That is an incredible photo. It has a desperate quality to it. It's a solitary depiction, on that speaks to facing obstacles alone. It's cool.

Many years ago Outside magazine ran a story about the Ironman duel between Mark Allen and Dave Scott when Scott passed Allen as Allen was walking. I can't put my finger on the year. Allen was wearing red and white and Dave Scott was wearing white and yellow. The photo was astounding. Scott appeared mechanical in his suffering. The image showed his fatigue, but also his resolve. Allen was destroyed, reduced to walking. Outside ran it as a spread across two pages with the word "BLOWUP" across it as a headline. It was an incredible image. These incredible men, one reduced to walking, the other in shambles. I haven't seen it in years, I don't even know if I still have it anywhere, but I remember it to this day. I loved that photo. It is my favorite triathlon photo.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I just the photo credit on the photo you linked to. The last name is "Amundsen". I wonder if the photographer is any relatio to the great arctic explorer Roald Amundsen?

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

It has to be the photograph of Tim De Boom an Steve Larsen on the run at Wildflower this year. It is simply a study in mental focus. I have asked many non-athletic people to look and tell me who they think won, and I haven't received the wrong answer yet. You can see the total focus on TdB's face, nothing could break the total concentration.

Fantastic.

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Me at the finish of IMUSA!!!!

Lori Bowden in the body paint. ;)

I have my personal favorite, it's about 4 years old and was taken by my wife before a Clermont sprint tri. It pictures myself and 2 son's heading for the swim start to warm up, it was early and the sun was just coming up, somehow she caught us all in the same step with our googles and swim caps in the same hands, it was not staged and we really like the picture. Since that time, my oldest is now a cat2 roadie, and lives at college, and my youngest a HS swimmer who can go mid 16's for a mile swim. He still does tri's with me when they don't interfere with HS swimming and XC.
Here's the link:[url]http://community.webshots.com/photo/93408693/93409003JgSRgH[/url]
I can't get the html to work, sorry!

some pictures that me & my girlfriend have take , hard to me to say wish one is my favorit. they are all from sweden , non-drafting , drafting and some duathlons.

http://hem.bredband.net/rogo/bilder/index.htm

// rogo......

Wow! That picture gave me a good feeling. I hope a picture like that can be taken of me and my daughters ten years from now.

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Bent Olav Olsen, recreational triathlete?

Currently using this as my wallpaper. From the Sentinel Oly this year:

http://www.santacruzphotogallery.com/...bum10/29stri4?full=1

OT

would that seal be considered and obstacle?? I have taken a few thousand pictures and from that I have learned that being in the right place at the right time is secret to the art of great pictures.



That picture of Steve Larsen and Deboom is priceless.

I have to say that one of my favourites is the one of Peter Reid, Cam Brown and Tim De Boom in Hawaii last year, all three of them smacking off 5:35 miles! Awesome!

The Lori Bowden body paint photo is also definitely up there.

mp

My favorite picture in triathlon so far has been the IMUSA finish line that is available on xtri.com. That image has been my computer background for nearly 2 years and was a focal point for me leading up to finishing my first IM at that line.

Other pictures of merit are the ones of the Big 4 putting it all on the line. I had one of Tinley that just oozed pain. I need to dig that one out.

Mark

Nice one Spencer, like father like sons hey. Cool.

Spencer,

Nice shot. And to all those over on the "Grass is Greener" thread. Marry your training partner, have a few kids, and maybe, just maybe you'll have a spouse who is willing to come to the venue before dawn to take a photo like this. You're a lucky man Spenser, but you knew that didn't you? God bless the children athletes.

Steve

This is a great picture. My favourite pictures shows also my son Joel and me: http://community.webshots.com/...35198/90684721CukKEk

I hope Joel will run with me trough the finish in Roth next year (4th July 04) and I can carry our still unborn baby (due this month).

Felix

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http://www.weilenmann.ch.vu

The new 25th anniversary Ironman book, which I recently got as a gift, has received mixed reviews, but it does have some great photos. The one of Scott passing Allen -- I think the one Tom D refers to -- is in there. MArk Allen is just wasted, and you can see defeat on his face as Dave Scott, looking strong, is about to pass.

Another one in the book -- one I like even better -- is of an earlier year. Dave Scott heading down the final meters on Ali'i drive towards a victory. You can see on Scott's face that he's completely wasted after battling with Tinley and the Kona heat all day. his eyes are closed, head back, and mouth wide open. But he's surrounded by a crowd of thousands of cheering people. It almost looks like their wave of cheers is the thing pulling him towards the finish. Opposite to the theme of the Norseman photo, but in my mind, just as powerful and poignant.

Someone mentioned the IMUSA finish line wallpaper at xtri. They also have a wallpaper of the swim start from that race -- a swimmers-eye view from the back of the pack. All you see is a whirl of green caps and flailing arms. Whenever someone walks by my desk at work and sees it, they marvel in wonder that anyone would want to do that. So I always enjoy saying, "well, somewhere in all that madness is me!!"

