Sunday, July 22, 2007

This is why I am a photographer

Boy howdy, did I have one helluva weekend! I haven't had so much fun photographing in my entire life... and the adrenaline! Good God. What a fantastic rush.

(no, I don't really say "Boy howdy!" in real life. But I do say "Cool Beans!" quite often. anyway...)

Last Sunday my humble town of Troy, Ohio hosted the 2007 Troy Classic on the Square, an exponentially-more-exciting-than-you'd-think bicycle race. After a bummer of a shift at work in the morning, I met up with the Boss Man around 1-ish to shoot the race(s). After trying to shoot a few artsy panning shots like this one:



I found out that my current camera and lens setup don't amount to a hill of beans for capturing fast motion, so I used Bossman's Canon 30D.

I shot hundreds of photos of the bike racers doing their thing. There was even one decently scary wreck and subsequent pile-up in the first race that I was shooting. It was down the street, and all I heard was this weird crunching noise only to look over and see a dozen or so bikes and riders all in a messy pile. One poor guy got knocked clean out and got carted away on a stretcher and into a waiting ambulance, but he came to and was treated on the scene with luckily only some butt-kicking scrapes, road rashes, and bruises.

You know, t's one thing to watch a NASCAR racer burst into flames on the television, but another thing entirely to watch people getting hurt in front of your eyes. Quite upsetting, actually. AFterward I had to keep telling myself that it's a risk they willingly take upon themselves.

On a side street, though, was a professional BMX team from DK Bicycle Company. They were doing a show with a big metal box ramp... the kind with a flat platform between the sharply sloped ramp sides. I got to taking photos of them and chatting with the guy manning the microphone. Got a ton of good shots.







Lemme tell you, you couldn't ask for a more pleasant and polite group of kids. I'm not being smart... I really mean that. I could've talked to them for hours. In fact, I did end up hanging out with them for hours just because they were so much fun to chill with. So much so that I missed all the subsequent races leading up to the main race, but not before first asking them if they ever had any photos taken from directly beneath a biker mid-flip. They said they'd put me in their last show...

(heehee... I said 'chill'. I am SO trying to act ten years younger.)

So I go and shoot the main race. All hyped up on sponged-off coolness, I get a little ballsy and perch myself right on the inside corner of one of the turns, only a foot or two inside the curb. I sat and waited for the main pack to pass by, and when they did, it's a good thing I wasn't any closer. The angle that they lean in, only a few inches closer and they'd've ripped my ear off with their handlebars. Through the lens, it looks like they're coming straight at me, and it took every ounce of self control I had not to dive away when the main pack of 40 or so bikers zipped by, inches past my face.



When they finished, I was so overcome by the adrenaline rush that I looked up at a lady standing nearby, put my hand over my heart, and gasped "Holy shit, that was intense!"

---

So I make it over to DK Bicycle Co.'s final show and start shooting. Part of their show is to have a guy flip over the announcer who's kneeling on the top of the box. This time they pulled a local bmx'er to get flipped over and then said (to the audience who'd grown quite large) "We're gonna kick it up a little... let's get the photographer up there too. We're gonna jump over two people!!" I ran up the less sloping backside and laid down next to the front coping (the joint between the box and the ramp). I sat my camera down and put my hands together like I was praying, and then looked over as the biker was charging straight at me. One thunderous clap of the steel structure as he hit the ramp, and...





I was cackling maniacally.

I slide down the ramp to my feet and the announcer says "Let's hear it for our volunteers!". The bmx'er and I share a moment of shameless vanity and pump our fists to the crowd. I walk back over to Boss Man's tent and viewing stations so his assistant could download the images onto his server. I call Dark Haired Girl on my new cell phone and leave her a long incoherent message, still trembling from this second, more intense shot of adrenaline.

The day finishes with thousands of images, my face burnt to a lovely shade of magenta, some very enthusiastic bmx pros who kept saying "Dude! Awesome!" at the photo viewing station, and one dazzled and completely overstimulated photographer.

---

More BMX photos up at the DeviantART gallery.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

(If you haven't already, make sure to catch my photo post from last night immediately after this one.)

