There was drama in the sky!

The Piers Gathered to Watch..

Admittedly, I got alot of mileage out of this sunset.. :)

Sitting By the Bay

Turned out to not be a very good night to capture starfields...

Did I mention the sandfleas are really bad this time of year?

Walk thee Plank!

Walking down in this wierd little half pier on the property edge of May Day Park in Daphne, Alabama is usually a sketchy proposition, especially at higher tides.    As you walk, the water vibrations push back out into the surf, even against the onslaught of waves. Which make you wonder, "Is this thing even attached to anything or just floating?"

As I stood at the end with this camera and tripod, the shutter actuactions would transfer through the tripod legs and into the boards of of the pier.   I know this because I could feel the shutter clicks in my toes, through my shoes, 4 planks away.

One of these days I'll probably fall right through.   But... not this time.

minimal

"Daddy, what's miniamism?"

"I believe you mean minimalism, honey."

"Okay.   What it is.."

"Well, uh... it's uhh...  "

"Well..it's the ability to describe something in fewer words than I just did."

Coastal Reflections

Being a fan of over-the-top reflect-y things, I really liked how this turned out.  Even made a canvas print of it, already, now hanging in my office :)  (Until I find it a new home through donation)

I was amazed as I sat near this little pool of water how the reflections kept changing as the storm clouds began to pass away and clear.     I sat and snapped dozens of photos here.

(and was partially eaten by sand fleas in the process)

The Last Days of Life on Mars

During the final days of life on Mars, the indigenous ecosystems had all but crumbled.   Relics stood as a reminder of the societies that once thrived here, now extinct.

They had watched helplessly in those final months as it approached their small planet.  While they possessed the technological base, they lacked the social competencies to come together and stop the meteor from devastating their planet.

Those that survived the blast watched hopefully as a lifeboat of scientists, historians and a wealthy few blasted towards the stars to find a new home for their people.  

They never returned.

The famine, plague and sickness eventually wiped out their population.  As the atmosphere began to dissipate, the days grew hotter and the nights, even colder.   The remaining vegetation died off, as did the fish and smaller wildlife. 

I stood here now, as a visitor from a neighboring world, 18 million years later.  From the precipice of the valley, I looked down into a sea of rock and sand and thought that this could have been the beach of some ancient Gulf.

 
As the sun would set, the landscape would go from an arid, burning heat to a frozen, ceaseless cold.   

In the moments between these extremes, I could see how life here once was and possibly would be again.  

Some day. 

..and the darkness came over me..

.. I used a photomatix preset from here:  http://store.stuckincustoms.com/tools/photomatix-presets  on this one.

Not something I usually do.  Neat little reasonably priced collection of presets to thumb through in the event that the photomatix sliders aren't yielding what you want....  The cool part, I thought.. was I could see four or five other, just as compelling ways to post process the same photo.  

I won't.. because I took 400 of these yesterday and have others to share, lol :)

Meet Me By The Fuel Docks. Come Alone.

It was an insanely productive night for beachy landscape photography.   Filled up 1 x 32 gb card and put a dent in another.    Good times!

What Kind of Camera Should I Buy? A year with the Sony NEX-7

Well, it happened again.
 
See, I try not to be a brand loyalist, so when someone inevitably asks me, "Hey I'm thinking of getting a DSLR, what should I buy, a Canon or a Nikon?" I always stay nestled comfortably on the fence.  

..and the person will go buy whatever speaks to them.   A Nikon because they saw Disney Photopass photographers use those or a Canon because the wedding photographer at the mall said they were better.

I finally have an anwer to give people.   

Get a mirrorless interchangable lens camera.  A Nikon 1 System, a Canon EOS M or a Sony NEX-7.
Of those available, I like the NEX-7.

My Sony NEX-7 is a little over a year old now, based on street date anyway.   I'm sure Sony is hard at work or probably in final testing of the next-big-thing in the NEX line.
(Probably a full-frame mirrorless NEX camera.)

I bought my NEX-7 early but didn't use it much.  The lack of use, also meant I didn't take the time to invest in the right lens.  (for me.)   I remedied that problem recently with the SEL18200 18-200mm e-mount lens.  This additional lens is really the catalyst for this re-review.

First off, this lens is awesome.   On the camera, it looks a little like a point-and-shoot and lightsaber rented a fine hotel room and made long, passionate whoopy into the night.

6 months later (that's the gestation period for electroncs, I think) this bad boy came out. (Can you hear the song, Bad to the Bone in your head yet?)  .... b.b.b.b.B.B.BAAAADD 
(the good, bad, not to be construed with the bad, bad)

But instead of portruding a super-intense electrified beam of plasma and light capable of cutting anything, this sci-fi lovechild is capable of capturing light for just about any scenario you put it in..

By no means why I would choose one camera over the other but there exists this phenomenon related to the looks of a camera.   When you are out in earth or other similarly populated quadrant of your star system, people respond to different cameras in different ways.  When you carry a bulky black DSLR with all of it's mirror-flippy bells and whistles, people look at you and wonder, "That is a professional photographer, they must be on assignment."  --and that bit of sillyness will sometimes get you access to things.

(If I fly my Drone around the Naval Air Station, which is really just a flying camera -- people get all worked up about national security.   What? It's just a camera. This version didn't include the AGM Hellfire package)

For the NEX with the 16mm pancake lens, a person will glance in your direction and think, "huh, another tourist shutterbug."  -- There is something about this as well.  The bouncer will have his guard down because clearly you are just in for a picture of you and the gang and aren't the social networking papparazzi coming to review this establishment.

