Sep 29, 2013

I met Charles, owner of Chessie Photo, in Ocean City this morning for the OC Half Marathon. We talked about details and locations where I'd be shooting and then I was off with my bright yellow vest. I even saw Shakedown's band performing on the boardwalk and got to talk to him for a minute. I started shooting at the 3-mile turnaround point on the bridge.

Shooting a huge group of runners was a much greater challenge than I expected. There was no great backdrop to shoot them, but I wouldn't have been able to frame them up anyway. They were moving too quickly to get great shots of everyone. I started getting a feel for how I should do it, but I still felt like I was less than equipped for the task. My next location was on the boardwalk near mile 12. By this point, the crowd had thinned considerably and slowed a bit. I was able to shoot each person as they passed by with the boardwalk shops in the background. I was happy with that part.

After I dropped my card to Charles, I headed to Passion Vines, which I saw a billboard for while I was shooting. They have a nice selection of beer to fill growlers with. I sampled a couple while I was there and ended up getting the Lagunitas IPA. I'll be coming back here for sure.

Chuck, Kate, and I went to Matt's later to watch the series finale of Breaking Bad. It was such a great episode and it was nice sharing it with other people. After the final scene I think we all sat there in silence for a minute just processing what we saw. It's definitely a series that will be missed, but it's so rewatchable that I'm glad it stayed as good as it did for six seasons.

Sep 28, 2013

I headed to Shamong, NJ in the morning to meet my crew for the Rebel Race mud run. It was on a large horse farm outfitted with obstacles and caution tape. I met the group I was working with, got my staff shirt, and then shot some preliminary photos before heading over to my obstacle. I was going to be on the monkey bars, but when we saw the fire jump it was decided that it would make for better shots. I had to test it out of course.

After I got used to where I should stand I got some great shots of people jumping over. The two volunteers working the obstacle were young and not really doing a great job. To be fair, they weren't given many resources. Only a few firestarter logs and they have to scavenge for wood constantly to keep it going. It was dying down quickly.

It got boring pretty quickly since there weren't a whole lot of participants. It was a slow filter of people through my area and there was not really any communication available between obstacles. Two or three times someone got hurt at the monkey bars obstacle and they had to yell and run toward the finish line to get someone's attention to send the EMT. It was all very poorly thought out. I was done once I walked away from the fire area for a minute and the idiots that were manning it decided to use the fire extinguisher "just to see what would happen," and covering my camera and food bag with powder. I grabbed my stuff, dropped the photos to my laptop, and got on the road.

I got to Starland Ballroom to see Into It. Over It. and they were amazing. I'm glad I got to see him play with a full band, and now I wish I listened to him more often. Geoff Rickly played next and had the crowd excited as always. He played some Thursday covers, an original song, then he covered "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot" and talked about how hard it is to be a fan of Brand New with the way they release albums and play shows so infrequently. Geoff invited his friends in Gabriel the Marine up to play one of their songs and then "Understanding in a Car Crash" to close the set and it was the coolest cover of that song. I want them to record it. And I want to listen to Gabriel the Marine.

Saves the Day was up next, kicking off the set and never letting up on the the throttle. They never fail to play a great set full of old and newer songs and keep the crowd into it. Chris seems very enthusiastic and humbled by the diehard fans that are always there. They played quite a few new songs that were fun as well as a set of three songs from Can't Slow Down. A guy got on stage and proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of the set and made Chris cry. It was nice.

After an awesome show I snuck out a minute before the end of "At Your Funeral" so I didn't have to deal with traffic. It was a nice, quiet drive home down the Turnpike listening to podcasts.