NikonGear'23
Images => People, Portraits, Street, PJ & Cityscapes => Topic started by: Øivind Tøien on March 09, 2025, 06:55:18
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The long distance Iditarod sled dog race is on. It usually has a ceremonial start in the city streets of Anchorage, then a restart a little further north before heading towards Nome on the west coast of Alaska. Last week I attended a meeting in Anchorage and there was absolutely no snow at all. They managed to truck in a little for a very short ceremonial start of a few hundred meters, but that was it.
The organizers had to quickly re-re-route the race to go from Fairbanks to Nome, which us locals of course did not mind. ;D With an included detour the 1128 mile (1815 km) route is the longest ever. The Fairbanks start has only happened a couple of times before; the last one in 2017 was covered here from the same location: https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=5631.0 (https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=5631.0). But while that last start happened after a night at -38°C, temperature this time was quite balmy above freezing. The intense March sun created pretty harsh light, but half way out a few thin clouds pulled in to soften the light al little. I used my Z8 with 14-30 f/4 S, 85mm f/1.8 S and the 300mm PF, all the time at 20fps, so I had to sort though 1750 frames when I came back. :o
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Of special mention: The only European participants, bib #5 Ebbe Pedersen from Alta in Northern Norway, and bib #18 Mille Porsild, a Danish veteran musher and polar adventurer. Here is a complete list https://iditarod.com/race/2025/mushers/list/ (https://iditarod.com/race/2025/mushers/list/).
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More happy dogs.
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Those last dogs above was part of the team of Emily Ford of Duluth, MN. Her bib was the last number, but notice the additional subtext. She represents a number of the words that is now forbidden by the US government (Diversity, LGBTQ), at least if you want apply for research funding. Good see all the people cheering at her, and having fun - perhaps some future mushers?
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Finally a couple of parting shots and two more from the crowd.
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A camera like Z8 really shines in such a situation. For whatever reason, I particularly like the first wideangle image in the third posted batch.
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I also like the shots of the dogs, especially the second shots of each of your first three posts.
A camera like Z8 really shines in such a situation. For whatever reason, I particularly like the first wideangle image in the third posted batch.
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I also like the shots of the dogs, especially the second shots of each of your first three posts.
These are my favourites too. Thank you for sharing the photographs, Øivind.
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I like the wide angle energy too but kudos for the overall coverage. Your images tell a contagious story of smiles in the people and happy eagerness in the dogs. Have to love Alaska.
With an included detour the 1128 mile (1815 km) route is the longest ever. That is seriously mind blowing. How long it takes to run that distance?
Thank you for sharing it!
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Thanks all of you for the enthusiastic comments! Yes, that second wide capture was one of my favorites too, plus the dog closeups. The Z8 gave so many options to select the preferred posture of the dogs.
Last years race that was a little less than 1000 miles had most of the front-runners finish in a little over 9 days, while the last team used more than 12 days. Currently at day 6 the front runner is about half-ways (but many mushers have already spent time on the mandatory 8 and 24 hour rests). Just finishing the race is impressive enough, 9 teams out of 38 total scratched or withdrew last year. So far this year 6 teams had to scratch. Sadly one of those scratches was because of a dog that died (one in the team of the closeup image after the favorite wide shot). All the dogs go though a very careful veterinary check before start and on the checkpoints, but apparently it was missed that the dog was pregnant. More frequent health problems to look out for is due to the sky high energy and food consumption by the dogs that can cause stomach problems and aspiration of stomach content.
This was my first time with Z8 on the dog teams, so I also took it as as bit of a technical learning experience. I used wide area with animal mode for most of them I think, which mostly locked well on the front dogs, given proper operation of the Z8. A little more challenging is it when one get into the middle of the team coming straight on, then there are no specific dog(s) to lock on. But this is a limitation of the operator, not the camera.
Edit: I did a few short handheld video clips, certainly not my strong area, but here is one with the 85mm lens that is not too shaky, uploaded in 4K 60p: https://youtu.be/mQ-E1pbnRYE?feature=shared (https://youtu.be/mQ-E1pbnRYE?feature=shared)
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What a race! Great pictures, Øivind. Thanks for sharing.
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Impressively documented, Øivind!
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Thank you for sharing these great images of the race ;)
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Thanks Bruno, John and Erik.
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super series of the race, fun to look at, you transport the feeling with your images
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Nice pictures, nice to see winter sports with snow around, have just been in Trondheim for the WSC in XC skiing, in rain and warm temperatures.
Tanks for sharing.
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Thanks, Thomas and Bent. Glad if I was able to share some of the atmosphere of the event.
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Nice shots! Haven't been to the start since 1982! Somewhere I have a decent shot of Herbie Nayokpuk ...
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Thanks for the comment Gil. 1982, that is a long time ago, I had to look up Herbie Nayokpuk: He was a highly respected Inupiaq musher, with a 2nd place finish in 1980, and many top 10 finishes. There is a "Herbie Nayokpuk Memorial Award" given out each year. Are you able to locate that image to show us?