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'See How They Run' - Lady Madonna (1968)
2nd Place'See How They Run' - Lady Madonna (1968)
bassbone


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Beatles Song/Lyrics II (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: 2012 Challenges
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED
Location: Wickham Park, Manchester, CT
Date: Oct 6, 2012
Aperture: f3.2
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/500
Galleries: Sports, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Oct 6, 2012

 Wickham Cross Country Invitational

Thanks for extremely kind comments during and post challenge. It was an absolute treat to see that score keep going up up up from it's start around 6.3 on the first day of voting.

The start of cross country races is always a magical moment, waiting for the gun to go off. This shot was taken during a recent invitational race as the teams prepare for conference and state championships.

Cross country is a wonderful sport, full of strategy, pride, heart, guts, intensity, and determination. It is also a very short season, with the first matches in early September and finishing up in early November. These kids train all summer (and in the case of the best runners all year) for these 8-9 weeks of competition.

For this race, the winner was Dhahran Velasquez of Capital Prep in Hartford with a time of 16:33 for the 5K hilly and muddy course. He is not pictured in this image, as there were 235 runners in this race. Both of my sons run varsity for St Bernard School and the team in focus in the center are some of the seven runners from StB's.

For the comments about the focus and lens, I love the 80-200 2.8 lens. It is built like a tank and provides great clarity when shooting sports. It is about one-half the price of the Nikkor VR 70-200 lenses.

Processing: RAW image processed using NIK Silver Efex Pro 2. I have a few costume presets that I start with - this one adjusts the levels, the curves, the details, applies a vignette, burns the edges, and applies a soft color tone. With regard to the clarity, I only applied a small amount of sharpening prior to the final resize. The details came mostly from the light conditions (cloudy) and the lens.

Statistics
Place: 2 out of 83
Avg (all users): 6.9670
Avg (commenters): 8.3077
Avg (participants): 6.8571
Avg (non-participants): 7.0357
Views since voting: 3749
Views during voting: 222
Votes: 91
Comments: 41
Favorites: 3 (view)

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AuthorThread
 10/17/2012 08:10:30 PM
Peter , your love of the sport and your passion for photography are melded so perfectly here. Well done, my friend !
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2012 01:59:39 PM
Super processing and great shot. Congratulations on the ribbon, Peter.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2012 10:04:24 AM
Congratulations! Perfect shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2012 05:59:25 AM
Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/16/2012 12:10:01 AM
Great shot, Peter! Congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 10:58:46 PM
Congrats! You do such wonderful work with these B&W track shots.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 09:34:31 PM
Congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 06:54:05 PM
I knew this would win the moment I saw it. Great shot, great processing. Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 05:02:49 PM
Congrats, fantastic shot, I knew the schools looked familiar.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 02:37:23 PM
Congrats, Peter ~ Well-deserved win! Love the title. Fantastic capture. You really rock that lens. Love your sports photography.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 10:42:09 AM
The amount of clarity you're getting on these shots is just incredible, Peter. Congrats on the ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 05:33:37 AM
Congrats Peter, great dynamic shot, you've cape diem - ed it. A cracker of a lens too, so, which one won?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 04:22:05 AM
The perfect use of this kind of lens allowed you to get this great shot - well deserved ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 03:29:41 AM
A truly splendid shot, well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 03:12:31 AM
Great shot, Peter, the perfect moment captured. Congrats on the red!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 01:27:25 AM
High expectations. Thanks.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 01:16:35 AM
Wow, an incredible image, Peter. One of the best I have ever seen on DPC. It deserved an 8+ score in my opinion.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:49:26 AM
Congratulations, Peter. Great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:46:14 AM
Nice Peter.

....is that Clint Eastwood in the back? :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:25:47 AM
Outstanding shot! Superbly processed. Congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:21:47 AM
Excellent shot -- my favorite of the challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:16:54 AM
I KNEW this had to ribbon. Simply breathtaking.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:04:17 AM
Oh man! I am so glad this won a ribbon! It was the very first picture that came up when I started looking at the pictures and right off I knew: This is it! Congratulations!

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:03:43 AM
Just wonderful, congrats on the red!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/15/2012 12:01:57 AM
You should have seen this coming, I did :) 9. WD!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
10/14/2012 10:59:00 PM
Love this. So many expressions.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/14/2012 09:43:52 PM
My winner.... 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/14/2012 09:39:08 PM
Beautiful tones. It's fun to see how a race begins.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/14/2012 11:55:23 AM
This works really well!!! Great definitions and toning.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2012 01:55:18 PM
Good shot Peter. I like the way the vignetting draws the eye in.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/11/2012 11:55:50 PM
Brilliant! 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/11/2012 04:50:44 PM
#3, tied with another.
Obviously this is bassbone. Similar style to your FS entry. I'm slightly biased towards good photos with runners in them, being one myself. I wish I could go back to these days of yore where running was my only stress.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/11/2012 10:13:59 AM
Just the right moment! Great poses and expressions. The black and white tones are excellent. Top ten for me. Voted earlier.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/10/2012 05:27:33 PM
I see lots of Connecticut shoreline schools...hmmm- Excellent movement and detail in the expressions.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/10/2012 03:36:31 PM
Oh, this is AWESOME! Surely the best in the challenge... It's only my first image so far, but my guess is this one's going to be hard to beat!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2012 02:54:07 AM
Top class image, hope they didn't stampede you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/08/2012 11:43:39 PM
good one!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/08/2012 04:10:18 PM
Again I enjoy the processing bassbone Great DOF too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/08/2012 09:25:18 AM
Heh, great visual to suit that portion of the lyric line.. Hmmm, the second half of the line mentions a gun and to announce the start of the race begins with the firing of a gun so it is a good fit there too. Love how you captured the runners about to bolt from the starting line - good action. The processing is also excellent. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/08/2012 07:54:11 AM
Really massive great pic...10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/08/2012 12:14:14 AM
Wow.


(commenting only)
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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