Relay for Life at PVCC Friday 10 April 2015

The Survivors Lap

It's time for another North Valley Relay for Life at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona.  This is a benefit for the Cancer Society and my fourth year photographing the event.

Young Students Show Enthusiasm

This year, it did not go overnight like the other ones had done.  It started at 4pm and ended around midnight.  

This time around, I had a specific idea in mind.  I am going to put together the best of the last four Relays for Life at PVCC and publish a photo book that you can buy to benefit the relay for life.  Stay tuned on that as I'm still putting the book together.  I can tell you it will be on the Blurb site and hopefully we can sell it to you on the Amazon site, as well.

Shoshannah Raised Money with her Dolls

I had a shot list of things that I needed for the book.  Mostly, I wanted to do some wide angle photographs.










We had some excitement around 5pm.  Seems a dust devil hit were some booths were set up, throwing the tents and paperwork high into the air.  

Dust Devil Hits Without Warning!

Everything Thrown High in the Sky!

They had an interesting contest involving trying to tear apart a frozen tee-shirt and putting it on.  This guy tried so hard to get that frozen tee on!

Trying to Tear a Frozen Tee-Shirt Apart

Here are some other shots from the 2015 Relay for Life at PVCC...

My Attempt at "Art"

Bagpiper

Until My Next Adventure, 

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

* Look for my soon-to-be published photobook on the Cancer Society's Relay for Life.  Sales to benefit the Cancer Society!

Click HERE to see all the photos from the Relay for Life!

North Valley Relay for Life 12 April 2013

I volunteered to photograph the North Valley Relay for Life, a fundraising activity for the American Cancer Society once again at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Volunteering as a photographer is a great way to give back.  I find it fun to share my talent and help a good cause.  I also feel I get just a little bit better every time I do one of these events.

The relay started in the late afternoon, so I had some golden hour lighting left, but I also had some harsh shadows to contend with.  At times I filled with a bit of flash.  I also found the “shadow” slider on Lightroom 4 to be invaluable in recovering faces in severe shading.  Below, I caught a couple from KZON 101.5 with that lovely light.

As it got darker, then the decision was to turn up the ISO and not use flash or use a wee bit of flash turned down to light subjects but keep the background dark.  One of the highlights of the all-night event was the lighting of the luminarias and the walk around the track first by the cancer

survivors.  I had done this type of photography before and decided it best to turn off my flash and work with the light off the candles, turning up my ISO to 3200 (I shot with a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon 24-105mm lens).  The 5D Mark III does a heck of a job with high ISO!  I worked with an F stop of 4 and was usually in the 1/20^th to 1/30^th range for shutter speed, all hand held.  Even five years ago the technology was not there to do this, so I am thankful I was packing the 5D.  

Being that this is a charitable event, I am not charging for my photographs.  So after editing, I uploaded from Lightroom into my professional Zenfolio site at http://bit.ly/131ORmk  I gave the event coordinators instructions on how to download any of the photos they’d like to use.  All I want is credit. 

My next photo adventure will be mid-May when I travel to Denver to do some macro photography with Canon. 

Until then, Happy Shooting!

Jim Patterson

http://JamesGordonPatterson.com

Here is a slideshow of all the photos I took at the North Valley Relay for Life