It's been a loooong time...

I can't believe it's been just over a year since the last time I posted! It's been one hell of a year and not really one to blog about anyway. Some ups, some downs and many lessons learned along the way!

I am now officially laid off, a month early, and making plans for the summer ahead. I thought I had more time to get plans together but here it is upon me.

Since my last post I have lost over 45 lbs and have become a lover of running. My goal this summer is to run a half marathon in August. I recently signed up for a 5K this month, an 8K in May, a quarter marathon in July, a half marathon in August. I am looking at a 10K in Idaho for June. I would love to run in beautiful Idaho, I love road trips, I have never seen that part of the country. All this tells me it's what I should do!

Last summer I hardly took a photo as well, that's how ruff it was. This summer will be different!

Yesterday I did the first art show of the season. Not that great of a turnout, again. But the organizers didn't even bother to advertise like they said they would. I need to rethink my art shows. I have a plan for that, but am keeping that to myself for right now.

It's good to be back. This summer I plan to search for life, experience things I never have before and take some great photography along the way! I hope you come back and enjoy some if it...

I also created a website since the last time I posted, its:
www.sherrimorganphotography.com

A Hike Thru the Desert and up a Mountain… Almost.

My last full day in Arizona included a day hike in Lost Dutchman State Park. Inside this state park is the Superstition Mountains. One reason they might be called that is due to the tales of the Lost Dutchman Mine that may be up in those mountains.

For more than 120 years, the legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine has haunted the minds and souls of treasure seekers throughout the world. It is said to be the most famous lost mine of all time, and to this day it continues to draw prospectors to the Superstition Mountains of Arizona in search of its rich gold.

Here is a link to some information on the mine http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/aug/stories/lost1.html. I wouldn’t mind getting a lil piece of this mine!

It was a beautiful day with a temp in the low 80s when I was hiking. After the long winter in MN and a very hectic season with the deicing, it was so nice to be out in the warmth and sunshine again!

Festival in Arizona

I took a much needed vacation to Arizona for 8 days. This weekend I got out to the Tempe Art Festival and the Arizona BBQ Festival. It was so nice to be able to be outside in warm sunshine!! I even got sun burnt on my arms a little.

 

I wanted to go to the Tempe Art Festival, mainly, to get a look at what the photographers down here were selling. I learned some things. As I was walking down one of the rows I heard harp and flute music. Very mellow laid back music and I liked it.

 

 

If you would like to check out their music you can go to their website: www.dulcevas.com or www.sherrifinzer.com.

 

 

 

 

On Saturday my brother, Mark, Mom and I went to the 2nd Annual Arizona BBQ Festival. It wasn’t quite what I thought it would be but it was fun anyway. They had BBQ teams from all over the country grilling up the best. We, of course, headed over to the Steel City BBQ for a taste of what they had. We waited in line and when we got to the front they looked at my Mom and said, “you get the last rib” and told the crowd behind us, “we will have brisket at 1pm”. It was about 12:30, people were not happy. But there was plenty more BBQ to get and I don’t like ribs anyway.

 

 

Some of the BBQ smokers and setups were pretty extreme, from shiny and fancy to flat black and all home made. I was more impressed with this large home made set up then this shiny burnt orange grill, but that shiny one sure is pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the BBQ was good some not so much. I think I could compete here! LOL All I need is a fancy smoker, grill and my BBQ team. Here are some more pics of what I saw at the BBQ Festival. I wanted to use the name “Big Rack BBQ” but I guess I can’t now!

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It's almost time...

I have 40 days left before I am laid off again. The beginning of the summer will take me to Arizona, and somewhere in the middle I will be in Iowa to photograph a Christian Music Festival. I am very excited about that! Hopefully along the way I will make it to Glacier National Park for some camping and sight seeing. The pacific northwest is the only part of the country I have not been to besides Alaska and Hawaii so that is a goal for this summer too.

It's been a long and snowy winter here in Minnesota causing many long hours and 60-70 hour weeks deicing aircraft. This layoff is much needed and I am so looking forward to it!

Over the winter the MSP airport had an art exhibit and one of my images won first place, so that was exciting!! I also started selling pictures on Etsy, the link is on the side bar if you are interested in checking out what I have.

I'm looking forward to the adventure about to take place and am busy making the tenative plans. Thinking any plans I make are set in stone would just be silly. LOL

I leave for Arizona today for 8 days, so maybe the adventure will start there.

 

Go Commando 5K Adventure Race

 

 

Team Ortho launched into new territory Saturday, September 18th when they held the inaugural Go Commando 5K Adventure Race!  Participants did a 5K run, all while doing 10 super-fun, muddy, wet and challenging adventures!

 

Runners had to climb hay bales, logs and slide down through fast tubes of water that took them into a pit of mud!

 

 

 

 

When I woke at 5am this morning to get ready for the Team Ortho Go Commando 5K Adventure Race it was only 45 degrees.

We I got to the race side about 7:30 I could see my breath but I knew it would be warming up soon, as soon as the sun decides to come out! After a few sprinkles it decided to do just that.

 

 

 

 

The first wave was at 9:00. The participants run around a field and up to and over Hay Fever Ridge, the round hay bales. Not a tough obstacle due to the hay bale steps on both sides.

I really liked the fact that the participants of this race were not only of all ages, but also people of different sizes. I think a lot of the runners were here just to have fun, not finish first. There were people of all fitness levels. Some people walked the race and some people ran the race.

 

 

 

 

The next obstacle was the Black Hole, which was a 48” climb through conduit pipe. Next the the Log Jam forced racers to go up and over a pile of logs.

These to ladies wanted to pose for me. They were definitely here to have fun, and they did!!

