Slaughterama

I had the opportunity to attend Slaughterama (spelling) over the weekend, which really turned out to be a great event. Basically the whole idea behind it is to go down to the river (Belle Isle), drink beer and enjoy the day. Oh yeah, and bring a bike, because there are all kinds of crazy events that require one. The events ranged from jousting, the gauntlet, team chug, all kinds of races, even a quarter pipe where bikers were getting some ridiculous air. I spent the day trying to get the best photographs possible that would document the entire day, as accurate and honest as possible. Besides that actual event, I spent two days prior to that sitting over my cousin's apartment, shooting away as he prepared all 20 of his bikes to go down to the river. Because I'm so close to my cousin, I tried to shoot objects that portrayed him indirectly, things like his bikes, tools, environment around the apartment. Of course, he did want actual photos of himself, but those turned out to be pretty posed and I'll probably never use them. I felt like this was the kind of event I needed to get away from sports for a little bit, shoot something with a different feel, people and completely different setting. I do think I got some great photos out of it, at the same time, I'm hoping I can get together a series of about 10-15 photographs that can completely tell the story of the day. This is really what I've been striving for the majority of this semester. I'm great at capturing an action from a sporting event, but I've lacked the ability to form narratives within a body of work. I'm hoping this will do the trick, I just needed to pull away from the stock sports genre for a bit and focus on different aspects of photography. I am happy doing so, but at times, it seems like people just keep telling me what to shoot, and by the time I'm supposed to be showing work, it doesn't even feel like its my own, but what everyone else wanted me to shoot. In conclusion the photos never feel completely cohesive to me, which comes as a disappointment. I am still in the process of narrowing down photos, but I will definitely have some posted by tomorrow. Keep checking the blog, I am going to want some feedback because I may want to include some of these within my works to show, haven't really decided yet.