What is in my Triathlon Photography Kit - Part 1 Camera Bodies

All the gear and some idea

Obsessing over camera gear is an expensive pitfall that many newer photographers can fall into. The most important part of your kit is the photographer behind the camera, but there is also a reality to sports photography….it is demanding on gear, and you need to make sensible decisions around gear acquisition.

I touched on some of my triathlon photography kit about a year ago in my post about How to Photograph Triathlons. Since then, I’ve grown as a photographer, and my kit has evolved a bit along with me. The additions to bring it up to my current kit are incremental, and are mainly centred around convenience and slight improvements in image quality.

Over the following series of blog posts I’ll talk through my current kit, which is by no means a budget set-up and has been funded through my work as a photographer. I’ll also be putting together my suggestions for a starter kit that can be put together with a budget of roughly $1500.

Part 1 - Camera bodies

Once you start getting serious about photography, and particularly once you start accepting paid jobs, you simply cannot rely on just one camera body. Having multiple bodies provides the convenience I need of being able to shoot with different focal length lenses without having to change them (more about lenses here), but above all else, having a second body will save your bacon if one body happens to fail. If you’re shooting an important event and your only body fails, resulting in no images for the client, then they won’t be having you back.

My current camera bodies

Canon EOS R6. Purchased earlier this year and was my first ever brand-new camera. It is an amazing camera, and the auto-focus system is out-of-this-world. I use all my “old” EF glass with the EF-RF adaptor, and the lenses perform flawlessly. The video capabilities are also very useful for some of my other non-sport projects that I’ve done. I’ve written more about the Canon EOS R6 for triathlon photography and general sports photography.

The Canon EOS R6 really is a game changer.

 Canon 1Dx. Yes, the original 1Dx from 2011 (?). I picked this up second-hand just a few months ago for about $1300 to replace my 5Dmk3 which had started having some issues with a spot on the sensor. The 1Dx is still an exceptional camera and the price was right. This one has about 180,000 shutter actuations, so still has over half of its expected life. It is also built like a tank (something which the R6 lacks), so is perfect at those inevitable rainy triathlons.

Built like a tank and heavy as all hell, you just know the Canon 1Dx is built for reliability.

 Canon 5Dmk3. My staple workhorse for the better part of 2 ½ years. I picked this up second-hand for just over $1000, and it was an amazing camera. I’ve put tens of thousands of photos on this camera, it is still performs perfectly in that regard. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a dark spot appearing in the top-right corner of all the photos, which persists with different lenses and has remained after cleaning the sensor hasn’t fixed it, so it may be a patch of dead pixels on the sensor. Cloning it out is an easy fix in Lightroom, but with thousands of photos at an event it isn’t practical. It won’t be on my hip anymore, but I’m still keeping it for when I need a remote camera set up (more on that below).

The sensor spot (circled in red) that just wont disappear from my beloved 5Dmk3. It is even more obvious with the sky as a background!

Conclusion

So that is my current complement of camera bodies. I will generally have my R6 and my 1Dx mounted on a Blackrapid Dual strap with whatever lenses I need at the time. Occasionally one of them will be mounted on a monopod if I am going to be in a single spot for a long time shooting with one of my larger telephoto lenses.

Read on for Part 2 where I talk about my selection of lenses for triathlon photography, and the Part 3 where I talk through some additional accessories that will take your triathlon photography to the next level.

Remote Camera for Sports Photography

Setting up a remote camera for sports photography

Have you ever looked at a photograph from a major sporting event and been unable to wrap your head around how they’ve captured it from a seemingly impossible position? The answer is most likely a remote camera.

It is not uncommon to see a bank of remote cameras at the 100m finish. Photo courtesy Pocketwizard.

You’ll find remote cameras in a heap of different sports in many different situations. Sometimes they’re used where there just isn’t room for a human to sit operating a camera and sometimes they’re used in situations where it is too dangerous for a human like on the outside of a sweeping corner at a motorsport rally.

Some of the most common remote camera shots that you’ll see come from:

• Behind the backboard at a basketball game.

• Up in the rafters at an ice hockey or basketball game. This can give an amazing top-down shot that seems almost impossible to comprehend.

• Behind the goals at a soccer match.

• All over the place at Olympics track and field events.

This type of setup might not be for you if you aren’t a fan of heights! Photo courtesy Pocketwizard.

I’m not shooting the Olympics and we certainly don’t have much ice hockey here in Australia, so where am I using remote cameras for my sports photography work?

