Clouds Before Jaylin's Track Meet
Clouds fill the sky above the field before a track meet starts at Harding Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. And although the title of this post refers to it as “Jaylin’s track meet,” there were indeed other participants besides him. Because if it were just about watching Jaylin by himself, the track meet would be over fairly quickly. I guess the downside is that he wouldn’t lose, but it is probably better to have others to compete against. So I just called it “Jaylin’s track meet” because he is the main one I am there to see.
Being out there at the field brings back all sorts of fond memories for me. No, I wasn’t on the track team. And I definitely wasn’t on the football team. But I was in the marching band, and we marched on the field during halftime of most all of the football games. Those were some good times. Actually, sitting in the stands with the rest of the band members was better than actually marching, because we would have all kinds of fun during the games. Nothing like some fun memories of the old days.
Interestingly, we practiced our marching on a different field. And that was a lot of hard work, especially at the beginning of the season in the hot days of August. So while I do remember that fondly as well, those memories of practicing aren’t quite as fond as the memories of the game. Close, but not quite. So I like this field a little better. Just in case you were wondering.
But anyway, you probably came here to see more about Jaylin than to read my memories of the good days, so here he is during the track meet:
Jaylin was running for all he was worth as the last person in their 4x100m relay team. They didn’t win, but he still ran well. And the benefit of his running last in the relay is that he comes right in front of the stands, so I don’t even have to leave my seat to get a good photo of him.
Soon after this, those clouds from the first photo really got serious and started to drop some serious rain on all of us. So first the track meet went into a rain delay, and then those in charge decided to call it, because the radar showed that the rain would be with us for a while. So Jaylin didn’t get to do all of his events, but we didn’t have to sit out in the rain, either. Fair trade, as far as I am concerned.
Also, if that first photo looks familiar, you may have seen something similar from my Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEMlNnxGQqx/
That was just a quick edit with my phone, and I figured I could do a better job later on, so that is why you see the better photo up above. I gotta learn to stop giving away the good stuff on social media before posting it here!
Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. - 1 Corinthians 9:24
About the photo:
For the Instagram version, I had imported the photo to my phone with the handy Olympus built-in wi-fi feature, which is always cool for quick things like that. But for the full version, I worked on it in Photoshop with the Nik Filters that I am growing so fond of. And I really like the fisheye look here, which you can read more about in Steve’s Photography Tips: Fisheye Lens Fun.
Of course, the fisheye lens wouldn’t work for the photo of Jaylin in the race, so I switched to the 14-42mm zoom lens for that one.
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips. Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens Date: April 14, 2016 Location: Harding Academy, Memphis, Tennessee
