16th Hella Half Marathon

There was a half marathon in Hamburg on Sunday and my job was to photograph as many participants as possible when they reached the finish line. I was the official photographer that day - all of my pictures are available at Hamburger Abendblatt to see.

Although I'm used to it Sporting events Taking photos was very different this time. For example, my first task was to synchronize my camera watch with that of the organizer. This makes it easier to later link the photographed runners with the images. The runners should be able to find each other easily using a search function, but not all numbers can always be seen in the picture - this is where time helps, because each runner knows how long he or she needed to complete the exact 21,0975km.

Also, my camera position was different. I usually shoot slightly from below so that the athletes' actions look better. At this event, however, it is important to capture as many photos as possible. This doesn't work with the large number of participants if I take photos with a low camera position. Almost 6000 people reached the finish line within four hours. Individual portraits were only very rarely possible. So I stood slightly elevated on a ladder, because that increases the chance of at least photographing the participants' faces.

Ultimately, it was a trigger battle. At peak time, I took close to 10 usable images in a 750-minute period. I was about to get a cramp in my trigger finger. Although it sounds like a careless mass-production, I constantly looked for runners that I hadn't photographed yet, repositioned the camera and refocused it. And this over a period of 4 hours...

Of course, such an action doesn't produce any photographic masterpieces, but there are still some highlights, a few of which I can show you.