Original Photography: The Runner

Princippally, I am a professional natural light documentarist photographer. But I do the occasional portrait as well. Most of these are informal in atmosphere and I use my skills as a moment-catcher to get good portraits. But in some instances, it does take some more planning. E.g. If you're shooting band photos or a formal wedding portrait.

In this case, my friend Ben, who is an extreme runner and fitness freak (think 2x marathon atop some of the highest mountains on earth), wanted a portrait of himself. We sat down one afternoon and had a chat about his expectations. He wanted a photo of him running on the beach, with the water in the background and the sand beneath him.

I knew that the beach where he usually trains has a sunset opposite the waterline. This, I thought, would be great for illuminating his muscular body. I also thought I wanted to make it look like he was flying through the air. So on the day, I brought my longest lens, a Canon EF 100-400mm L lens, and a tripod in order to shoot him at a really long focal length at relatively slow shutter speeds, panning the camera so I could motion blur the background.

I instructed him to jump at a certain point through the air, keeping his body position still, so his legs and hands wouldn't blur on the long exposure.

After just a few jumps, I knew we had nailed it. It came out exactly as planned, which surprised even myself. The feedback from this one image has spurred me on to try more sport portraits.

We did some more shots that day, but this one is the winner, just because it came out as planned.

Follow me @photomathias for more like this.

(Click photo for better quality on Flickr)

Photo by: http://www.mathiasvejerslev.dk
Follow me @photomathias
My Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mvejerslev/