Steve Prefontaine Analysis

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The year was 1972, young distance runner sensation Steve Prefontaine was competing in his first Olympics in the 5k. A photographer captured the essence of what Prefontaine was really about during his race. The grit and grind of his training all captured in this single photo of Prefontaine. Using different elements of photography like focal point, lighting, and framing the photographers picture allows us to take a deeper look into the picture. The main affect the photographer uses is focal point. Focal point is used by many photographers to get the main point of their photo across to the viewers. At the very first glance my eyes went straight on Prefontaine. Everything around him is blurred and he’s the only object in the picture that is …show more content…

Photographers will make different parts of a picture lighter in order to draw more attention to the parts they want you to see. In this picture the track is light making it have a peaceful feeling. The track being light I feel as thou its one of the main center points of the picture, behind Prefontaine. It brings out the emphasis that the track is the battle field. Everything this picture is about revolves around the track. When I took a deeper look, I saw that the crowd was darker. This gave me the feeling that the photographer was trying to silence the crowd even thou they would have been going cray during the race. Since I could not make out any one in the crowd even more of my attention was drawn to Prefontaine. At first glance it looks like there is no lighting affects on him. When I looked at the picture for a little longer I noticed that his face is light and as you move down his body it gets darker. This affect brought out his facial expression a lot. Prefontaine’s face of pure determination and resilience. Looking at his face you can see the clam in the inside of a storm. His face makes me feel like he had control of his race the whole time. There was no fear, panic, or distress on his face leading me to think he had full confidence during his