Photographers Blog

Fastest photographer on the track

There was a second lightning bolt on the track with Jamaica’s Usain Bolt on Sunday night, Reuters photographer Kai Pfaffenbach. Below Kai talks about what it was like to keep up with the fastest man in the world.

You can see Kai in action in this You Tube video.

Despite setting up two remote cameras at the finish line myself, my colleague Michael Dalder (aka the remote king) set up six remotes and secured the best pictures of the finish line (above).

Kai keeps up with Usain Bolt after the men’s 100 meters final at the world athletics championships at the Olympic stadium in Berlin August 16, 2009.  EPA/DPA Hannibal Hanschke

I shot the finish line handheld on a 135mm Canon Mark3 and had an EOS5D Mk 2 with a 16-35mm ready on my lap. Bolt was running so fast on the outer curve that I decided to take a shortcut and cut the curve and catch up with him on the other side of the stadium, ahead of the other snappers. Running beside the world record holder, I was shooting on 1000 ISO at 1/800 sec f2.8.