Triathlon is all about transitions. From the swim, to the bike to the run on race day. From every day life to training rides in the cold. From bed to swimming early in the morning. From work to running in the evening. Training back to normal life again. Back and forth, transition after transition. Swim, bike, run.
She couldn't resist the old-fashioned bath. Particularly when the only shower option was the mixer tap at the end.
Second photo from my spangly new G10. Liking it so much more than the Panasonic LX1 - it actually takes decent quality pictures!
I'm always struggling to find enough time in the day to be creative, around life, work and all those other commitments. I worry about trying to clear large enough chunks of time to go and photograph, or write or even to give proper consideration to a photography book or other reading. Reading and working through 'the artist's way ' one idea has stuck - just be creative in the time you have. It might just be 15 minutes but that's enough to keep things ticking over. You don't need to drag out the tripod and the serious camera. Just make some pictures. Yesterday's series of images of Amanda at the Kure Beach pier are a good example - we only shot for about 5 minutes, but it was fun and kicked off some new ideas in my head.
A couple of common themes for portraits in the last week. I did a lighting class last weekend and found while doing the more controlled, constructed lighting was interesting, I was still spending more time playing around with the ambient and trying to accentuate the lighting in the location. I'm not sure if I just don't really have the imagination to see completely contrived lighting, or I think really, I'm just not motivated enough to want to create it all from scratch. I do like finding the interesting light already available, then trying to build on that. I did some shots using strobes and adding in lighting, but I was still mostly working with the light I could find. One that I like was where I replaced the existing light with a strobe to essentially mimic what was there already - but being able to shoot at a much lower ISO and smaller aperture. It was in a hallway with a bare bulb hanging in the ceiling (below right) and I liked the light quality. With some help I put a strobe and a small softbox up in the same place, getting very similar light but slightly less harsh. A grid over the softbox helped control the fall off and edges, to shape it a bit more. I'd picked this hallway for the blocky green and orange wall paintings and thought it'd play well with the checked dress the model was wearing. All that I think works well, along with the lighting - but I struggle with posing a full body. That's why so much of my photography is tighter head and shoulders shots - fewer limbs to position and deal with.
Another theme has been shooting using windows and mixing in the daylight with the available indoor light, playing with the mixed colour temperatures that you find around those edges. Eric Ogden has many portraits shot with the window actually in the frame, blowing out behind the subject and I tried a bit of that with the portrait of Amanda above. Just put the meter on center spot to ignore the background and shoot for these - nothing too clever going on. I like how the outdoor light turns slightly blue when her skin is balanced for the indoor light - made a bit stranger by the fact we were in a predominantly green-walled restaurant which added some unique colour casts to the shot. I also used an old idea of shooting through glass, for the second shot of Kevin, above, using the neon lights in the bar we were in, along with an empty, slightly dirty pint glass in front of the lens to create the coloured flare.
I've also been thinking about and cropping nearly all the shots over the last week to a square format. I've been shooting with that crop in mind and just seeing how it works for me. I doubt there will be a Hasselblad anywhere in my near future but that different crop has been interesting to work with. I'm blaming looking at Mark Tucker's portraits for that particular influence. I don't think it is something I'm going to keep doing much longer but it was interesting to try adding another arbitrary constraint into how I was shooting for a short time. It certainly changes how you arrange things in a frame.
Another shot, (below) was lit using the available light and the modeling lights of the alien bee strobes that we were using. I'm not sure that that really counts as using the strobes properly, but any light that's available counts. the modeling light is low to the camera right, balancing with the wall light fixture. This could be another example of me only being able to see what the continuous sources give well and not having enough experience to predict how the brief strobe will act, but I much prefer working with the continuous light sources - it seems to suit my biases and process. Maybe I should be thinking about video more!
My second Ironman. Well, first one watching, but second ironman I've been around. I'm not sure but it might actually be harder to spectate than to participate. At least when you are in the race, you have some control over what happens. Watching and cheering you just have to hope that they keep going.