 

Up next, The Serpent, a serpentine path up the side of a hill. The path has been mowed through the 3.5 ft high prairie grass. Then Into the Wild. which is a run up, run down, run up, run down through rows of pine trees on a surface of pine needles. I heard from many participants that this was the hardest part of the course. But the next obstacle allowed them to sit down… Over the Falls is a water slide down the side of a hill. Mud wedgie anyone? There were plenty of them going around!

Next up, Run the Sahara, running over several natural mounds of sand up the side of a hill.

 

 

 

The Minefield, a field of car tires to jog through, definitely took some causalities. I saw more then one person end up face down on top of the tires! And we all know that it’s only human nature to laugh at someone ending up on their face for almost any reason!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fire in the Hole, entailed running down a path, hopping over some burning logs. I saw a few people run around this one, afraid of the fire I guess. No worries runners, the swamp is just right around the corner!

 

 

 

For Swamp Commando some people tried to go along the edge of the swamp while others jumped right in! This girls was the first female to cross the finish line (2nd over all) and she had no problem diving right in and having fun with it! That’s what we like to see, you go girl!!!! Many people lost their shoes in the mud, just got sucked right off their feet as they were running through. No one much cared by that time, the shoes were already ruined and the finish line was only feet away.

 

 

Once the participants crossed the finish line some went to hose themselves off but everyone used there coupons for a free hotdog and a free beer. People who had finished the race sat in the grass near the course watching the rest of the waves come through. There were over 700 runners in this adventure race, and all the ones I saw crossed the finish line with a smile on their face. I’m sure a lot of these racers will be back next year, I’ll be there again too!

Holy Angels Football

 

 

If I could choose, today, to be anything it would definitely be a sports photographer. From what I hear it’s really hard to get into unless you know someone though. Also, I believe, in sports photography it is really imperative you have the best of the best as far as equipment goes. You need fast lenses and multiple cameras to keep up with the action. Many times you will also have low lighting which is another reason you need a camera that can handle a high ISO and still produce high quality images.

 

 

 

 

 

I have some kick ass lenses but there is still one more I need, and I definitely need to upgrade my camera. Of course either of these will set me back many thousands of dollars but I’m working on them!

 

 

 

 

 

I had the opportunity to shoot the Holy Angels high school football game at the Star Dome. A friend, of a friends sister, (isn’t Facebook grand?) hooked me up with access to the sideline. (See you do need to know someone.)

 

 

 

 

Weather.com was calling for rain and I was praying it would stay away. Well it did, you know, until game time! I didn’t have rain gear for my camera but I was going to figure it out when I was out on the sideline. I did have rain gear for myself, I’ll just tuck it up under my coat between plays and hope for the best, I thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well it rained the whole first half but lucky for me the video guy, who was my hook up to get in, had an extra rain bag for his video camera and he let me borrow it. I love the rain, I love football, I love football in the rain but I don’t love rain on my camera, at all! But I learned that a little rain on my equipment it’s the end of the world, but I will be buying my own camera rain gear real soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

None of the players or spectators seemed to mind the rain. The players were definitely focused on the game, the cheerleaders kept smiling and the spectators where loud and proud of their Holy Angels football team, rain or no rain, they still came out.

 

 

 

 

 

The Holy Angels Stars scored first, but missed the conversion. At half time the score was 6-0. In the second half New Prague Trojans scored a touchdown but made the extra point, score now 6-7. Holy Angels were unable to score again so New Prague took the victory.

 

 

 

 

As you can see the coach was not happy being a few minutes away from a loss and did not like a call the officials made. I could see he is very passionate about his football team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do hope to shoot some more games as well as other sports. Maybe even meet some people in the sports photography world who can help me to gain access into more venues. But for now I enjoyed this night and would love to be back for their home coming game in two weeks. Well see what happens!

Minneapolis Duathlon

 

 

 

After completing the Lucky 7K in March I decided to sign up for a couple more of the Team Ortho races. I will be doing the Monster Dash in October which is a 10 miler and I also signed up for the Minneapolis Duathlon – Fun Course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 weeks before the duathlon I decided to go ahead and do it to see what my time would be. Then my training would focus on improving that time.

 

 

 

The next morning I woke up with a bit of a pain on my right side. Didn’t really think to much of it. Was taking that day off training, anyway, because I worked so hard the day before. The day after that it still hurt but being the person I am I decided to run anyway. Well the pain got worse and worse and after 15 minutes of running I decided I couldn’t do that anymore. Next day, did the cycle class at the health club, it hurt but not that bad. Ya know, I think I’m invincible so I kept working out until the 5th day when the pain progressed to my back.

 

 

 

OK, I thought, maybe I should get this checked out. Now it hurts like hell to breath deep and it kills when I sneeze. Fine, I hate going to the doctors but I need this better so I can keep going.

Doctor had bad news… he told me I had an inflammation in my lung.

“So, since I’m training for a duathlon does that mean I have to stop for while.”

 

 

 

“You’re training for a duathlon? That probably is what caused it. You have to stop training and rest about 2-3 weeks.” he says.

“Well the duathlon is in 3 weeks, does that mean I won’t be able to do it?”

“Probably not.” as he’s looking at me. “You CAN NOT work thru it, you have to rest!” Damn, I’m thinking how did he know I was thinking that? LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I agreed I would not train. Well after 3 weeks of pain while breathing, coughing or sneezing it got better. But not well enough to run in the duathlon. I was very disappointed to say the least! I will be there next year tho and now I have a whole year to work on my time.

 

 

 

 

 

I did go down and take some pictures though. Which also gave me a better understanding of the transitions between running and biking. But watch out Monster Dash cuz I’m gonna be ready!