Every year the Spanish Legion organize a long distance run/bike event around the beautiful city of Ronda, a few km inland from Marbella. Having a friend running the race I spent a few hours alternately following him, eating, and relaxing by the roadside. I bumped into a few people I knew and took a few photos along the way.

The organisation is really superb. Of course the Legion have all the volunteers they need but I was told that they have someone standing every couple of hundred meters for the entire route. They took good care of the competitors and there were trucks on hand to rescue anyone that couldn’t continue, either from exhaustion or from the unseasonable heat that seemed to take quite a toll. As there were really 3 seperate races running the finish was staggered over several hours with some slower racers running or cycling into the early hours of the morning.

I’m faintly tempted to take part next year having recently bought a decent bike. We’ll see how things go over the summer as to whether I can find the enthusiasm.

For the first time in months we saw some decent-sized waves on the coast, and I finally got a chance to unpack the longer glass. We only had a couple of days worth of luck but it was enough to get a few decent images of my friend Gonzalo enjoying himself.

One of the downsides of the Marbella area is that I’m shooting into the sun for most of the day. This meant a higher ISO and controlled overexposure to hold some detail in the wetsuits. I now know exactly how far I can push the exposure and still hold detail in the waves.

Back in November I accompanied some friends down the coast to see a bit of surfing. I took the camera with me and took some shots I really quite liked. I was however painfully aware of the lack of reach and the action shots were heavily cropped. I’ve been wanting to do a bit more sports photography and around these parts that includes a lot of water sports. Surfing, wind surfing and kite surfing. If I’m going to do better I do have to get a longer lens. Looking around I was surprised to find that Canon sell an L-series 300 f4 for ‘only’ 1200 euros so that went directly onto my christmas list. I got it last week. I’ll also be investing in the 1.4X converter in the next few months.

A few days ago we finally saw more waves and drove to El Largo over lunch. I soon found out a few things that I hadn’t realised previously. If you don’t know the sport then you are at a disadvantage. Firstñy the waves break at different distances from the shore at different places. I found even the 300mm a bit short. Secondly the waves break left or right and depending on the surfer you may be shooting them from behind or in front in different areas. El Largo in particular broke right and with Gonzalo’s stance it meant that he had his back to me 90% of the time. Taking better surf photographs is going to require a bit of thought.