WOW! Where has the summer gone? It is August: The best month to be in Seattle.... the culmination of SeaFair, and with it, the SeaFair Triathlon: An opportunistic segue into sports action portraits and some editorial comments about athletes, the event, and a photograph.
When doing a sports action portrait with a triathlete, one is never short on opportunity. These people (pardon: athletes) eat, live, and sleep their training regiment...especially if they are training for an IronMan triathlon: 2.4 mi. swim, 112 mi bike ride, 26 mi run. (Pure insanity!)
Consequently, one can usually find them in the pool...
And, when the weather gets nice, one (a portrait photographer) can get these athletes into the open water...to have them do repeated squat-thrusts (up and out of the water) in an attempt to capture a portrait.
..and just for fun, you can say, "just a couple more, *to be sure*" (...push-ups are good too.)
All fine and dandy, but when one goes to provide event coverage...the "models" become these programed bots driven to achieve a time.
Ironically, it was in the mist (at the onset really) of the SeaFair triathlon, that I noticed an oxymoron...the triathlon commune.
Do you see it? I had never considered the phenomena. In hindsight, however, I am not surprised.
I suppose that is one of the beauties of a still image/photograph: You can sit and analyze a static moment. Each subject. Each expression. Each Individual's body language. Perhaps there is motion, but you can sit and look....and look... and look...you can get lost in an image, stare yourself cross-eyed...and then, as if to see the forest through the trees....an epiphany.
Do you see it?
Stay tuned!
