Here's your sign

 
Sometimes the writing is on the wall.... or the streetsign as the case may be. I was shooting Hasan as he want through his workout. It was hot. He was tired. And we were about 150m down a 200m course. It's no man's land- that section of the parking lot where you're far enough away from the school that you can't hear people screaming your name in support, but you you're still no where near the finish line. And then I spotted this sign. It summed up everything about this workout: a medicine ball toss every 5 squats for 100m, and then a medicine ball toss every 5 slamballs for 100m. THEN you get to carry a sandbag back home (200m). It was very slow going and mentally challenging. Sometimes you can't capture that in a person's face or body. Sometimes the environment tells a more explicit tale than the intended subject.

In this case, Hasan's back was to me and the shot of him didn't really convey what we were feeling at the time. But the bright yellow sign is so simple and in-your-face, you can't help but look at it. The dichotomy between the concrete and business complex on the left, and the lazy grassy field on the right also adds to the shot, I think. I upped the saturation just a tad to bring out the color and cropped it a bit, but otherwise left it untouched. I love this shot.

For more from this workout, go to SquatsSlamBallsAndSandbagsOhMy

When lighting gives you lemons, make silhouettes

 
Ironically, one of the main contributers to the difficult lighting in my gym (the garage door which allows blinding light to pour in) was responsible for this awesome pic today. Brown was showing Yong how to use the PVC pipe to stretch out his shoulders and gain range of motion. I focused on Brown and the camera automatically underexposed the guys due to the light pouring in from the garage door. I hadn't planned on shooting silhouettes, but since I had the shot, I boosted the contrast a little more in Picasa and then made it black and white et voila! Very cool pic.