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"great"? arctic explorer? How dare you?! He was about the most amazing explorer of last century!

GREAT!!!! is more like it. He was a quiet man. Methodical in his approach and he is my hero. That was his undoing.

He was the first person (with his crew ofcourse) through the Norwest passage (that the English had been trying to find, since not long after Christ died), in a tiny boat, underfunded.

He sailed through the North EAST passage too (first again, with his crew)

He kicked ass all the way to the south pole, showing that bumbling Englishman Scott how to do it right. (Only Franklin, Englands other heroic failure of an arctic explorer was a greater bungler and imcompetent fool) His biggest mistake? Not dying trying to get home, like Scott did. Amundsen planned so well, that on his homeward journey from the South Pole, he was feeding exceess food, including chocolate, to his dogs. Amundsen gained weight on his 3 month polar journey. Scott was starving and dying from scurvy, in a woolen jacket at the same time. How anyone can admire Scott is absolutely beyond me, particularly when people like Amundsen and Shackleton were around at the same time.

He then flew over the North Pole, making him the first to both poles. He died in 1927 (I think) unmarried and childless, searching for an Italian expedition that crashed, on the way to the North Pole.



TriDork

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I took this one of my wife before her wave start at Nautica Malibu last month. I like the way she is serenely looking to the side as the rest of the throng is intently looking forward in anticipation.

Amundsen an explorer? Not really. He was more like an adventure racer with the objective of getting there first. He was outstanding at covering difficult terrain quickly. He was not, however, a scientists and contributed very little in terms of scientific understanding of the places he "explored." Scott, on the other hand, was as interested in understanding as he was in being first. Scott gathered scientific samples and chose to keep his rocks samples on his last trip. Not too smart, in retrospect. But, his trips were underwritten by the scientific community and he always felt that his first obligation was to understand (i.e. explore) the places he went. Amundsen contributed a lot of understanding about how to survive in cold places but little about the climate, geology, animals, etc. that lived in those places. Th ereason people remember Scott is because of the knowledge he generated. The reason people forgot Amundsen is because he generated little knowledge.

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Andrew Inkpen

"Someone mentioned the IMUSA finish line wallpaper at xtri. They also have a wallpaper of the swim start from that race -- a swimmers-eye view from the back of the pack. All you see is a whirl of green caps and flailing arms. Whenever someone walks by my desk at work and sees it, they marvel in wonder that anyone would want to do that. So I always enjoy saying, "well, somewhere in all that madness is me!!" "

I have that same photo as my desktop wallpaper! Great photo, particularly if you are in it somewhere. http://www.xtri.com/2002/08/wp3-1-1024.jpg

Scott a SCIENTIST? Phhhtttt.

The rocks he had were in his head.

Scott got into arctic exploration because it was the fast track to Naval advancement and nothing more. He was a mediocre commander and his career was rescued by his superiors several times.

Scott was not in to scientific discovery at all. His trek to the Pole consisted of exploring virtually no new terrain. He merely followed in the tracks of others, up the Beardmore Glacier, until the last 75 miles. He had to carry back the famous rocks because he had failed so miserably at his goals that he fell back on a very weak science.

Amundsen was lauded for his excellent scientific work in the north. His anthropological studies were certainly amateur but well respected. Amundsens trips to the North Magnetic pole AND the South Mangetic Pole were certainly scientific studies. Amundsens studies, or at least his documentation of his whereabouts were far superior to Scotts. For example, Scott would set up a major cairn and degrees of latitude witha falg on top. Bloody difficult to find in a storm or if you're off course by much. Amundsen set up similar cairns but put out markers for serveral kilometres on both sides. Each marker was coded so the caairn could be easily found from any marker. He also had intermediate cainrs and markers to eliminate the large errors in navigation that Scott made.

To beleive SCott wasn't in an adventure race to the Pole is simply One eyed!. It's just that he lost due to incompetent bungling and unabashed stupidity! Couldn't find his own asshole on a dark night!

Tridork

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Last months Triathlete Mag had a few pictures that were great from Hawaii, but the best for me was the one where a diver took a picture from beneath the swimmers. The coral reef was the major focus of the pic but the swimmers were in the background at the top of the pic. Gave you the feeling that we really are a part of the landscape and not just some things invading a body of water.

Also love the finish line photo of the Roth Challenge (?). 100,000 spectators at the finish would give anyone goosebumps.

Jeremey

Jeremey,
I saw the same picture in Triathlete and was just captivated by the picture. It was taken by Wayne Levin.

Check out some of his work at this link:
http://www.kochgallery.com/artists/contemporary/Levin/

I just discovered that the photo journalist who took the "lone triathleet" picture, has his own web site, and that he likes the picture to. And the quality of the picture is even better

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Bent Olav Olsen, recreational triathlete?