The weather is FINALLY starting to cooperate in Ohio and just in the nick of time for the Color Me Rad 5K race in Akron, Ohio. This was my first photographing a Color Me Rad event, but second for shooting a 5K race in which color is tossed at runners. If you're not familiar what happens at this event, I'm going to simply shut my mouth and let the photos speak for themselves.
Group shot of the team who helped raise money for Mary Anne.
I was shooting at the first color station today when one of the volunteers told me how her team were raising money for Akron's Children Hospital (I think that's what she told me) for a special little girl who's battling cancer. It really sucked and broke my heart to hear this. It even intensified when she told me she was only 2 years old.
This is Mary Anne and as you can see, she has lost much of her hair. When I approached her, she was extremely shy, but we all gathered around her and got a great group shot so they can share with the friends and family.
Thank you Mary Anne! I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
The guy entertaining the crown came out on stage with a rigged fire extinguisher to blow out colorful powder at the crowd. If you were caught inside, you'd be spitting "urplish" saliva. No matter how you tried to avoid it. Blah!
About every 15 minutes, you'd be tossed packets of color and when the countdown hit 1, you then threw all your color into the air. Or if you were feeling really malicious, you just threw it at the person next to you.
Photographer Notes:
Camera:
Nikon D600
Lens:
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
If you gotten this far, your next question may be, "Matt, how did you protect your gear from the colorful elements"? Well, I wouldn't in no way shape or form think about bringing a naked camera to a war zone without taking proper measures. Last year before I shot the Color Vibe, I found this website where this photographer completely wrapped his gear in saran wrap and successfully reported that his camera came back with very little color.
I don't have pictures of how I did mine, but it's really simple.
First, go to your local grocery store and pick of some saran or cling wrap. Grab any kind of clear packaging tape. That's it. That's all you need to buy.
Next, start wrapping the lens and camera body several times and make sure to use the tape you bought to hold together the wrap so it doesn't come undone.
Now if you want to play it extra safe, I would use a prime lens. That way you won't have to worry about zooming in or out and the whole lens will be complete safe. Now, I used the 24-70mm, which I had to cut away part of the wrap around the zooming rubber to easily zoom in or out. Luckily, the 24-70mm by Nikon is dust resistant, so I wasn't too worried about dust getting in the motor.
Finally, I would highly recommend placing a UV filter on your lens. This will ensure no dust particles will hit or get in the crevice of the lens. Oh and shoot in Aperture-Priority mode. Your dials will be cover by the wrap and the least amount of fiddling will work out the best and make life a little easier.
Questions? Leave them below here.