My remote camera uses

The vast majority of my sport photography work is in mass-participation events including triathlons, trail running, road running and mountain-bike racing. I’ve used remote cameras in the following situations:

• MTB racing at locations on the track where I know there is an amazing shot, but it is too dangerous for myself or the competitors to have me sitting there. I’ve used remotes on the inside of deep sweeping corners, or right at a big drop. In those instances I would rather the competitors not know they are being shot, because if they do they tend to take unnecessary risks.

• Trail running. There are some beautiful locations out in the bush for trail running photos, but often there isn’t really enough room to get myself next to the track and frame the shot properly. In that instance I’ll hang a remote camera on a tree trunk.

• Road running. If I’m shooting a relatively large event by myself, I’ll use a remote camera at the start line. I like to capture a telephoto shot of the competitors coming towards me from the start line, but I also want a nice wide shot right at the start so I’ll use a remote for that.

• Triathlons. A bit of a mix of everything from above. There are some locations on the bike where I don’t want to distract the competitors, so I’ll set up a remote on the inside of a sweeping corner etc. I also use a remote at the finish line, particularly for busy races. I usually catch a shot of each competitor finishing with my 70-200, but if there are multiple competitors finishing at the same time they can often obscure one another. To account for that, I have a remote camera set up with a wide angle lens either adjacent to the finish line or hanging from above on the finish gantry. It might not make for the most perfect photo, but at least it is a shot of them finishing!

Setting up your remote camera

The basics that you need for a remote camera setup:

My basic remote camera kit

1) Camera and lens. This will depend on what sort of shot you’re aiming for. I tend to use a 24-70mm f/2.8 for my remote.

2) Remote triggers. I use Pocketwizard Plus III remotes, but if you are on a budget there are some cheaper options that work well enough for beginners.

3) Camera support. Depending on here you are placing your remote, this could be a mini-tripod, a ground plate, or something like a Manfrotto Magic Arm if you are going to be hanging the camera. I LOVE this Neewer mini-tripod; it is full-metal construction and is extremely sturdy. I’ve tried using a GorillaPod in the past, but they tend to droop over time with the weight of the lens.

4) Safety gear. If you are going to be hanging the camera, you absolutely must ensure that it can’t come free. Not only will it wreck your gear, but a camera + lens falling from the rafters is going to cause some serious damage to any humans in the way. Some thin steel cable attached to the camera strap mounts and then looped around a beam etc will catch your camera if the primary support fails.

How to set up your remote camera

1. Pick your spot. Think about composition and trying to capture peak action. For me, this would be on the inside of a fast corner at a MTB race, or at the finish line of a triathlon.

2. Get everything connected. Set up the receiver on your camera, mount the camera to your support, and fire off the transmitter to make sure everything is working. You will need to pick a channel that isn’t going to interfere with other photographers. Most large events will allocate channels, but if it is only a couple of you it should be easy enough to have a chat and work it out amongst yourselves.

3. Get your rig in position. Set your composition using the live view, and then focus on where you want to capture your subject. Once you have the focus point set, do not move your rig! Switch your lens to manual focus so it doesn’t try to re-focus when you trigger it, and tape the focus ring with some gaffer tape so that it can’t move.

4. Test, again. After making sure you’ve got cards in the camera, go to your shooting location and fire off a couple of shots with the trigger. Check the camera has fired properly. Now you’re ready to go.

A simple ground remote setup.

Have a play around with the different perspectves you can capture with a remote camera.

 A few things to keep in mind:

• Be mindful of your camera going to sleep. If it has gone to sleep, the first press on the transmitter will likely just wake the camera, it won’t actually take a shot. You can purchase a pre-release cable, but I find it’s just easier to set the camera to its longest sleep duration and then periodically fire off shots to keep it awake.

• Think about how you want to trigger your remote. With Pocketwizards, you can either just fire them by pressing the button on the transmitter, or you can mount them into the hotshoe of your camera and it will fire the transmitter every time you take a photo with that camera. That can be an advantage because it means you don’t have to worry about a separate action to trigger the remote, but it will also mean that you end up with a bunch of photos that you might not want because the remote is firing even if you’re maybe shooting something completely different. I usually stick with triggering it manually using the transmitter in my hand.

• Practice. It might take you a while to get a hang of the timing or placement of a remote camera. Technology can also sometimes go wrong. Do not rely on it to capture any “must capture” shots!

Other resources

• “One Shot: Photographing the Olympic Games” is an amazing short-film produced in 2017. It has some great footage of remote cameras in use. The bank of cameras at the end of the 100m straight is absurd.

• Pocketwizard.com has a great blog section with plenty of ideas for remote cameras