Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Shooting the Relay for Life at Paradise Valley Community College

The American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life” event on 8 April 2011 provided a nice charitable event to cover for a Paradise Valley Community College continuing education class I taught on evening event photography.  Eight shooters joined me on that Friday night, capturing the dusk and night scenes around the PVCC track, where the Relay for Life has been held over the last few years.  The photos will be donated to the North Valley Relay for Life.  Photographers shooting for a good cause!


As it got darker, we needed to rely more on a tripod.  I used a Canon 7D with a Canon 28-135mm lens for most of these shots.  A few of my shots I used the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens.  Some of the shots of the candles were actually hand held.  I had a great student question: "How do you stop people blur in the evening?"  Answer:  Make them stop.  Sometimes the blur can be called "art" remember!   

According to the Cancer Society, the international relay began in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon in Tacoma, Washington, ran and walked around a track for 24 hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Since then, the relay has grown from a single man’s passion to fight cancer into the world’s largest movement to end the disease. Each year, more than 3.5 million people in 5,000 communities in the United States, along with additional communities in 20 other countries, gather to take part in this global phenomenon and raise much-needed funds and awareness to save lives from cancer.

The local PVCC Relay had 43 teams, 479 participants, and raised (so far) over $41 thousand dollars for cancer research. 


If you or a team wants to get involved in next years Relay for Life, click here

Happy Shooting!
Jim Patterson



Flickr Slideshow from the Relay for Life:


1 comment:

  1. Such great images! Its wonderful to finally have some professional, amazing images from our own Relay!! Great idea Jim - thanks for bringing your class out to the event!

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