, a long gap, the route goes quite a ways away from the start and finish area, didn’t want to get too far away and miss the first place finisher
  • Waited for the runners just behind the athletic center next to the pond in the center of campus
  • Set up my shot to have nice foliage, sky, and water for the background for a wide shot 
  • Ready for the runners to come around the north edge of the pond with the 70-210 and come towards me
  • The only great wide shot with the pond was with the first place runner but looked really good
  • In the long shots, had some foreground elements out of focus, good compression, had some good shots
• Left that spot after a while to be sure I caught the first place runner finishing, so back to the start area
  • Since I was taking video clips at the same time but struggling with it, I could never get my settings right to switch back and forth easily
  • So when the first place runner came across the line, my shutter was way too slow and exposure way too high
  • Tried to get him in focus as quickly as I could and panned with him
  • The shot was blurry as you’d expect but he was somewhat in focus so I decided that this was artistic rather than a mistake
  • Conveyed speed with the laterally blurred background
• At this point taking photos was really tricky
  • Runners were spread out all along the course
  • People were running into the start area from two directions and out in two different directions 
  • Kept whipping back and forth to try to take photos of as many as possible, but focusing on people as they cross the finish line
  • The route to the finish alternated between sunlight and shadow
    • In post had to balance the highlight and shadow sliders to make sure there was nothing was blown out or lost in shadow, depending on where the subject was
    • Turned out to have a bit of an HDR look, not too over the top, but necessary to be able to see the subject or subjects for each photo
  • Two people ran with their German Shepherds, a fun shot of them running with the dog’s tongue hanging out
  • One runner was either livestreaming or recording an Instagram story as she crossed, that was pretty funny to me
• Afterwards was a bit of a taste of Thailand 
  • Katie had made like 30 pounds of mango sticky rice
  • Everybody got a bowl of rice and chatted after running
  • Good chance to get happy smiling people, tired but happy to finish the race
  • Some group photos, people talking together, laughing, just showing a good time was had by all

• When I went to edit the images, I made sure to have as wide a range of people as possible, so that everyone would show up in at least one photo hopefully
  • People like to see themselves in photos and that’s the photo that they’ll share with friends, and that’s how the client, in this case the 5k, gets to be seen by more people on social media
• I used a preset for Fuji Pro 400H for the overall look for all the photos, then adjusted the exposure slider and highlight and shadows sliders to get the right exposure
  • For some I added more contrast or boosted the midtones with the Levels module
  • Especially looked good after the race when people were standing around talking, everybody was under open shade, nice and even light there, very warm and friendly feel to the photos 
  • the 70-210 shots were quite low-contrast since it’s an older lens, especially the backlit shots were low contrast
    • Used a low amount of Haze Removal to bring back contrast and some saturation 
    • Some photos needed even more contrast, just used the contrast slider for that
  • Overall just processed the images to look natural, a touch on the warm side to feel a bit happier and helps skin tones to look a little nicer as well
  • Tons of dynamic range in these photos, very bright or very dark, so used the highlight and shadow sliders as much as I dared to push them
  • Some of the photos came out a bit HDR looking, but not too overly processed

• Two things, let me know what you think about changing the name of the show, message me on instagram @livelifecreativepodcast or tweet @dkphotoxyz
• Also, if you’re interested in learning more about darktable, cuz it’s freeeee, also let me know in a message or tweet
• These would be dedicated darktable podcast episodes and possibly YouTube tutorials
• I may just do it regardless and take you along for the ride

• I’m Dylan Kraayenbrink thanks for spending time with me on possibly to be renamed Live Life Creative