Hopefully, I will be posting every week or so. Which is more of a suggestion than a guideline and I count re-blogging as posting, too. I will not be political, dramatic, or too squishy or manly, I promise. Honestly, I want to write about what I am doing in the photography business and share it with whoever will find it entertaining and interesting. So far, in my relatively short life (compared to dirt and rocks – yes, I am but an infant), I have and continue to learn daily. Some successes and some failure – which is still learning and still good. Rather than keeping all this information to myself, have decided I want to share it. Just this past weekend, I managed to learn two very important lessons about people.

Lately, I have been working as a contract photographer, shooting the participants of extreme obstacle course events. My first gig was BattleFrog Atlanta in Conyers, Ga. I was really exciting about the job and had a blast shooting that event. The next weekend, I shot Tough Mudder Nashville. Wow! BattleFrog Atlanta was a tough timed Obstacle Course Race and most of the obstacles, although very difficult, could be negotiated fairly quickly. Tough Mudder, however,  was, well, tougher and a more extreme obstacle course, encouraging participants to work together to finish the course. Many of the obstacles were not negotiable unless participants were to reach out to their teammates or total strangers wearing mostly spandex, sunscreen, and mud for help.

My Tough Mudder shooting assignment for most of the day was the “Arctic Enema.” This obstacle was a 30 cubic yard garbage dumpster converted to a plastic lined swimming pool filled with creek water and several thousand pounds of Ice – yes, ICE. There was a ladder type structure with a narrow platform at the entrance end, and another narrow platform and a ramp at the exit end of the dumpster. In the middle of this water and ice feature was a vertical board across the width to the dumpster, several feet high and 6 inches of so down into the water, blazoned with the Dos Equis logo. The only way through this five foot deep, 34 degree swimming pool, was up the ladder, into the water, under the center board, up another ladder, and down a 2×4 crossed ramp. My job was to photograph the participants as they emerged from the freezing water on the exit side of the center board. Specifically, and this is from my instructions, I was to catch the “Oh, Sh@t, it’s cold!” expression. There were some who walked around, but, many, many more went through. I shot the pictures to prove that they did, in fact over come and survive and that there was no better way to describe their expressions.

Now, here are the lessons I learned:

1. When submerge in freezing cold water, most all people cuss. Just about everybody. The favorite statement of the day was (remember the Tough Mudder website states the water is around 34 degrees Fahrenheit), “(gasp!!)Holy Sh*T!! (gasp!!)This Water is F@ck’en Cold!!”  Most of the people chose this line to express their utter disbelief that they had placed themselves in this position. Some apologized for their language. One young lady said “Burr!” At first I was empathetic, but toward the end of the day and many thousand clicks later, not so much.
2. Even in the absolute worst physical conditions imaginable, people are amazingly polite. The ladder in the water allowing individuals to climb out of the dumpster/ice pool was only about 4 or 5 feet wide – the dumpster was around 8 feet wide. People were entering this obstacle sometimes three at a time – giggling, holding hands, jumping, and yelling “Cannon Ball!!” and such. Getting the three out on the ladder was not about to happen. What did happen was “Excuse me!” Please, get out of the way!” Many participants were smacked in the head by flailing legs, elbows, and arms to profuse apologies and “Are you OK?, I am so sorry!” There were even some people who were asked to retrieve hats and headbands from the icy water and did so with no thought for themselves. They just reached or stepped back into the water got what they were asked and said “Here you go.”

Say what you will about the cussing, but I think the true measure of character, that day, was those who showed their character in the face of extreme discomfort. Those men and women how stepped back into icy water for stuff they did not need, for people they did not know. Over and over again, I was amazed by these acts of class. The talk was one thing, and the doing was something else! Tough Mudder was brutal and ridiculous. But, friendships fused by that experience will be pretty safe.

I was also fortunate enough to photograph two engagement proposals at the finish line. One of the guys had carried the ring in his glove for the whole course, around 12 miles. Covered in mud from head to toe, the guy got down on one knee in about 6 inches of mud and said, “If we can get through this, we can do anything!” Both women said “Yes!” It was a beautiful thing. (I’ll post that photo later.)

It was a good weekend!