finish line photos seem to be my nemesis. for some reason i can stick it on the course or even in the stadium but at the moment of truth, something goes haywire.

sprint finishes are interesting to photograph correctly. you have to watch the action on the homestretch develop so you can get the right shot. you have to figure out if the finish is going to be close enough for a lunge or if the winner will be able to cross the line uncontested. if there is going to be a clear winner, you have to figure out who that is. you want to switch to vertical, zoom in, and catch his excitement as he crosses the line.

as is the case here, if the finish is contested right up until the end, i think it’s more interesting to get all the players involved.

it’s a close call. if one of these guys is one yard ahead, they’re going to come across the finish screaming with their arms in the air. and if you didn’t read the situation right you have to do a lot of cropping to get in to them.

but if i had guessed that one of these guys were going to come across the clear winner and i had zoomed in to catch the reaction, i would have missed the main part of the action – the simultaneous lunge of the two leaders.