David Cha, a rising junior at Gilman, is going to be photo editor of the school yearbook, Cynosure, next year and, judging by the quality of the shot he took to win a top spot in the Josten’s Yearbook student photo contest, he has the chops to take on that important role and then some. Cha was just awarded fifth place in the Sports Athletes in Action category. Photo contest winners were judged on composition, artistic merit, technical qualities and the ability to tell a compelling story.
Cha’s prize winning track photo titled “Full Speed” captures relay runner Daniel Yue at an indoor track meet. David panned with the running action during the 4×200 event.
“It took me at least 150 shots to get that one. I tried panning in every running event. I didn’t have a good telephoto. I shot it hand-held, which is why it is so hard. I ran with the person to get the pan and I ran into the fence once. It took a lot of attempts. It is really, really hard to pan when the person is moving everything. I got really lucky on that one,” says David.
Cha shot the photo using a Canon 60 D SLR, Tamron 17 to 50 mm 2.8 lens with vibration control, using a slow shutter speed of 1/30 sec. ISO 100. We won’t forget the cool image and we’ll keep his name on file!
To think, I was confused a miunte ago.