Why We Love Running Track at the YMCA

Grex ran track with the Metuchen YMCA again this year, giving me plenty of opportunities to practice shooting in all kinds of conditions. Above, Kevin on the high jump.

Leave a comment or send me an email message if you’d like to see the season highlights slide show.

Warm ups. A little fill flash goes a long way on a bright sunny day. I love photographing the track teams because of all the great practice it gives me in shooting in open, full-overhead light. (One of the more difficult shooting situations.)

The red track casts a sheen of red onto people’s skin, especially when the sun is behind the photo subject. Ugh. The fill flash helps alleviate some of it. (Look how much more red his shins are compared with his face.)

LOVE this one! Bright, sunny day — look for opportunities where the sun is shining directly onto the subject AND there’s also good colors in the foreground, subject area and background. Helps that the photo subjects are active. Otherwise, they’d be squinting. From this angle, the red track looks awesome!

I took this one earlier in the season when the leaves were still babies. Interesting how different the color palette is.

Here’s the other reason we love running track at the YMCA — Grex (green shirt) gets lots of exercise! Yay!

I love this picture of Mike and the Grex hanging out in the stands.

Father and son run together regularly, practically guaranteeing the son’s ability to beat most kids in his age group based on endurance alone. I think that’s SO cool that they run together all the time! Keep up the good work!

I love this picture of one of the coaches demonstrating the long jump.

It wasn’t always bright and sunny when we were there, giving me practice dealing with less-than-desirable weather.

Cold and rainy — they run anyway.

One of my faves in the long jump.

Another long jump fave. I thought the coaches were AWESOME this year — so encouraging and perfectly willing to get right in there with the kids and run and jump just as much as they did.

Having fun in the relay. I love how the kids have such a great time and it shows on their faces!

Coach is giving hand-off instructions.

Got it!

Here’s another fave high jump shot.

She made running the little hurdles look completely effortless.

Coach would often run alongside the racers, chiding them to try beating him. It was great! Sometimes he ran the same race 7 or 8 times in a row! (I was, needless to say, impressed!)

I love the passion on his face as he throws the javelin.

“Thanks coaches!”

Grex thinks his medal is pretty cool!

Grex gives his new medal a little rinse just for the fun of it.

Mike gives Grex a little rinse just for the fun of it! Thanks again, coaches! It was a great season!