Every year the 4M athletics meeting takes place between 4 of the top girl’s schools in the Paarl and Stellenbosch area. Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof, Paarl Girls’ High, La Rochelle and Rhenish Girls High School are the 4M’s (4 Meisies skools) that compete against each other in track and field. This year the 4M Athletics meet was hosted by Rhenish Girls High School at the Coetzenberg stadium in the heart of Stellenbosch.
From a photography perspective its always going to be a reasonably difficult shoot. Technically it’s tricky starting in the harsh midday sun and moving into the early evening darkness with massive contrasts and dynamic range issues to deal with. Then obviously at night having to juggle high ISO levels and getting a fast enough shutter speed to capture crisp images. There is a degree of decent floodlighting available at night but nothing like you’d see at top stadium venues. Add onto that the fact that in mid February the temperatures in Stellenbosch hit a cracking 38 degrees centigrade in the middle of the afternoon, and we were in for a cracking afternoon of fun.
With Field and track catered for, the action in the middle of the stadium at the 4M Athletics meeting was fierce. All the standard track events were on show as well as long jump, javelin, high jump and discus in the field.
All of the images are available at https://www.photosport.co.za
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