Kind of want to buy some shoes

Very specific shoes, actually -- like the ones you might use to scale boulders and such. Why? Because I shot these guys the other day. And now I've had a hankering to start climbing. Some times there's only one way to get down. Okay, well, there are always different ways to get down, but some are quicker than others. Now like I can't do some climbing without the shoes, obviously. There you go, those are the shoes. Fashionable, no?

Holy leaping high schooler, Batman!

College football players aren't the only ones who can jump, you know.
From an older football game, Shelby County versus Chelsea.

Oh, by the by ...

If anybody knows of something really cool to do and/or see in Alabama or thereabouts, lemme know. I've got a ridiculous amount of downtime this weekend and will most likely be itching to do something, anything, just as long as it's relatively active.

Just shout.

What'd the dad tomato say to the lagging son tomato?

Catch-up ... which is how I'm going to waste the next minute or so of your life. Some backlogged shtuffs that ran recently or ran a while ago, but I haven't posted about. So, onward ...

There's a gym a little south of town that does some "bare bones" fitness -- ie, no machines, just weights and physics -- that the health guys wanted photos on. The workout is a pretty intense thing, and, given the time and money, I might have looked into it.

That was the level of exhaustion after 15 minutes.

There's this really nice little nature preserve about 30 minutes north of town called Turkey Creek. I've been there a couple times, but not in the last month or two, so when I got down there last Saturday morning and saw all the colors, I realized that I really had no desire to go anywhere else for the rest of the day. I had a portrait to shoot midday, but I spent the rest of the afternoon there, quite happily, afterward. Oh, sorry, right -- I was there that morning to watch a group of students from Birmingham-Southern College work on the "ecoscape" and clean up around the creek.Gorp.

Lovely place out there, and probably a little better off now that BSC has taken up stewardship of the joint. I might head out there this weekend when I've got the time.

Odds-n-Ends

Just a few odds and ends hanging around on my computer.
From a high school football game ...
... from a different high school game ... actually, I may have posted this earlier ...
Hey everybody, it's Greg the religion writer! Nice guy.

Okay, gotta brush my teeth, put on a good shirt, and get to work. Ciao.

High school volleyball

Never shot volleyball before, so I didn't really know what to expect, but it was kind of fun after a while. When I shoot football, it feels a little tedious, but volleyball just seemed to be a constant go-go-go, so it was more exciting. My issues: how do I get faces when I'm having to shoot through a net; jeez, it's so bleeding dark; and hooo-boy, those are some skimpy shorts and these girls are too young ... well, most of them were ...

It was fun, but I feel like I got the same photo over and over with different people. If I had a three or four hundred and a monopod, I would have sat/stood in the stands and shot above the net, just for something different.

Racing gurneys, a kayaker, and erotic still life

To begin: UAB has a traditional Gurney Derby during their homecoming week wherein teams of students from all the different schools run with gurneys down a track and compete for best time. It's all done in costume with a mannequin or some kind of set up as a "patient." Pretty fun, or at least it appeared so. Also, funny note: the team that won was the group from the business school. _____

Walking into work last Tuesday, I was almost immediately called over to the Ed's desk and reassigned to chase Ardie Olson down the Coosa River. The Alabama Scenic River Trail opened up last month (someone should fact check that because I can't rightly remember at the moment), and Ardie is trying to run it in two weeks. That's 631 miles of river, by the way, in a 20 foot kayak. He's actually from Cumming, GA, and does stuff like participate in the world's longest mountain bike race. Kudos and whatnot. Nice guy.

He works as an office manager for his wife, who is a lawyer. Apparently, he gets quite a bit of time off. The geeky coolness factor of his trip was that anyone who wanted to could track his progress via something called "Spot" online. His life jacket was equipped with a GPS tracking unit that sent out updates every ten minutes or so. Pretty nifty.

Pretty soon, parents will be able to subdermally implant these on their kids while they sleep. And we all thought we had it bad.
_____

And erotic still life. Okay, it's not really erotic, it's actually medical. Back in the day, and by "day" I mean the Ming Dynasty, Chinese physicians weren't allowed to touch or even see upper class female patients, so these dolls were made to help the doc make a prognosis. He would take the doll, pass it through to the woman, she'd mark the place of pain/injury, and pass it back. Based on this, the pulse he was allowed to take from an outstretched wrist, and, I'm guessing, pure dumb luck, he was supposed to make his diagnosis.

You know, I was all set up to have someone pose for me in the same, ahem, attire, but this is still as close as I've gotten. Ah, well, sigh ...

Ciao.

Running through this

Almost time for me to bust out, but here's some stuff from the Great American Cross Country Festival that happened last Saturday in Hoover.

Outta here, post more later, take it easy.

And ciao ...