Marathon Man

I turned up to the Hermitage museum just as the winner was arriving at the finish line at the end of the St Petersburg White Nights marathon. This chap was in the top ten.

There was no queue at the museum but inside were plenty of tour groups. I’m not a fan of tour groups. They hog the favourite exhibits while other bits of the museum are not visited much.

The only sour bit was at the end when I picked up my bag and coat and two jokers tried to steal my smaller camera which I’d zipped in to the top of my bag. As I reached the top of the stairs, where a lot of people were milling about, a man barged in to me. It seemed odd but I realise now he was the distraction.

Then, as I walked through the revolving doors with another man close behind, I heard the zip go on my back pack. “What are you doing?” I said to the man. “Nothing,” he said. At last a Russian who spoke English!

“You unzipped my bag,” I said as I unshouldered it and, sure enough, it was gaping open. “No I didn’t,” he said and dodged back in to the museum. I checked that everything was there and then went after him. To be honest I was ready to sock him one but I had the Nikon round my neck and the heavy bag on my back.

I found a security guard but he either didn’t understand me or didn’t care - probably both. The two men, meanwhile had drifted off and I couldn’t prove anything anyway. It just goes to show, you can’t let your guard down for a minute in these places. Up to then I’d felt relatively safe but I suppose there’s always a risk where tourists gather in numbers and the police are so hard pressed these days.

Re-the shot, I replied to Anne, below, about the panning technique. I'd only add that it's harder to get anything perfectly in focus with runners because no part of them is moving in a perfect plane. Another attempt here. It works better with sprinters. If any of you experts can add any further advice on panning please do. Almost everything I do is trial and error and I'm keen to learn.

One other thing - the autofocus pick up is very good on this camera and lens, far less so on my old one when I would fix a spot on the road manually and increase the DOF to be in focus as the object (runner, car, bike, dog) came past.

Bags packed, looks at watch - time to run!