Toughing it Out

THE SUBJECT:
Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, this hard working veteran Ironman contestant is Christian DuJardin from New Caledonia, aged 58.
A member of my camera club is a registered nurse of many years experience and when she saw this photograph noted that going by the large veins standing out so prominently from his neck that Christian’s heart must have been working like a jack hammer. I can assure you that this must be true as I heard his very laboured breathing as he passed only about a metre (3ft) away from me.
I don’t know where or if Christian was placed in his class but I hope he did well. He certainly deserves it!

THE LOCATION:
Photographed in the CBD of Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia on a rather dull grey and damp day.

THE MAKING OF ‘Toughing it Out’:
Due to the lighting conditions and the restrictions of my camera I was having one heckuva time juggling shutter speeds, apertures and ISO as well as my panning technique to get the sort of shot I was after.
I saw Christian approaching from a fair distance and readied myself for the shot only to find I could not get back any further because of the crowd behind me so this was a very cramped panned photograph. Regardless of all that I was fairly pleased with the result.
The image almost ended up in the virtual rubbish bin as I was extremely disappointed with the softness of the man’s face. Fortunately however, I slept on it and when I awoke I decided against trashing it because I just could not bring myself to throw that haunting face away. A case of ‘do all photgraphs have to be sharp?’
The Judge of my camera club’s digital competition thought well enough of it to award the shot a Credit so I feel I sure did the right thing.
Fuji S9600: RAW, Manual settings of f/11 @ 1/100sec, ISO400, Continuous focus, Panning hand held.
Lightroom 2.2 & Photoshop CS3.

Visit the Sport & Leisure collection in my BubbleSite Gallery for more sweaty Ironman action.

UPDATE: 14-10-09
My tough Ironman was awarded a CREDIT in the Port Macquarie Panthers Camera Club’s September 2009 Open Competition in the Large Monochrome Print section.

UPDATE: 14-10-09
Monsieur DuJardin has been FEATURED in the Australian Contemporary Group.

UPDATE: 8-11-09
This hardy Ironman has been FEATURED in the Pro Peloton Photographers Group.

Enjoy!

IRONMAN
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Toughing it Out