RUFA 2025 RECAP
Last year I was able to photograph a 24 hour trail race (read about it here), and was asked to do it again this year to which I excitedly said Yes!
I had an image in mind that I wanted to attempt but it took some scouting the week before, right after we received one of our biggest snow storms of the year. The trail that I hiked up has much less traffic but fortunately there had be at least one person in snowshoes break trail for me. I didn't bring my snowshoes, and I should have. I got up to the peak and found a decent composition that I was pretty happy with, but it was during the day and I couldn't quite see the trail from across the canyon so I didn't know for sure how well my idea would work. Just had to hope for the best.
One week later.
Race day.
I started hiking a bit before the race started and got some photos of the runners coming up the canyon, then I head to my pre-scouted spot in the dark, alone, in mountain lion country. I should note that the race organizer was scouting the trail the night before the race and saw a mountain lion and actually posted a video of it. So ya, that was a little unnerving.
I arrived to my spot and most of the snow had melted on the trail, thank goodness, so I set up my camera and began shooting.
Here's what I came up with:
This was around 100 photos blended to create the light and star trails. The runner's head lamps coming up the trail, the stars moving overhead, and a very well placed airplane flying into SLC International Airport.
I was blow away that the plane lined up absolutely perfectly with the peak that the runners were running to.
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