Relay Fo Life

Heidi and I have volunteered for our town's American Cancer Society's Relay for Life for several years. Usually we handle the luminary tent, but this year we took on different jobs. Heidi was the team captain for the town employees and also ran the food tent for the town employees.

I was one of the photographers and was able to use a nice digital camera with zoom lenses. I don't have a DSLR, just a point-and-shoot. So with a borrowed Nikon camera and no time to practice, I was told to take pictures of 'everyone doing everything'.

I took over 300 pictures, but hoped to take more than that. Maybe next year. Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pictures of the bunch. I really like taking pictures of kids, they are great subjects and are not afraid of you taking their picture.

 Face painting. This girl was very still for a long time. She wanted to make sure the artist made a masterpiece of her face.

 This is my favorite picture of all the ones I took. This little girl was worn out even before things got going.

 I liked this picture because of the two girls being so careful to place their bag just right and how respectful they were in doing it.

 This was the start of the 'Survivor Lap'. I like the confetti.

 This is another favorite of mine. I like it because it tells a story: Hope is in the background, the top banner tells the story of the event, and the banner that all the people are carrying identifies the crowd taking the lap on the track.

This picture was on the front page of our town newspaper. I didn't know that is was going to be on the cover, I was reading the paper and looked at the photo and thought 'hey, that looks like the picture I took'. I read the photo credit and it had my name, how about that?

 I like this one because I was able to frame the walkers with the branch of the tree in the foreground.

 I also like this one because it not only shows the kids getting their picture taken, but also the photographer.

 This one draws your eye from the stars on the table to the lady in the booth. So what is the subject ... the stars or the lady?

 These were cool, hard to read unless you enlarge the picture, her fingernails say 'Team Hope".

 This little boy showed me his masterpiece.

 This girl was so patient getting her face painted.

 I liked this picture because this little girl's eyes have attitude. It's like she was saying 'I know that you are taking my picture, and I don't care'.

 This girl was so particular in making sure everything was just right on her card.

 This girl worked so hard on the ring toss. I had to be patient with her and take a lot of photos until I got one that I wanted. If you look close, one of the rings is in the air just before it hit the board.

 I asked these sisters if I could take their picture and they were more than happy to let me.

 I like how the row of bags leads to the sign. Even if you can't read all the words on the sign, you can read 'lives!' and understand that this event is about saving lives.

 I wanted to show that there is someone else out of the picture pulling on the other end of the rope on this tug-of-war game.

 Heidi and I taking a break.

 These boys loved getting their picture taken.

 These girls were dancing to "Bad To The Bone." They have dog ears on as headbands and also have their hands bent like paws. This girl was so cute because she really acted out all the parts well.

 I asked her parents after their dance if I could take her picture. I like this picture because it shows how much fun she was having at this event.

 There was a scavenger hunt for the kids. Here a team is checking in with all the things on their list that they needed to gather. I liked this picture because of the facial expressions of the girl on the left with the phone, and the reaction of the girl on the right.

 There was also a 'Bedazzled Brazier" contest. I liked this photo, because it shows these tattooed, burly men and they are dressed-up for a good cause.

There was also a twister game. I liked this picture because all the kids are beginning to get all twisted up.

I had to be patient with taking photos of the kids. I had to wait for just the right moment to take the picture. The zoom lenses allowed me to take lots of good photos without people knowing they were being photographed. I don't think that is being sneaky, it just makes the photo so much more natural.

Also the kids that knew their photo was being taken, didn't have any hang-ups about hair, or makeup, or their 'best side' or anything else.

I like my photos to tell a story, I like to think I don't take 'snapshots'. Over the years I have been more of a landscape photographer, but with 5 kids and now lots of grandkids (and events like this) I have learned to like taking people pictures.

I had a great time taking all the photos and would really like to do it again.

The End