It ain't easy being green, but lazy is a different story
Recently I heard an ad on the radio for the Austin Gorilla Run, a 5k run down Cesar Chavez in a gorilla suit. This idea alone piqued my interest, so I sort of made plans to go, because that's just funny. Through college I kept having visions of my friends and I long-boarding down the lakefront in Milwaukee in suits, or gorilla costumes, but we never did. I always thought just a handful of people randomly doing something like that would be fun, but, as I said, I never got enough takers together. Anyway, I was thinking about going to this run, not as a runner, but to shoot some interesting photos. I am an amateur photographer after all. Then, after I had mentioned it to Evan, I promptly forgot about it.
Yesterday, Paige asked what I would be doing this weekend, and I couldn't think of anything interesting to do, so I said "Probably nothing, but, maybe fireworks and booze". Mostly because though I know people who have had tremendously bad experiences with the combination of fireworks and booze, the idea is just great. On the way home I remembered the gorilla run though, so I tweeted to Paige that I might do that. Well, when I was Skyping with Evan last night, she mentioned it, and through a few statements back and forth she deduced that I wasn't going to go. And I really wasn't. I am just a very introverted person. I don't do well in situations where I have to deal with people I don't know. I don't know that I ever have been able to do that, and this is the reason most people think I am quiet. Well, It is one of the reasons that I am quiet, and leads people to that deduction I think. Anyway, I went to bed, but with the proper amount of shame for knowing I wanted to do it, but that I was going to let my shyness keep me from doing it. I did set my alarm clock for an ungodly hour because of this, and decided that I could stop on the way and get a good coffee if I just got up and braved the blistering cold.
I got up this morning, and was in that mood where I knew I could just turn off the alarm clock and go back to sleep, and only one person would really care that I hadn't, and that would be a fleeting care anyway. I even put my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes, but about 10 minutes later I jumped up, as if I had forgotten to turn off the iron or something. I ran and took a hot shower, got dressed, made sure my camera equipment was ready, and left. I have been considering upgrading some of my photo-workflow recently, and if I am not actively trying to get better with photography, there is no damn reason I should be considering a new set of lenses. Period.
Now to be perfectly fair, almost every bit of my camera equipment is 10+ years old, and that which isn't 10 years old is within 3. So, while I don't have the newest equipment, a good portion of it was top of the line when it was introduced. And while I would like some features of newer equipment, Image Stabilization for one thing, if I get better at using the gear without it, when I can afford to spend the money on the fancy gear I will know how to use it well. But to get better at using the gear I have, I have to get up and use it.
When I got down to Cesar Chavez, I was about 20 minutes early for the start of the race, though I think it might have been delayed, because it was close to an hour before anyone in a gorilla costume showed up. This gave me time to scout out what I thought might have been some cool shots. Such as lining up the Austin City Power Plant sign so that some of the shots would say City of Austin with the gorilla clad runners. There are one or two shots like that which I like, and there are some that I don't. I initially started off with my 28-80 lens, and quickly changed to the 80-200, because I realized I was sitting right around 80mm anyway, and that if I pushed into 200 I might be able to get some more isolated portraits. I ended up getting mostly group shots at the beginning, when everyone was running as a pack. Though by the end I was getting mostly individual shots as everyone had found their rhythm and was spread out a little more. That's something I wouldn't have thought about yesterday, but, I also had not shot a race before. And I almost left the house without my 80-200 because it was still packed from the Big Bend/Louisiana trip a few weeks ago.
In all, I shot probably around 200 shots, with maybe 50 or so being good. Some are duplicates, I really like the burst mode, and sort of wish that I had a better burst mode on my camera. The 10d is a good camera, but, it will only burst for 3 shots/second for a total of 9 shots, then you have to wait for the camera's buffer to empty. You can get another shot in as soon as it finishes writing one of them to the card, but, when I hit a burst of 9 shots, I pretty much just drop the camera and let it finish, it will be 10 seconds or so before the buffer is really usable again. Digression aside, of the 50 or so that were good, I ended up picking 18 that I felt gave a feel for the run, and were interesting and posted them to my flickr account. Here is the flickr set.
Of all of the photos I shot, this may be one of my favorites. It was a spontaneous moment as I was moving up a bridge to get a different vantage, and as I turned over my shoulder I saw him and raised my camera and just shot. I didn't really have time to reframe or anything. And when I saw it, I knew that he had been watching me.