So after a 27 year drought, an American won the 2009 ING New York City Marathon today. That man is none other than Meb Keflezighi. The 2004 Olympic silver medalist was plagued with injury in his right hip after the 2008 U.S Olympic Trials Marathon that almost ended his running career. Since bouncing back from his injury, Meb has claimed the U.S Cross Country National crown, a new marathon PR of 2:09.21 and half marathon PR of 61 minutes. He also took down the U.S. 20k record en route to his half marathon PR.
Below are some photo’s of Meb from some recent races I was fortunate enough to cover.
When you mention Letsrun.com to a runner or coach, they are either all about it, or wish it never existed. I for one like the publicity the Brojo’s are bringing to the track front and exposing a new generation to the world of track and field. The forums though, are definitely hit or miss.
One recent addition I’ve enjoyed is the posting of links to interviews done by Dunkin Larkin over at Road Mills Laps. He does a great job entertaining and informing in his writing. In his recent interview of Amy Yoder-Begley, he talks to her about her upcoming and successful year. Definitely a must read. Check it out here.
So you know my last post was on Joey Stylez, hip-hop artist out of Bethlehem,PA. He is actually performing this Friday night at Sherman Theatre in Stroudsburg, PA. A couple months back, we did his shoot and then had to work on his mixtape cover. I had one light to work with so I set it up as a rim light and used natural lighting for the front.
After bringing it into photoshop and working on duplicating parts of the right side into the left side, we came up with something that didn’t look too bad. We then sent the hi-res image to a graphic design artist in Philly, Superfreakdesigns.com. Check out the images below to see how the progress went.
One project I took on this summer was creating portraits, CD art and a MySpace for a Bethlehem based rapper, Joe Stylez. We met up while in college and he was looking to establish an online presence for himself. After scouting some locations, we met up at his hometown, and spent a couple hours doing a shoot. The locations were right off campus of Lehigh University including good friend Andy Po’s “Homebase” skateshop.
As promised, here is a collection of photos from PPRAC, a 500 mile, bi-annual bike ride that raises money for the fight against cancer. If you’d like any of these as prints, they will be available online here
That’s exactly what 61 riders did this past week during the 2009 PPRAC (Pennsylvania Perimeter Ride Against Cancer). The ride, which was founded in 1983 by Bob Freed (watch video below), was created as a way to raising funds to help cancer research. This year the cyclists traveled from Burlington, Vermont to Palmerton, Pennsylvania; over 520 miles. This was my 4th time volunteering to support the riders throughout their 6+ hour days on the bike. In addition to supplying the riders with Gatorade, I brought my camera along and was able to document some of the day’s events. I will post photos of each day of the ride throughout the week.
If you’d like to make a contribution to the effort, please visit the website at PPRAC.net.
I was the race she has been waiting to run all season. The U.S. half miler was chasing the “A” standard (2:00.00) which would allow her to compete at this year’s World Track and Field Championships in Berlin. She ran 2:00.04 in Belgium and then went to Paris two days later to come up short in 2:03.06. This past Tuesday, she gave it one last shot. At the Herculis International meet she ran past the field with 50 meters to go to win in a world leading 1:57.84, the seventh fastest time for a U.S. female not to mention, a personal best. Congrats Maggie!!
It was a sweet 10 minute downhill ride to the Parkway. On the way back, not so much. But managed to meet up with good friend and high school teammate for a quick shoot. The setup? Peep the title. The gear: All I need is One camera, one lens, one trail.. one Canon 30D and one Sigma 18-50 2.8.
Since February, I have been car-less. Believe it or not anywhere I need to go, I roll Kenyan style. Whether it’s the college I coach at, the post office, or the weight room, I run. You realize a lot when you slow things down. For example, you realize how often cars don’t put turn signals on, how often car’s speed unnecessarily to the next red light, and how much you don’t miss pumping gas. But would I put up with all that again to be able to drive again? Only if the destination is for a job. But what happens when you get a job, and only have two legs. Solution: Upgrade.
Thanks to my amazing girlfriend, I recently upgraded from two legs, to two wheels. Spinning around on this sweet Cannondale (which has made me aware of muscles I didn’t know I had) is great. Whats not so great is trying to pack a body, three lenses, pocket wizards and 580EXII’s into a backpack. Can’t forget the stand and umbrella! I’m off to a shoot in the Lehigh Valley Parkway. Photos to come soon!
So my boy Haamid hits me up and gives me a heads up that his band will be playing at Croc Rock last night. It’s a pretty sweet local spot that hosts live performances. They have some really big names roll through every once and a while. The Bright Life is an awesome band based out of East Stroudsburg, PA. They were recently on Warped Tour ‘09 and have a ton more shows lined up this spring. Here are some of the shots I took last night. I used my 50 1.4 as well as the 70-200 2.8 with the ISO cranked up. Reading this article from Photoshelter’s Blog also helped.
