Sports The LA Chinatown Firecracker 10K Bike Ride and Run Event - Los Angeles, USA

Jonathan F/2

All-Pro
Location
Los Angeles, USA
Name
Jonathan
For the past three years I've been hired as one of the main photographers to shoot this event. It's a fairly big event to shoot, because it spans both weekend days (Sat. + Sun.) and requires being able to shoot the sports action, posed photographs, candids, detail shots and performances that go on during the event. I shot mostly everything with my D750 bodies. The year prior, I shot it with my Sony A7III cameras. Lighting wise, the event starts in the early morning so you'll face lots of dark and light shadows and sunlight. This is where Nikon's ability to pull up shadows in raw really pay off. The Sony is also quite capable of highlight recovery, but I found Nikon image processing slightly less intensive when it comes to correcting colors and in general I find Nikon colors to be more pleasing.

This year I shot everything with only 3 lenses, the 16-35mm f4 VR, 70-200mm 2.8 VRII and the 300mm f4 PF VR. Just to note because of the amount of space I have to cover, I need to stay as light as possible. One stretch requires me carrying all my gear about a mile away at an adjacent park to photograph additional event coverage. In fact, the Nikon 300mm f4 PF VR was made for this type of shooting due to the reduced weight, giving me that extra reach especially for the bicyclists and runners coming down the stretch. Also due to the change of temperatures, in the early morning you have to bundle up and by late morning you have to strip layers to stay cool! It's truly a physically demanding event not everyone can shoot in it's entirety without being physically capable and you'll definitely feel it in your joints after shooting the event!

In regards to how my equipment handled, I do think I'll be adding a Z body for those above/below angled wide shots. The D750 live view is painfully slow and something I much preferred when using the A7III last year. Action-wise the D750 was capable, I never hit the buffer shooting with fast UHS-I cards, it would of been nicer having slightly faster FPS, but then I enjoyed the leeway of 24mp cropping, while not having to deal with 36mp and up file sizes. I'm literally culling through thousands of photos and transmitting same night! On a side note, runners seem more fun than bicyclists, which seem to be a much serious (probably due to owning fancy bikes)! Definitely a very different fitness crowd! :D


Anyways, check out the photos!

1.
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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

2.
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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr
 
The best part about shooting run events is also shooting the beer gardens! I spent several years as a party/club photographer so I definitely feel like I'm back in my element especially when I have a beer in one hand and a camera on the other! The only negative is coming home and having to edit when I'd rather just take a nap! As I was saying, runners are way more fun when it comes to loading up back on carbs! :roflmao:

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr

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The 42nd Firecracker 10K - Bike Ride / Dog Walk / Run / Kiddie Run - Year of the Rat - February 15, 2020
by Jonathan Friolo, on Flickr
 
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More often than not, when I see "event photos", they look like photos of an the event that you could literally get from a camera on a tripod randomly firing off shots while the even went on. These look like they were compositions framed by a photographer and shot when the moment was right.

Very nice.

Some old press photographer was being snooty to me, saying I was always in his shot. I observed his shooting method, and he basically is what you described...a human tripod! I was thinking of saying something mean to him, but I was nice and told him feel free to ask kindly to move out of his shot. I think I caught him off guard, sending positive vibes back to his grouchy mood!

I'm no spring chicken myself, but I'll bust my joints to contort to every angle to keep the photos interesting! I'm pretty sure by the time I hit my older years, my body is literally going to fall apart! :LOL:
 
Excellent work.
And I've seen you move.

A quote from the show Dexter, "like a lizard on ice".
And if you haven't seen the show.
Smooth, methodical and quick all in the same step.
 
Great photos really capture the atmosphere. I don't envy you having to edit them though! My husband runs a lot of marathons/half marathons, mainly in Europe but he always does the Keys 100 and will be doing that one again at the end of May this year. I like to go with him on the European ones, then I can be free to take photos ;)
 
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