When Race Director and Ultramarathon runner, Kannan Sundararajan a.k.a Coach Kay approached Light & Life Academy (LLA) and invited it to be the partner at the marathon event called Ootyultra 2019 the students at the Academy were already neck deep in their other assignments as well as their studio sessions. We thought that we would ask the students themselves, if they would be interested in it. We told them that this would be painstaking work that will test the limits of their physical and mental endurance and that if they did take it up, they would have to give it their 100% as LLA would be officially involved in it as a Partner.
Sixteen students came forward to shoulder the responsibility, driven by a strong sense of adventure and the exciting opportunity to capturing vivid, vibrant and dramatic pictures of the runners and the terrain during the course of the event.
Coach Kay, a marathoner himself, took them on a pre-event recce of the entire route of 60 Kms. The students, who had by then already formed into teams, scoped out the terrain and allocated between them, the distances each team would cover and the vantage points to shoot pictures from. For the first time ever, the Ootyultra Marathon had such solid support in the photography department in the form of LLA and its team of budding photography professionals. Therefore the planning, detailing and execution had to be absolutely spot on.
The efforts were well worth it. The results brought a smile to everyone’s faces. The dedication, application and professionalism shown by Light & Life’s students were highly appreciated by all the participants and the organisers. Just to throw light on the kind of efforts our students put in, the number of pictures that the team of 16 members shot was around, ten thousand!!!! No mean effort, you will agree.
For the uninitiated, Ootyultra is an Ultramarathon organized by KaysFIT Academy, founded by Coach Kay. The first edition was conducted on the 29-Apr-2018 with a few international and 278 runners from across 10 states in India and the 2nd edition was conducted on April 07, 2019 with 717 registered participants. The race had three distance categories, i.e. 15k, 30k & 60k. The Ultramarathon route map covered important streets of Ooty, key Ooty landmarks, green wooded forests and idyllic village roads.
Coach Kay had this to say about his experience with Team LLA
“ The leadership, the dedication, the passion and the sincerity displayed by the LLA students cannot be without the knowledge imparted by this institution. All credit to them for that!
Light & Life Academy, the space, is like a beautiful piece of art. I’m extremely happy that LLA was the photography partner for this event and am looking forward to continuing this association for a long time! ”
Many marathoners even expressed that whenever their energies and spirits flagged during the course of the long run, they would invariably find an LLA student around the corner, shooting pictures. This would instantly energise them and enthuse them to give it their best shot and push ahead with greater vigour and determination. One of the finishers at the ultramarathon, Mr. Seetaram, had this to say… “The photographers were omnipresent and ensured the runners pushed relentlessly.”
For more details you may visit: https://www.facebook.com/ootyultra/