This past weekend the 7th annual Palm Beach Marathon was held. I did not run in it nor did I photographed it. However in years past I have taken photos of it including this one of the lead pack.
I used a Hasselblad X-Pan camera which, for those unfamiliar with it, is an older film camera made to shoot panoramic images. I loved that camera and I’m real sorry I sold it a while back when the photography world was turning digital.
For a shot like this you get one click of the shutter at it mostly because there is only one lead pack of runners–and they’re fast!. But also because the camera does not allow for motor drive sequences. Thus you must have an idea and hope all the elements come together as planned.
The one element I did not plan for nor was expecting was a trail runner (he’s about six miles behind the lead pack) to run in front of the camera just as I snapped the shutter. I’ve never known what to think of this obscured blur though the fact that you can make out the fingers of the left hand and see it’s pointing in the opposite direction of the other runners adds the element of intrigue to the image. Who is the runner? Why is he running in the opposite direction? How far back is he? Can he catch up?
Technical details:
- Hasselblad X-Pan with 45mm lens
- Ektachrome E100VS film
- Film scanned with a Nikon Super Coolscan 9000ED
- Image was retouched with Photoshop CS5