110 Meters Hurdles
Sam G.
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My photo is of a 110 meters hurdles race held at my high school, taken on 35mm film. I kneeled down directly in line with one of the sets of hurdles to be exactly perpendicular with the hurdlers as they were in the air and to have a slightly lower angle on the jumps than I would have had if I was standing. Before taking the picture, I watched the first heat of 110 meters hurdles to figure out which set of hurdles I wanted to photograph, so that the racers wouldn’t have had the time to spread out too much for the composition I wanted. I used a fast shutter speed to freeze their movements midair. I also took into account the fact that my final picture would be taller than a normal 35mm photo and include sprocket holes when making the composition.
I achieved this by using a camera that would let me expose all the way to the edges of the film, so that I could have the sprocket holes overlaid on the image. I of course made sure to include them when scanning the film, which I did with a digital camera on a downward-facing mount and a light table to illuminate the film from below. I also used expired film, which yielded the color shifts present in the image. Finally, I cropped the image to center the hurdles and hurdlers, and to leave equal distance from the outer sprocket holes and the edges of the image on the left and right.
This photo is part of an ongoing series of mine where I take photos at my high school’s Track and Field and Cross Country events, both of which I also participate in. I usually take half of a 36 exposure roll of film, or all of a 12 exposure roll. The photos that I take are supposed to show my point of view of these meets. I take photos of getting to the meets, setting up, stretching and warming up, racing (as in this photo), cleaning up, and returning. There are already many photos taken of each meet that are very technically proficient, so I try to show my own perspective in my own style of photography.
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Being creative through art lets me express my thoughts and emotions in ways unique to my medium. Art can be less ephemeral than other forms of expression, as I get final products that can be tangible, and that I can look back on fondly to feel content and/or critically to improve my future output.
