From Our Team: Getting Your Best Race Photos

You’ve worked hard to prepare and perform in your event, and we want you to have the best photos to preserve your memories of your accomplishment. So we, the photographers and editors at Focal Flame Photography, would like to share some tips from our team to help make your photos awesome.

Press Release: Wisconsin Gran Fondo Series Chooses Focal Flame Photography

Cyclists in the Wisconsin Gran Fondo Series, an epic rural cycling series in an area described by Bicycling Magazine as “cycling nirvana,” will receive free FocalShare™ digital photos this year due to a partnership between race organizer SkylusSport and professional photography and video production firm Focal Flame Photography.

Run Madtown: What’s In a Name?

Run Madtown 2017 is an inaugural race with a 43-year history. Confused? Here’s how it came to be: the first runner-organized marathon in Madison happened in 1974, when 59 runners looped twice around Lake Monona. Except for a few gaps, annual Madison marathon races continued for decades. From the mid-1990s onward, a traditional half-marathon and marathon were held in Madison on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend—the least weekend in May. And then things started to heat up.

Running in costume: what's that all about?

Multi-talented Focal Flame Photography staff member Suellen Adams is a renaissance woman: she's a runner and triathlete, adjunct professor, photo editor, and writer. One of her great joys as a scholar is - quite literally - studying joy. Here, she shares some insights from her recent studies about the phenomenon of athletes choosing to compete in endurance events while dressed in costume.

Moms Who Tri: Part 2

Debra, Krista, Bridget, and Brianne are all mothers who participate in triathlons. With children ranging in age from a few months to eight years old, these busy moms have many stories about finding joy in endurance sports while simultaneously tending to the next generation…and advice for others who would like to “Tri” it. We first followed their story in Part 1 of Moms Who Tri; here, we learn more tips about balancing athletic pursuits with parenting.

Kettle Moraine 100 Endurance Run: Photo Essay

2015 offered a creative challenge for our photographers: the Kettle Moraine 100-mile ultramarathon. Race directors Tim “Timo” Yanacheck and Jason Dorgan hired Focal Flame Photography to document the 20th year of the race, which was started in 1995 by husband and wife ultramarathoning legends Kevin Setnes and Kristine Clark-Setnes. Focal Flame photographer Austin Cope (who now lives in Colorado) created this photo essay of the 20th running of the race. He found himself drawn into the rawness of an endeavor that was primal in its intensity, while being imbued with a sense of tranquility from the woodland setting.

Moms Who Tri : Part 1

Being adept at juggling competing tasks and demands for attention are inherent in the job description for motherhood. So perhaps it's only natural that triathlon is a draw for mothers who are also athletes. In this two-part series, we hear more about the personal stories of Madison, Wisconsin-area Moms who Tri.

Madison Marathon Profile: Behind the Scenes with Erin Dougherty

There's more to races than the athletes. Many things have to happen for events like the Madison Half Marathon and Twilight 10K to run smoothly (no pun intended). Erin Dougherty, Director of Operations at Madison Festivals Inc., gives a behind-the-scenes perspective about efforts that are essential for the success of the event.

Madison Marathon Profile: Faye Reber

Meet Faye Reber of Madison, Wisconsin. By the time she toes the starting line for the Madison Marathon events, she will have lost about 100 pounds, a journey that has been life-changing. Faye is tackling the Conquer the Capital challenge, a combination of each of the Madison Marathon distances in 2016 (the Twilight 10K on May 28, the Half Marathon on May 29, and the Marathon on November 13). Her best advice? “Be stronger than your excuses.”

Madison Marathon Profile: Paul Gill and Abby Evans - Love on the Run

Paul Gill and Abby Evans met and got to know each other through running, so it is only fitting that when they run the Madison Half Marathon on May 29, 2016, it will be a week before their June 4 wedding. We caught up with them briefly to learn more about how running has influenced their lives together, and what the Madison Marathon events mean to them.

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