It all starts around 4am, we all roll out into the car and try to keep Amanda calm. We were staying about 20 minutes from Lake Placid and make it in just before the roads are closed. We drop Amanda off at the transition area and then go to park. We make a bad decision to park in the first lot we come to, really close to the race site. Only a few hours later would I realise that the car was stuck there until midnight when the race finished! We dropped off Amanda's special needs bags and walked over to the swim start. Getting to the site early meant that Amanda breezed through the transition setup and body marking and was ready to go by about 5:30am. Only 90 minutes to go and the weather looks good. I set up camp right by the swim out, up against the barriers, hoping to get some good photos. Amanda suits up to get into the water and we share a last pre-race hug and I wish her good luck. Everyone streams passed me into the water and I get to feel the nerves of an Ironman swim, second-hand.
It is still a pretty darn emotional sight and experience, even at a distance. The canon fires and they are off. About then the rain starts to fall. I huddle over my camera, thinking the rain will probably blow through really quickly. I'd think that for another 13 hours until it did. We all yell and cheer as the first pros scream past us, then the age groupers start to arrive. I see Amanda getting her wetsuit stripped off in front of me and cheer myself hoarse. All the photos are blurry because I forgot to adjust the ISO as the rain fell and the sky darkened. You'd think I'd know better by now. Then she's off and Andy, Kate & I duck out of the rain in a garage forecourt and decide what to do for the next 3.5 hours until Amanda finishes her first bike loop. We find a restaurant serving breakfast and try to dry out a bit. Luckily enough after a few hours and a couple of pots of coffee we are warmed up and realise the bike course is right outside the window. We watch the first, super fast and crazy bikers coming through in the pouring rain and then move out to cheer on Amanda. In the rain (have I mentioned the rain enough yet?)
Then there she is, looking wet but happy, right on schedule. We cheer, Kate is louder than her Mum would be and Amanda is off again on the next loop. I manage to take a couple of blurry pictures and some sharp shots of the back of Amanda and then she is away. Between trying to keep the camera out of the rain and hanging over the barrier to catch a glimpse I'm just not ready and then she's gone.
The rain keeps falling.
Next stop, the Ironman North America merchandise tent, buying warmer clothes and a towel. I'm drenched and it's only about 11am. We get changed under the hatch of the car and walk up to the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery to try out some of the local wheat beer. (Hey, I said this spectating was hard work, right?) We watch Greg Norman trying to win the Open and have fish and chips. Almost dry again - must be time to head out and see Amanda finishing the bike! This time it was a bit drier - still raining, but not quite so heavy and we walk a bit further out along Mirror Lake Drive to see Amanda heading back in to the run start. Some of the faster bikers are already out on the run course and I cheer for a few of the Austin pros that I recognise. None of them look happy - not the usual 100F and sunny weather they are used to (and most of them would suffer in the end as a result).
Then Amanda is passing us. Not looking happy. In fact, looking less happy than I've ever seen her in a race. Glum. Demoralised. It was hard to see. We cheered, and cheered and yelled again, but she looked defeated. We walked towards the transition area and I left Andy and Kate to look for Amanda, almost certain that I wouldn't see her running out of transition. I walked out along the run course, heading further out from town, hoping to see Amanda somewhere out there, but still really not expecting to, after how she looked at the end of the bike course. I check the athlete tracker on my phone and see that Amanda blew through the second transition in 8 minutes. I must have missed her somewhere! I keep walking further out onto the run course and get a couple of miles from town before it really starts raining even more heavily. I beg some spectators to take pity on me and let me stand under their tent for a few minutes until this latest storm clears.
