The great race (Iditarod photos)

heatherfeather

The Iditarod trail begins just up the road an hour or so from my house, but it is always a treat to go to the startup.

1. The dogs just LOVE what they are doing.


2.
Rush hour on the lake


3.
Dee Dee Jonrowe... Seriously my favorite musher. She has the fastest time of any female musher in Iditarod history, and has done it all up against some really big challenges. A truly inspiring woman with a fantastic story of the human spirit.


4.
This musher has a great look... and a little ventilation up top.



5.


6.


I have bazillions more really fun photos of dogs and dogsleds, but these are some of my favs.

Anyway... it is always such a treat to shoot for myself. I don't often get to, so when I do, I just revel in the pure pleasure of it.

C & C always appreciated!

sweet caroline

Gorgeous work!

l.k.madison

sweet caroline wrote:

Gorgeous work!

BEAUTIFUL job, as always, Heather!!!

CyberSteak

As a Christmas gift for my two oldest children, we went dog sledding for an entire day. One of the best experiences of my life and my children's. The dogs DO LOVE to do this. It's just amazing to experience. If you ever get a chance do this...DO IT! I brought all my camera gear with me with the intent to take a bunch of pics. But cold hands and the fact that I was driving one of the sleds left little opportunity to snap shots.

One of the pics I manage to take during a campfire lunch. No post processing on it, and yeah I missed the mark on the focusing. Oh well...I'll get better.



Oh and Heather, thanks for sharing the pics!

Swartzy

Wooot! Nice work there Fred! I love it.

Scott_Quier

Nice! One day, I would like to be there for the start of this race for much the same reasons!

adbsgicom

Thanks for the images, they are really wonderful. My daughter's school did a whole unit based on a book about the Iditarod in 4th grade. I'll have to show her this thread after school today.

Ed911

Heather,

Thanks for the images...put up more. You know, one of my favorite things about photography, is being able to be there without actually being there...lol.

What an event. The Alaskan adventure. Human spirit at its finest...Iditarod!

The_Fat_Zebra

Ed911 wrote:

Heather,

Thanks for the images...put up more. You know, one of my favorite things about photography, is being able to be there without actually being there...lol.

What an event. The Alaskan adventure. Human spirit at its finest...Iditarod!

This is indeed great about this forum. You can travel anywhere in the world by looking at the work of pro's. I'd love to see more of this as well. And their tongues are really long!

heatherfeather

Thanks everyone!
At CSteak... awww your doggie shot is cute even without perfect focus... he has the "head tilt and tips of his ears folded down" thing going on! Cute! I haven't actually ridden in a dog sled, but it might be fun. We did go for a sleigh ride behind horses this Christmas, but can you believe I completely forgot my camera!?! It was a perfect gorgeous day for it too! I am still kicking myself.

Here are some more Ididadogs for Ed:

1B.
Apparently some mushers decide to save time and clone the dogs:


2B.
There were all types of people watching the race in all kinds of modes of transportation. Lots of helicopters and pipercubs... millions of snowmachines zipping around.

And then there is this guy.
It says "Experimental" on the side. Brave guy. He could fly pretty low to the trail and watch what was going on.



3B.
Meanwhile Gracie watched in her Alaskan armchair.



4B.
This is little Denali. She is super cute all bundled up. (my sister's niece)



5B. Lance Mackey ... 3 time reigning champion of the Iditarod. It must be in the family since dad and brother won before he did. His dad won by 1 second... literally by the nose of his lead dog.



6B. The dogs' tongues crack me up... they remind me of scarves blowing in the wind behind them. And the one in the back has it so far out it almost covers his eyes!



7B. Got the slobber trail in that one. Time and time again I saw the dogs scoop up a mouthful of snow for a quick drink along the trail.



8B. This guy lost one of his colored contacts.



On a technical side note, I was surprised how fast my shutter speed had to be to get a sharp photo of these guys... Clear up to 1/1250th. Though I read somewhere that when they start out they are going up to 12 mph!

It was super bright out so I had a polarizer on so I could open it up and get some bokeh.

Any of you guys that want to come on up and experience this next year, give me a call and we'll hook up and shoot it together! That would be super fun!

Cuong

Love your captions and the photos, too.

