THE ROAD TO THE NYC MARATHON

In many ways, running parallels photography. The training and preparation might not be visible to everyone, but the results are all out there for people to see. While marathoners might run miles at threshold pace to gain fitness, photographers might hash out some ideas with friends to gain different creative processes. My two “key workouts” that I did in preparation for with the NYC Marathon were a series of phone calls with my two friends, Alan Lam and Johnny Pace.

The first key workout was a call with Alan that took place in late-August. We discussed our plans for the remainder of the year — he was planning to shoot Chicago, while I tossed around the idea of shooting the NYC Marathon. I had an inkling of a shot idea, which was to out towards the Queensboro, framing runners with the subway car that I was in, but besides that nothing really stuck with me. At that point I didn’t even know if I was going to make the trip to NYC, much less get the shots that I was spitballing out, but I kept the subway shot in my mind.

Later in October, amidst a bad creative rut, I called up Johnny to help me out — my second key workout. We looked through my portfolio, and he eventually stumbled on my street photography projects. He gave me the idea to find the intersection between street photography and sports photography, the last bit of “fitness” I needed to take on the marathon.

Inspired, I headed out to the course and looked for interesting ways to combine these two disciplines. I repeatedly took the N train between Queensboro Plaza and 59th Street, envisioning every possible angle I could get within my 22 second window. I walked around the streets of Queens, trying to find any source of elevation, any way I could frame runners between the iconic NYC skyline. I walked along 1st Avenue, thinking about how I could use the tramway to create something truly unique. I thought of the ways that I could blur the lines of street and sports photography. Similar to what I would do if I was racing, I eventually came up with a gameplan for my photos.

  •  Get the elites from the Court Square station overpass, and catch them again at Central Park

  • After they finished, I move into the subway and try shooting through the subway. 

  • Finally, get a shot through the Roosevelt Island Tramway overlooking 1st Avenue

Hours later, and many, many tramway/subway trips later (honestly too many to count), I did it. I came away with all of the shots that I dreamed of, and more.

Here are the results. 

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BITR NYC SHAKEOUT