Today is Miami County's bicentennial, and they had a small to-do at the fairground. There was the usual carnival food vendors, but then there was a small pocket of people in costume, selling things like costumery, hand-made muzzle loaders, and custom forged iron pieces.






---

And then there was this lady selling brilliantly colored Jamaican hats in several styles. One of them fit perfectly, let my scalp breathe, and was only $12. Now I can conceal my shaggy hair in high fashion, baby! Did I tell you guys I'm growing my hair out again? Note the many mosquito bites polka-dotting my arms. I got eaten alive when I was standing by the river taking pictures of the fireworks.

Yes, that's a Nikon strap on my new Canon. Sue me.

---

Last year right before Valentine's day, I was taking photos in Yellow Springs when I went into a shop and bought a egg-shaped clay stone with the word 'LOVE' engraved on it. The clerk asked me if I was buying it for my girlfriend, and I said that no, I was attempting to attract love. I placed it in a little clip-on pouch on my backpack (presumably for cell phones), and then promptly forgot about it.

... until today. Then it struck me as I was driving home from the bicentennial: when exactly did I meet Dark Haired Girl? I looked back over my posts. It was Wednesday the 23rd of february... about two weeks after I bought the stone. This newly-discovered coincidence overwhelms me.

At the bicentennial, I bought a simple wood jewelry box for her without any real intention of putting anything into it. I'm going to put the stone in it and give it to her when she gets back this afternoon. I can't wait.
Hi guys. Dark Haired Girl has been away since wednesday to visit family in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and I miss her terribly. I've been spending most of my time here at her place, and it's begun to feel more like home than my actual home. I was going through the same thing at this exact time last year with Sophie. I was spending so much time at her place that instead of feeling like I had two homes, it was more like I didn't have any solid home. Like I was just floating between to temporary places to stay.

One of these days I'll have a place of my own. Even when I resided 100% at Mom's, it was just that: Mom's. Now, I need to be careful what I gripe about, because I'm living rent-free on mom's generosity on the conditions that I stay a full time student and get good grades as well as hold down a part-time job. I really am wanting a place of my own, though. Until then, I just can't shake this feeling that I'm 28 but trapped in a suspended adolescence. Hanging out by myself at Dark Haired Girl's has been really nice. I can be online, watch a little TV, nap spontaneously, drink a little whiskey, photoshop to my heart's content, hang out in my undies, etc.

I dunno. I guess this is a good thing. A lot of women complain about their grown men acting like immature children... I'm a man-child screaming to grow up. Opposite sides of the same coin, I guess.

---

Some good news: photography work is beginning to pick up. The wedding photographer in Zanesville loved my work, and wants my help for another in August. I've been asked to do some senior photos, and the junior hockey league team and individual portrait packages are wide-open for the pickin'. The Wright-Patterson newspaper sent me an email trying to weed out some of the applicants by reiterating that the position is entry-level and pays $9/hour. I wrote back maintaining my great interest. I miss being able to call myself a photographer. All in due time. For now I'm still a fast food cashier who takes pictures from time to time.

---

I'm still in love. It's a good thing not to be lonely anymore.

---

Going back through the CityFolk photos, I don't know why I missed this one:


On the 4th, I was far enough away that most of the bursts took up maybe a quarter to a third of the frame. Then this titanic burst went off, and shook the ground:

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Hi Delight! I see you leaving me comments. ;-) No, there are no wedding bells in the future, but Dark Haired Girl is in my very long term outlook of the future.

---

What a weekend! I spent friday shooting some commercial work for a company that makes extruded rubber parts for cars. Saturday I spent a 14-hour day driving to the other side of Ohio to assist a wedding photographer, and then spent sunday hanging out with Dark Haired Girl and her parents at Dayton's CityFolk music and culture festival. Without further ado, I present to you some of my favorite photos:







---

I want to put this last one in some context. During the festival, in one of the many stage tents, a brass jazz band from New Orleans called "Hot 8" played. Their last song was "When the Saints Go Marching In", and everybody got up and danced, myself included. I captured many images of both crowd and band while dancing, but this one really felt to me to embody the movement and spirit of the moment:




---

That's all for now. I'm going to go and cuddle with Dark Haired Girl in front of the tv for a little while before bed.