[PaulfromTexas]

Anyone have experience shooting any?

i understand the basic ideas of how to capture moving subjects.

my question resides more in where i should go to take the pictures. starting gate? transition periods? finish line?

i know those are important but what else?

has anyone shot enough or learned from past experience to know where you tend to find the better shots?

[Nowhere Matt]

I think it all depends on what you want the photographs to express. The few marathons that I have been to were laid out all the stages could be photographed well from many vantage points and with reasonable access.
I think it is good the capture some emotion of the racers and the feats of the race. I do not believe in any single point of coverage really. If I were photographing a triathlon, I certainly would not be taking all my photos standing in one spot.

[opfor]

Have never done one, but getting people coming out of a watering station might get you some facial expressions or interesting actions...?
I think it would be hard to avoid the "just another person running" effect...

[mattb123]

I've been to many triathlons and have shot and participated in a few. It really depends on the race and what you are after. Aid stations are good as well as transition areas. Transitions can be a little chaotic which can work for or against you. I like to know the course ahead of time and see if there might be some interesting perspectives where you can access multiple legs at a time. This isn't always possible but if for example, you find a spot you can go to after the swim where you can get decent shots of both the run and bike (assuming this is a "conventional" triathlon) you can save yourself some running around.
If you want emotion, go to the hardest climbs in the bike or run courses. Nothing like a long hard climb to either make you feel good, bad, or to be the catalyst for a great battle.
Hope that helps. Good luck and have fun!

[PaulfromTexas]

thanks for the replies yall, there are going to be a couple of triathlons here in Lubbock mid May and im really excited about that weekend. ill definitely be posting up some pics from that weekend. unfortunately the only lens i have other than the kit lens is a 100-300mm f/5.6-6.7 or something very similar to that. cost me 80 bucks so i guess i cant complain. hope it bright!

[cwood]

The Money shots for triathlon are typically

1. group shot at start (mass chaos)
2. exit from the water
3. anywhere on the run with a scenic background. Trying to capture the character of the area with either wide or long lens. This may be lakes and mountains or it may be downtown skyline
4. tight shot with long lens head-on with arms on aerobars
5. slow shutter panning on the bike
6. wide-angle look-up shot at finish line with the clock. this is virtually impossible to get unless you have press credentials but try to find a finish line-shot that includes the clock

These shots are available at virtually every race. There's lots of others to get but if you can get these 6 shots of the same person then it tells a great story

[PaulfromTexas]

cwood. thats exactly what i was looking for

[Qiki]

Agree with cwood.

As someone who's shot cycling for years I'd also suggest looking for a corner somewhere on the bike course (the tighter the corner the better) where you can get low angle, head-on shots of the riders leaning in to the corner. Just set yourself up, pre-focus on the corner and you're good to go. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Plus being triathletes, if the corner is any way technical you'll also get some shots of the riders crashing. Or, maybe that's just the criterium racer in me being condescending..

[mattb123]

Plus being triathletes, if the corner is any way technical you'll also get some shots of the riders crashing. Or, maybe that's just the criterium racer in me being condescending..

You are, but it's so true!

[cwood]

If you want crashes and you see any corners where they are staying on their aerobars then that is a good place to hang-out... also transition areas. Most people competing in triathlon are not "experienced cyclists" so you see them doing all sorts of odd things. Most of those things are not really photogenic (like going 5mph up HUGE hills on their aerobars) but there are definitely situations where you can take advantage of the inexperience