[JFSanders]

Dave, don't take offense at Nathan's remark. He truly wants to help you. You would not believe the sheer number of times this subject comes up.

Now, as to your questions. Think of a photograph as a triangle with Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO film speed at the corners. You adjust one setting and the others are affected! They all must work in symphony to produce the beautiful picture we wish to capture.

To help you get a better understanding of the technical aspects I would suggest you acquire this book The Nat Geo guide to Photography. It is a very portable very concise and easy to use. Once you have assimilated the information in there it will be very clear to you what needs to happen with your camera settings to achieve the results you are trying to obtain.

If you guys were taking the shot, how would you know what to set the aperture at?

The setting would depend on what message or story I wanted to convey to the viewer. This is a great tutorial on the web. Interactive DOF tutorial

If the runner was the focus then I would use a fairly short DOF to blur the background and I would move in tight on the subject to exclude as much of the surrounding area as possible. The choice of a shallow DOF would then dictate how much shutter speed to use if I wanted him "motion blurred" or if I wanted him clear focused and action stopped. Then those settings would give me the options of ISO speed. Higher ISO results in more grain in the photo lower ISO requires longer shutter open times.

I want to manual focus? This creates a problem for me. There's nothing in front of the runner to focus on, so I am guessing I would have to track with him. That really sounds hard.

Why do you want to manual focus? If you just want the practice then motor on my brother. It is a good skill to have if you find yourself limited someday to a manual camera.

As to having nothing to focus on at the distance he is at. Sure you do! Focus on the track lane. It is at almost the same distance as he is and even a shallow depth of field will allow for the slight angle change when you move the camera up to his height.

Panning to stop motion is one of the early photographer's most prized skills. And there are books devoted to the subject. Until the advent of super high ISO and spray and pray camera frame rates it was the ONLY way a race car photographer had to capture those amazing corner shots.

Alright you have your assignment. GET CLICKING!