I helped as a photographer with the 6-hour utlra-run Dutch championship at Hoofddorp on 24 October 2026. My task was to produce good pictures of each of the 51 runners, for use in various publications about this race (like this article on Runner's World).

So in theory I had 6 hours to take all the picures. However, I had to take into account that runners might drop out earlier (e.g. because of an injury), so I made sure to have captured everyone already during the first few rounds.

After the first pressure was off for me, I could relax a bit and also take photos of things happening around the race.

Here are some things I learned and practiced in this photoshoot:

• I set my camera to M
• shutterspeed to 1/500 (this will freeze most movements)
• aperture as wide as possible so that the background will be blurry (and the subject in focus!)
• ISO to adapt between 100 and 1600 (any higher and my 12-year old Sony A7-II will make noisy photos)
• continuous autofocus
• beforehand I walked the 1.1km circuit in counter-direction, so that I knew the layout and could try out various positions to photograph runners coming towards me. I was looking for spots with a quiet or characteristic background.

And finally, what makes a good sports photograph? I guess it's 1 or more of the following 3 things, in this order of priority:

• capturing the right person
• capturing the right moment
• creating an interesting photographic image

So in contrast to most other forms of photography, with sports photography function trumps form!