Event Photography, Athlete Portraits and Finish Line Streaming – The Guzzler Ultra 2024

By Lachlan RyanPublished On: July 25th, 2024

The Element team were stoked to capture The Guzzler Ultra trail running event once again in 2024.

The Guzzler Ultra includes the 10km, 21km, 50km and 100km distances; with the longer distances visiting iconic water reservoirs around Brisbane including Enoggera Reservoir, Gold Creek and Lake Manchester.

This was our third year covering the event, this time with a couple of exciting differences!

Athlete Portraits

We came up with the idea to implement a photo booth at the event, one that would allow us to capture and integrate seamlessly into the GPS tracking system used by the Guzzler team which is provided by Track Me Live. Family and friends could see the portraits on the live trackers while watching runners’ progress throughout the event, and those images are available to purchase post-event with the rest of the action shots.

Live Tracker utilising Element’s Athlete Portraits

The GPS trackers that runners carry with them for safety and tracking during the 100km event.

Trying to capture athlete portraits in this type of environment is a challenge in itself given the short amount of time we had. Nonetheless, we managed to capture 187 athletes in 90 minutes, and we were pretty happy with the outcome!

The result of the athlete portraits – averaging roughly two athletes per minute!

Event Photography

The Event Village where we were based with our trailer and marquee throughout the weekend.

Working with the event organisers Tim and Laura, we worked out the best approach to maximise coverage of the event for the runners, taking into account the scenery and access throughout the different courses. Amongst this coverage was a dedicated ‘promo’ photographer capturing the behind the scenes, scenery and lifestyle shots that showcase the beauty and spirit of the event.

One of many photography positions throughout the course.

With a team of 8 photographers in total working throughout the weekend, everyone gave it their all to showcase the event!

One thing we do differently to a lot of other photography companies, is that we shoot and edit all of our photos – which means all 15,000+ shots from this event have been through the editing process. Sure, we could upload the results straight out of the camera and accept that some photos will be dark, or over-exposed, or not very well framed- because that’s the nature of photography when shooting thousands of runners in tough lighting conditions, no matter how experienced the photographer is!

However, we are more interested in making sure that all participants have the opportunity to share a high quality photo of themselves. By shooting in RAW and editing all of our photos, we can deliver higher quality results for all participants – and that’s what we’re known for.

Finish Line Stream

Anyone who follows us online would be aware that we can provide fairly complex livestreaming for indoor and outdoor events. While this was a rather simple one, we were pleased to run 24 Hour finish line vision to the Guzzler website during the whole event.

Finish Line Camera at The Guzzler Ultra

In addition to the camera vision, we overlaid the athlete & timing data on the feed thanks to the outstanding timing system from Ricky at Sports Event Services.

Sports Event Services team Ricky & Renata onsite during The Guzzler Ultra 2024.

Of course the atmosphere at home wouldn’t be the same without feeding in the live commentary from Ben Dennien & Steve Jackson. Ben pushed through and celebrated runners coming into the finish line throughout the whole 24 hours. Legend has it he still hasn’t slept since the event.

Event crew Steve, Tim, Laura & Ben

The Guzzler Ultra is an incredibly fun event to shoot because the trail running community here is fantastic, and there’s nothing better than being out in the bush celebrating the achievements of runners.

Special Thanks

I’d like to thank our crew for their awesome efforts throughout the weekend…