Because I failed to reach my running goal last month, I decided to kick it into gear a little more this month. Yesterday I got a new Nike+ running workout from iTunes. It's similar to the one I have with Serina Williams, but in this workout, my coach is Lance Armstrong. It's another interval workout, just longer. I have a warm up, then four 4-minute speed sets, with four 4-minute recovery sets, then finally a cool down. (Take a look the box over there on the right and you can get a good idea of how the run looks in chart format. Speed up, slow down, speed up slow down... etc.)
During the Serina workout, she'll chime in with some encouragement like "If I saw you right now, would I be impressed?" or "I want your running to turn some heads." Which is great, but the difference with this new workout is that Lance chimes in with tips on running. For example, during one of the slow sets he says "stay relaxed by un-clinching your fists and relaxing your shoulders. This will help you prepare for the next fast set." And during one of the fast sets he said "Try to get off your heals and use the balls of your feet to push you forward." But Lance still jumps in with the encouragement as well. "Remember, it's not supposed to be easy." and "Remember, pain is temporary, giving up lasts a lifetime."
Now how can you not be inspired to run with those words plus Weezer, Beck, Wolfmother and others playing in your ears?
Four runs complete this month, five more to reach my goal.
Now for some photo talk...
I got a bit of inspiration the other day when I looked at a recent set of contest winners. There are some really amazing shots in there. But what got to me the most was the sports stuff. The majority of the winning images were not your standard sports action stuff you see in the sports section. They were unique angles, different points of view, interesting lighting techniques and so on...
It got me to thinking. I cover so much sports its crazy. I know all the local teams, I know their star players, I know the lighting conditions for every field or gym in Terrebonne Parish, it's safe to say that I'm really comfortable shooting local sports down here. And I took a quick look back at some of my sports images, and they're really all the same, and they're nothing like the winning images from that contest.
I need to break out of my comfort zone when it comes to shooting sports. Take basketball for example. In each gym for the past two years, I've set up my lights in the same place and stood in the same location for each and every game. How boring is that? At first I was kind of proud that I could walk into any gym in Houma and light it. But now, it kind of bothers me that I stuck myself in that rut.
So tonight I took my first step out of my zone. I stood at the other corner of the gym for the second and third quarters. I still set my light up in the same place, I just walked across the baseline to the other corner to see what would happen.
This first shot is what I've been getting for the last two seasons. Pretty straight forward. Just a standard action shot. nothing too fancy.
This is what happens when I walked across the baseline to the other corner. Little different look. The light is still coming from the same direction, I'm just in a different position.
This first step out of my zone was pretty small. It's just a few steps across a gym floor. What I need to start doing is seeing basketball different. So combine the moving of myself and the the moving of my lights with the moving of my mind away from how I've been seeing basketball the past two years. I basically just need to challenge myself at these games and not just bring back the same ole photo each time.
Of course, this mind set carries over to all my assignments, not just basketball. But Sports is a good example because I shoot 2-4 sporting events a week.
Oh, and I'll leave you with this... I photographed a guy named Poo Poo tonight. Think about that for a while, then watch this and you'll see who I met. He's a local celebrity.
