Author: Harold_Bamberg

Tough Mudder: Not Normal!!!

/ Harold_Bamberg / 1 Comment

When was the last time you threw yourself into anything wholeheartedly? This is not a rhetorical question? 3528864_race_0.9973841919890418.display

When was the last time you found yourself in the middle of something and you had to reach deep to muster the strength to finish? Again, not a rhetorical question. When was the last time you were faced with a challenge so daunting, that it scared you into an anxiety attack? Really. When was the last time you swallowed your pride, reached out your hand, and grabbed onto whoever was there for help? When was the last time you looked at a challenge and said (to yourself or out loud) “No way! There is NO Way!” Then, you watched someone else do it. Then someone told you, “You Can!!” And you did!

When? What was it?

This past weekend, I was in Charlotte, shooting the Tough Mudder Obstacle Course Race for GameFaceMedia.com. What an amazing experience it is to shoot another of these events. I watched person after person go far beyond their limits. Yes, there were those guys and gals, who trained for these event. My hat is off to them and they were awesome. I am not talking about them. I am talking about, the first time Mudders. Those guys and gals who made a decision to train for and complete “One of the Toughest Events in the World.” They decided to throw themselves into an event, go as hard as they could, and finish. They did not complete obstacles with finesse. They did not look great in mud-covered spandex as they sprinted through or climbed over walls. They completed those obstacles with heart, courage, and encouragement. Truly, they Gutted it Out!

As a general rule, when they finished the last obstacle – they were done. Not, “Really Tired,” I need some rest tired. More like, “I have been running and fighting this course all day. I need help to stand up!” Really tired.

You might think this is crazy and insane. There is a bit of truth to that. But, there are so many of us who wished we could do things differently. We make excuses, and just write so many things off as, “I can’t do that.” “I don’t want to do that.” Imagine yourself as the office coworker of an athlete who finished an obstacle course race yesterday. They may walk into work a little slower than last week. They will probably tell you about the race over lunch – which was not really a race. They will tell you that they thought they were going to die, and mean it. They will show you a scrape and a bruise and tell you about the obstacle. They will tell you about the headband and the best tasting beer in the world. They will show you the pictures and you will be amazed. They, however, are different. They will walk a little taller. They will sit a little straighter. They are more confident and disciplined. Because, they do know the last time they put it all out there. They remember the last time they completely surprised themselves by gutting it out. They remember the time when they were done and could go no farther, when a buddy grabbed their hand pulled them up and said “You did it, Mudder!”

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Tough Mudder Nashville, 2014 Photo Courtesy GameFaceMedia.com

They may also remember shouting “YYEESSS!” as loud as they could.

So, when was the last time you did that?

Better Videos Now: A few tips to improve your video projects.

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Everyday thousands of instructional videos are uploaded to services like YouTube and Vimeo. A few are excellent. Most are not! So, as you develop your next learning video, here are some tips to help your project be among the very best.

A great video starts with a great script. Plan your project by developing a script that focuses on your learning objective. Once your happy with the script add the visuals and create a storyboard. Use note cards or sticky notes, so you easily can add and take away visual and script elements. Share your storyboard with a friend or trusted colleague for feedback and ideas. Have them read your script aloud and listen carefully. It may not sound as good as you think. A great scrip and storyboard are essential elements in creating an excellent instructional video.

Ken Burns made a name for himself by capturing wide sweeping landscapes with gentle zooms and pans. Increase that effect and you can create tension and a sense of motion. Increase it further and you have an earthquake, a rocket launch or a car crash. None of which will contribute to learning during an instructional video. Steady that camera! Use a tripod or a steady cam – but hold that camera still. It is difficult to keep your audience focused on your goal when they notice how much the scene moves or shakes. You can edit the around some rough spots or run a stabilization program on the footage. But the easiest way to capture great footage is to stabilize the camera.

Record excellent sound. Be mindful of wind conditions, camera handling noises, camera focusing noises, and talent to microphone distance issues. You can get excellent audio from just about any camera, but be careful, many cameras have great audio recording capabilities and they also may record sounds you don’t want. Use a windscreen or a dead cat filter to kill wind noise. When you record dialogue, move the microphone closer to your talent or use a lavaliere microphone. Use headphones to verify the audio you have captured. It’s not a bad idea to use a audio recorder, since syncing audio is pretty easy inside of many popular video editing packages.

Have a specific objective for your learning video. Starting with a specific goal helps you focus your content toward that purpose. If anything in the video doesn’t contribute to the goal, take it out. Chances are very high that if it doesn’t contribute to learning, it is a distraction – and that can negatively impact your video.

Finally, watch your video. If it does not look and sound good to you don’t publish it. Re-edit it correcting any issues you have with the video. If you start any section in your video with “I hope you can see this.” or “I don’t think you can see this.” Fix it!! 

Here’s the recap and disclaimer. Script and storyboard your production using note cards or sticky notes, hold that camera steady with a tripod or steady cam, record great audio by getting close to your talent and using windscreens, alternate recorders, and headphones, set a purpose for your project and stick to that goal, and finally, view the video and correct any problems.

Full confession: The blog spot you just read is actually a video script that I am working on. I watched a couple of videos today and could not contain myself.

Look for more tips in the coming months – in video form.

Blog

/ Harold_Bamberg / Leave a comment

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.

I learned two lessons this weekend.

I learned two lessons this weekend.

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!