Cuong

D'Buggs

GREAT coverage.

kdog

Terrific series of shots. Love the closeups of the dogs.

lilmomma

oh that looks like a BLAST! great shots! You can just tell that the dogs are loving it.

D'Buggs

Q.

Any film crews around? I loved watching this race when it aired as a series, last year. I recognize a couple of faces because of it...

Sam

Thanks for the photos....................This must be a great experience.

I also noted that serious high quality winter gear is a necessity up there.

Sam

divamum

I love them all, but #5 is just SUCH a Heather shot - I dunno if it's the way you use dof, or comp or what, but it's just so your style... without a bride or an engagement ring in sight!

Really awesome stuff - beautiful work (of course), but also a really interesting insight into something a lot of us will likely never see in person. Thanks for sharing!! clap

Darren Troy C

Great set! 2 and 5 are fantastic. Which lens / what settings on 5?

heatherfeather

D'Buggs wrote:

Q.

Any film crews around? I loved watching this race when it aired as a series, last year. I recognize a couple of faces because of it...

Yep, there are always tons of film crews around... There is a press box and all that kind of stuff. But this year I chose to avoid the crowd and went up the trail quite a ways so I could get some photos without people and the orange barrier in the background. I did see one guy with a 400mm or so lens, but other than that I had the best gear in my area.

But my little brother got a press ticket and did that with his videography crew. Here is a clip of his from the cerimonial start on Saturday. Not too shabby for a baby brother, eh?

heatherfeather

Sam wrote:

Thanks for the photos....................This must be a great experience.

I also noted that serious high quality winter gear is a necessity up there.

Sam

Winter gear is a way of life... snowpants, coats, gloves and mittens are required for all students in schools, perhaps more than other school supplies. But the photo of my daughter with her face covered up is just because after 4 hours of being outdoors on even a nice day like that it gets a little chilly. I would say it was around 30 degrees and you could actually feel the suns heat, which was lovely. (It has been a while... ) I was MUCH warmer than last year since I have recently invested in some sweet boarders pants. They are really warm and keep the wind out! Last year I just wore jeans, and froze.

heatherfeather

Darren Troy C wrote:

Great set! 2 and 5 are fantastic. Which lens / what settings on 5?

I shot all the photos that day with my 70-200 2.8 IS...and number 5 was at 200mm, ISO 100 f 3.2 at 1/1250th. I had my polarizer on to eat some light so I could open it up and get all kinds of glorious bokeh. It was really bright with all that snow and sunshine.

JAG

awesome images Heather! Super fantastic job on capturing DeeDee! I sure did miss going with you this year but there is always next year.

I encourage everyone to pray for DeeDee Jonrowe and her mom (who rode in the basket during the ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday). Her mom has been dx'ed with two kinds of cancer in her breasts and last I heard they were planning on doing a double masectomy on the 15th.

DeeDee is a strong, brave woman after overcoming breast cancer herself and all the other hardships, she still continues to race and be a motivation and insperation to all. Those interested in reading up on her insperational life can read about it on her site at http://www.deedeejonrowe.com/ and check out the about DeeDee link.

heatherfeather

JAG wrote:

I sure did miss going with you this year but there is always next year.

You bet! We decided spur of the moment on Sunday morning to go... otherwise I'd have called you. But with you being sick and all I bet you wouldn't have come anyways. You'd have liked our spot - we parked about 10 feet from the trail. (Though I hiked around a bit.)

D'Buggs

heatherfeather wrote:

Here is a clip

Pretty kewl!

For the record, I know what -45 is like. And know, with the help of a stiff breeze, what -60 can do.... Didn't like it.

Hope too see more of this event from ya.

sparky675

would love to it
really nice shots, do all the dogs have feet protection. thats nice.

BradfordBenn

Very nice and very cool

kidzmom

Oh my gosh, HeatherFeather.. These are tremendous! I can't believe you were able to capture the dogs in action that well. Holy wow. I've never seen anything like it before. Your colors are so crisp and fresh. Wonderful! The huskies with the blue eyes are stunning. Thanks for sharing!!

dave6253

Lurker Chimes In - My First Post
Beautiful shots Heather! My favorite is #5. I like the way the focus is on the lead dogs and the musher appears less important.