the river

as I mentioned in my previous post from the Forget the PR race director Rob Powell works to create a challenging course, not just to torture the runners, but to give them an even greater a sense of accomplishment (than just running 17-30 miles) when they cross the finish line. i made this photograph looking down from a beautiful covered bridge while the runners battled the ice cold currents of the river (many viewed it as a refreshing ice bath to numb the pain from the miles before).

portraits

here are my last two portrait assignments. still focusing on the fitness theme, and shooting in the woods in natural light. on top is a non-facial diptych, and below is a north light image. thanks to Alexandra Goresh and Mike Pond for being awesome models.

forget the PR

I had an awesome weekend shooting the Forget the PR 25k and 50k trail run. I had been looking to shoot an ultra (and hopefully one day run one), but the only way I could rationalize it was if I turned it into a homework assignment, and as it happened it coincided with my audio-slideshow assignment. It will be another couple weeks before I get the whole thing together, so until then I will post some singles from the race. This was not only my first time shooting an ultra, but also my first time juggling photography and sound which I am sure, forced me to sacrifice some quality on each at times. But that's how I learn! Race director Rob Powell works to keep the course through the Mohican State Park challenging (apparently too many people hit a their PR (Personal Record) last year).

i see drunk people...

For my Documentary class we had to do a short documentary project with a non-photojournalistic approach. Inspired by photographer Tom Sperduto’s images of ultra-marathoners before and after their race, I decided to photograph people going out to bars on Court Street in Athens, Ohio, home of Ohio University, currently ranked as the #2 party school in the country. I set up my camera outside of a couple bars on Thursday night and Saturday night, from 9pm-11pm and 1am-3am, in order to see if there was a visual difference between people at the beginning of the night and people at the end. I didn’t want to make people feel uncomfortable, or make the bars feel like their customers were being harassed so I only took photographs of people who approached me about what I was doing.

You can see for yourself if there is a visual difference from the shifts, it was not as drastic as I had expected. What I did notice was that less than my classmates and I expected, people wanted to have their photographs taken, especially for the earlier shift. Also, less girls approached me for the earlier shift. Everyone was quite fun and friendly.  I had planned on just doing individual shots, but how could I turn down a buzzed partier who wanted a pic with his/her friends?

If I do this again, I will probably spring for a bigger and more stable background. I had a great time, and it was pretty interesting to see Court Street from this angle.

Thanks to everyone who participated! 

Thursday 9pm-11pm

Saturday 9pm-11pm

Thursday 1am-3am

Saturday 1am-3am