I'd been asked if I could cover the Penistone Parkrun on March 7th, a celebration to mark International Women's Day. With the usual response of, "Course I will … but I can't promise 100% that I'll be there." It will always depend on Willow and whether or not Sal is able to see to walkie number 2.
Decided to take a couple of cameras along. The D500 with an 85mm F1.8 prime, plus the D700 sporting an old D series 35mm for wider shots. I love the D700 and the way it renders skin tones. It came into the public domain in 2008 and is one heck of a heavyweight full frame DSLR.
Although I'm happy to snap at events, there's still that fear of failure when someone wants a finished product. Runners don't always come up with the goods in terms of composition. Portraits, like the one above, are more than likely to be okay.
Stop moaning Mozzie and get on with it.
Managed to arrive at the showground in plenty of time and find a volunteer's jacket. Ran down to the start line and decided which camera I would use to snap the runners setting off.
Although the D500 can race through quite a few clicks a second, I thought that the 35mm lens would give me a wider angle of view. More runners in focus, with more of the background within the composition. Haven't used the 35mm for quite a while. Pleased with the resulting images.
That's the D700 for the start and by the time they'd looped two sides of the field, I was ready with the D500. It's rare that you manage a decent image when the runners are on their way out, the compositions tend to be less appealing and most end up in the bin.
It didn't take long before the leaders had completed the out and back course, the final climb to the finish awaiting them. I wasn't sure where to stand. Low down might give me a strip of annoying sky at the top, having said that ... the trees were breaking the blue up into smaller sections.
Too late, they're here.
Thanks to Hugh, Gary and Tim for lining up so perfectly for this shot. Coming straight at me is what I was after. Just that bit of blue at the top to distract me, I must stop being so picky.
One heck of a talent this young lady is. First female across the line in just over 22 minutes. A junior runner with a very bright future. Hopefully she'll stay with Penistone FR for years to come.
At the other end of the age range, V65-69 cat runner Malcolm Rose is also a phenomenal athlete. He ran Rother Valley in 20:33 last year.
WOW!
Seems to enjoy visiting Penistone having run 11 of his races here out of a total of 38 parkruns. We need to ask him why we are so popular.
Some of my favourite images from the shoot.
The woman that shaped my life:
Mum - a mother of eight children, five boys and three girls. Being child number seven, I don't think that I really got to know her as well as I would have liked to.
She lost two of her children, one to Pink Disease and her youngest child Julie, to spina bifida.
I can't comprehend what that must have been like for her, and my father.
Born two years before Julie, she probably protected me more than the others and gave me double the love to compensate for her loss.
Her own father had come back from the first world war, only to become a casualty of the pandemic known as Spanish Flu. 50 million people died!
She was desperate to become a teacher, but her stepfather decided that money was more important and sent her off to Blackpool to work "in- service" instead.
She hated it.
Having given birth to eight children, mum decided that dad, a miner, should go on permanent nights. Sleeping for much of the day, I didn't see that much of him during the week. He'd sort me out in the morning, getting me ready for school and then an hour or so before he set off for work.
Thank god for weekends and Sundays actually being a day of rest.
Mum had an amazing memory, especially for dates. Ask her when one of her nephews or nieces was born and she could rattle off the time, weight and where the event took place.
Love to have had a more in depth conversation with her, got to know the person behind the apron ... the woman who cared so much for her husband and children. What were her aspirations, her dreams? Sadly, I'll never know.
I communicate far better with images than I do words. Apologies.
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