Athens World Athletics Championships

ThornleyGroves · Jul 18, 2009

So i recently sneaked my way in to the Olympic Stadium in Athens and got 'trackside' so i was free to roam around all the events with the athletes, and i gathered a few shots! Here are 9 of them, C&C welcome!

1.

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9.

Early · Jul 18, 2009

Nice shots, dude! They certainly don't belong in this sector.

Antarctican · Jul 18, 2009

What a wonderful series of action shots! Well done!

(Any tricks of the trade you'd care to share as to how you managed to get trackside??)

ThornleyGroves · Jul 18, 2009

Antarctican said:
What a wonderful series of action shots! Well done!

(Any tricks of the trade you'd care to share as to how you managed to get trackside??)

Just extreme amounts of confidence pretending your meant to be there, also i know the Olympic Stadium inside out from football matched so i know lots of secret passages and when stopped by the greek police i just spoke english saying i am meant to be here

works all the time!

Thanks for the comments these are probably my best shots yet, all taken with my D90 and the standard 18-105mm 3.5 lens... my 70-200mm sigma f2.8 lens hasn't arrived yet!!

fast1 · Jul 18, 2009

my only question is," how did you manage to get so close?!" good job!

ThornleyGroves · Jul 18, 2009

fast1 said:
my only question is," how did you manage to get so close?!" good job!

just try and try and persist and persist

ThornleyGroves · Jul 18, 2009

Early said:
Nice shots, dude! They certainly don't belong in this sector.

Thanks, ill move them to the general gallery then i think...!

Photog · Jul 19, 2009

These are great, it's a shame your lens doesn't open any wider, because you could do with a little less DOF on most of them.
Did you try any panning for the sprinters? I've seen a few shots where it looks great. You could also try some shots with a slightly slower shutter speed and try to capture the movement. Keep posting if you manage to blag your way in again!

ThornleyGroves · Jul 19, 2009

Photog said:
These are great, it's a shame your lens doesn't open any wider, because you could do with a little less DOF on most of them.
Did you try any panning for the sprinters? I've seen a few shots where it looks great. You could also try some shots with a slightly slower shutter speed and try to capture the movement. Keep posting if you manage to blag your way in again!

Thanks! to change my DoF i play around with the f values, yes? Nope no panning for the sprinters, but how do i do panning for the sprinters? Next time i have a go ill try a slightly slower shutter speed and try to capture the movement!

Photog · Jul 19, 2009

Yes, for a shallower DOF, the most effective way here would be to use a smaller f-stop (wider aperture), but unfortunately the EXIF data says you were shooting at f/4 and this is the widest your lens goes at that focal length.

I'm not sure of the kind of shutter speed you'd need for panning, possibly around 1/30s. To keep the runner and blur the background, just follow him with your camera at the same speed he's running and release the shutter whilst still turning the camera.

ThornleyGroves · Jul 19, 2009

Photog said:
Yes, for a shallower DOF, the most effective way here would be to use a smaller f-stop (wider aperture), but unfortunately the EXIF data says you were shooting at f/4 and this is the widest your lens goes at that focal length.

I'm not sure of the kind of shutter speed you'd need for panning, possibly around 1/30s. To keep the runner and blur the background, just follow him with your camera at the same speed he's running and release the shutter whilst still turning the camera.

Okay great ill give it a go! the EXIF might say that because i was on sports mode, and i know the 18-105 f3.5 - 5.6 goes biggerrr! But ill give the panning ago!

Dylan-Fishman · Jul 19, 2009

#2 scares me!

Brilliant shots

Baaaark · Jul 19, 2009

The only one I'm not a fan of is #5, because of the other camera guy.

Other than that...wow.

c.cloudwalker · Jul 19, 2009

ThornleyGroves said:
Just extreme amounts of confidence pretending your meant to be there, also i know the Olympic Stadium inside out from football matched so i know lots of secret passages and when stopped by the greek police i just spoke english saying i am meant to be here

works all the time!

:thumbup:

And you're only 17? I predict a bright future for you. People used to ask me all the time how I had gotten into such and such a place or such and such an event and my answer was the same as yours today. Act as if you belong there and rarely will anyone question your being there.

ThornleyGroves · Jul 19, 2009

Dylan-Fishman said:
#2 scares me!

Brilliant shots

Haha, he scared me too, staring right at me! thats why i like this image!

Baaaark said:
The only one I'm not a fan of is #5, because of the other camera guy.

Other than that...wow.

thanks alot! yeah it was pretty tricky not to get the camera men into the photos!

c.cloudwalker said:
ThornleyGroves said:

Just extreme amounts of confidence pretending your meant to be there, also i know the Olympic Stadium inside out from football matched so i know lots of secret passages and when stopped by the greek police i just spoke english saying i am meant to be here

works all the time!

Click to expand...

:thumbup:

And you're only 17? I predict a bright future for you. People used to ask me all the time how I had gotten into such and such a place or such and such an event and my answer was the same as yours today. Act as if you belong there and rarely will anyone question your being there.