I start talking to the people under the tent and we all join in cheering for the athletes suffering away in the rain. I get a chance to shoot the leading women and eventual winner of the race from there. Still no sign of Amanda though and I'm worried again that the tracker had screwed up or was reporting a false transition time. Then I see a T3 jersey in the distance and Amanda is running along the road, passing people. I get all my new friends in the tent to cheer for her and I run out and trot along beside her for a few minutes. She looked pleased to see me and a bit happier running in the rain, rather than riding in it. Then the rain gets heavier again. I'm back under the tent, wondering how I'm going to get my camera back to town, dry. I hardly even bother taking pictures now, thinking that cheering people on is more important.
I cheer for a few Texas Iron people and start calling out all the names I can see. The racers get two versions of their race number, one with their surname, one with their first name. The people using their first name are a whole lot easier to cheer on. Surnames seem too impersonal when they are suffering so much. People are looking quite shell shocked by now and yelling their name snaps them out of it and occasionally gets a smile. The louder we are, the more happy the runners look so we go all out (and it's a good way to keep warm too!) Amanda comes past again, heading back out on the run and we all cheer and yell for her. I run over and we share a quick kiss and she's off, looking strong and a bit happier.
Finally, the rain clears and I walk back the couple of miles to town in the light drizzle. Back to the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery and surprise, surprise, Kate & Andy are still there! With all the people in Lake Placid, it was surprisingly easy to keep bumping in to people I knew! Another pint and I'm ready to face the rain for the final time, standing on the last hill and bringing Amanda home. Then she's there and Kate & I run (yes run!) up the final hill beside her. I get the impression that Amanda was actually enjoying this crazy Ironman by this point, even though it was about mile 136 by that point. We head over to the Lake Placid speed skating rink (which was the final 200m of the run) and wait to see her bringing it home. Then she's into the home straight and we all high five over the barriers and cheer and then it is all over. The rain had stopped about 20 minutes earlier. 13 hours of rain. 13 hours and 36 minutes of racing. This time Amanda gets to hear Mike Riley announce 'Amanda McGregor - You are an Ironman'.
All that's left is to go find her, tell her how wonderful she did, then mention that we can't leave for another 4 hours! We go back to the pub for a celebratory cold hot dog and cheer the later finishers. I deposit Amanda in the back of the car for a well deserved nap and the rest of us go to watch the people finishing in the last hour of the race. There are a lot of people still there, cheering on the athletes who've worked the longest. There was a real mix of finishers in that last hour. Some who looked to have really struggled. We see the oldest man in the race (71 years old) finishing strong. Others looked like they might have taken a nap for several hours somewhere along the race - far too fresh and fit looking. One unlucky athlete manages to sprint around the final lap, with hundreds of us cheering him on, and cross the line at 17:00.02. 3 seconds past the official finish. A few more finish about 10 seconds after him. A long day to not be considered an official finisher!
Finally, a little more than 20 hours after we all got up, it was over and we could head back to the car and drive home. Quite a day and an amazing effort from Amanda. I am so impressed by her grit and determination, particularly keeping going after such a brutal bike ride and into a wet and cold run. She was awesome! Not the best day for photography but very inspirational all around. I've put more pictures up from the weekend over here.
Race prep is going well, Amanda's got all her packs packed, the bike is checked in and we've previewed the course. Kate, Andy and I have planned our viewing strategy, worked out which pubs to be in at what times and we are ready to go, too! The weather has been a mix of thunderstorms, sun, showers, fog and just about everything in between. Forecast for race day is a bit of rain later on in the day but it should be mostly clear for the swim and bike. Temperature is low and it all looks good. Lake Placid village is going crazy, inundated with triathletes and we are lucky enough to be staying a wee bit further out, in Wilmington which is keeping us away from most of the madness.
Should be a great race tomorrow! I've posted some pictures of the pre-race on my flickr account, here. You can hopefully follow Amanda on the athlete tracker (though it can occasionally 'lose' an athlete so don't panic if her times don't update!) Her race number is 2096. There is also live race coverage here and I'll update the twitter feed to the left as and when we see her.
For those wondering what Amanda has in store this weekend. A two point four mile swim. One hundred and twelve miles on the bike. Then a marathon.
You can quit. And they don't care. But you will always know.
