Mo Farah wins at AVIVA UKA Trials

I was fortunate enough to win the Blipfoto / UK Athletics contest with the prize of photographing the first evening of the AVIVA UKA Trials at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

My thanks go to Gordon of Blipfoto and to Alex and Sophie of UKA who all helped to arrange a thoroughly enjoyable and challenging evening.

It was a great learning experience being so close to the action. You are literally at track-side and about 10m from the 100m finish line surrounded by other photographers sporting 400mm f2.8 lenses and second bodies with 70-200mm f2.8 zoom lenses.

Equipment may not be the most important pre-requisite for great pictures but in sports photography it certainly helps. A fast lens let you keep the shutter speed high as the light dims, top of the line bodies allow high ISO speeds without the image degrading into mush and the long telephotos get you right into the action.

I enjoy sports photography and I take some pictures for my local athletics club and for my son's rugby team and a local senior rugby team so for me the evening at the UKA Trials was a real highlight that I will not soon forget.

If you are interested in seeing more of the photos I took they are on my web site at http://www.wallpatches.co.uk/aviva.