With the 18-55mm kit lens, it's somewhere in between these two but with the 18-200mm on the NEX-7 people see the camera and the general response from the unknowing public is "what the hell is that thing?"

Still, though, among photography circles you may find yourself wanting to apologize for using it, like a Harley owner caught riding his favorite Honda. "Hey, is that a Sony NEX mirrorless?"   
(apologetically) "Uhmmmm.. yes.. umm... but .. umm. My REAL camera is a _______"

But make no mistake, the NEX-7 is a REAL camera.

Then, there is the branding problem.    "A Sony, eh?   I had a Sony Walkman / Mini Disc / camcorder/ vcr / television / ham radio / blender in 1999 that wasn't Y2k compatible and is broken."

When you think serious camera equipment, you think (in no particular order here) Canon, Leica, Nikon, RED, Hasselblad; not necessarily Sony.  When your PS3 overheats and dies or your collection of mini discs and Beta tapes falls and kills your cat and the film crew of Hoarders preventing your grand TV-Appearance, you can't help but hold a grudge against Sony, the company.

Take solace.   If Sony were a country, the Alpha division that makes these cameras is an island of untainted awesome all on its own; birthed from Minolta DNA and beaming with an innovative drive that shows through in some pretty damned ingenuous gear that is refreshing in such a stagnant industry.

The Canon and Nikon entries into the mirrorless space have been, strictly in my opinion, weak as hell by comparison.   They pitched their crap from the hilltop and we take it b/c they are Canon and Nikon, whaddya gonna do?  Yes, yes, I know, I'll get hatemail for this and for the record, my wife has a 1 System camera and loves it.    But, you have to look at it from the perspective of Canon and Nikon.   Why create a cheaper camera that is as-good-as-if-not-better than your best high end professional gear?  As my business mentor would say, "Don't compete with yourself, stupid."    

By marketshare, Sony is looking up from the bottom and saying, "Hell, we don't have anything to loose, here's something awesome." 

If Canon and Nikon don't tighten up their weak offerings in the mirrorless space, it could go poorly for them on the long run.   Hold on, I think Kodak is on the phone..

 

It is Time for a Drink to Reflect on What Makes the NEX-7 Awesome
 

ISO Performance

Cameras have taught me over the years to expect heavy noise with higher resolution sensors at higher ISO.    I was surprised with the in-camera noise reduction abilities of the NEX-7.    Sure, you get above 3200 ISO and you start to get some noise creeping in but the images are still very usable.

This image was shot at ISO 1600 and I'm surprised that the noise is very much in control, still. Dense sensors, usually punish you at high ISO.   My D7000, for instance, I wouldn't go above 800 ISO for anything.

This was from a flimsy tripod but still very clear given the higher ISO, I think.

I was on the phone with this dude the other day that was a brand loyalist.   I won't say what his brand was but I thought was interesting when he spoke, "The thing I like about Brand X is that you can shoot ISO 100.   Brand Y stops at 200."

I didn't correct him.   Being a user of brand x, y, z, I can tell you that statement was foolish.

Speaking of ISO 100, the Sony NEX-7 produced some very nice, crisp images in indoor light on a tripod and timed shutter.  

Looks like it's time to dust in my dining room..

Getting My Macro On
 

Being an f3.5-f6.3 lens, I normally wouldn't expect such tack sharpness from this lens.  Yet at the 200mm range and a large aperture, you get some really quite impressive detail.

 

I shoot in RAW and without JPEG side-copies.   The RAW images coming from my Nikon are flat with muted colors and missing detail.   It isn't until you bring them into a photo finishing package (I use Lightroom) that you can really bring those images to life.     What has struck me about the Sony NEX-7 is that their default RAW images look better and very little tweaking is needed to amp up the colors and bring in the detail.

I'm sure there is a techno-whizzy reason for this that is measured in bits or microns or nano-something-or-others but I don't really care what that is.    Good job, Sony, giving me usable RAWs out of camera and the usual opporutnities to improve the images.

Tele & Autofocus
 

As a telephoto lens, the 18-200mm works very well.   The Sony's autofocus is very good, able to contrast-detect a subject even with surrounding objects that might usually pop the focus elsewhere.  At 24 megapixel, you have plenty of opportunity to crop an image in post, which really helps in finding compositional opportunities in an image.

Possibly the Perfect Body & Lens For a Kid-Cam
 

I really like Sony's logic for autofocus.  It is very-good.   Miles & Buzz will help me illustrate below.  (Miles is the one not wearing a space helment that does that cool SWWWOOOOSH thing)

 

Here, we have a good, clean image of buzz.   Miles is lurking in the background.

  

At this point, Miles has detected unauthorized use of a toy by a parent and he is beginning to engage the target parent.

 

Still approaching... 

 

Here, he's approaching but still behind the helmet, so the contrast seeking autofocus wizardry hasn't kicked in quite yet.

Then.. BAMF..

 

The Sony smartly shifts the focus to Miles.

 

..and keeps on him as he tracks forward..

 

even, when he gets to be really, too close for the optimal focus range at this mm-to-distance ratio..

Until such time Miles steals my toy.

Alas, Buzz, our time together wasn't meant to be..

Plus, the small body size of the NEX -7 makes it great for out-and-about use, whether to catch sillyness at lunch:

or to document the terror of human on plush toy domestic violence..

Summary
 

If you are a serious photographer looking for a second camera body or something different, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the NEX-7.

For the rest..  you have probably gotten frustrated with the slow-shutter and blurriness of photos from your P&S camera.  Your phone is really good but you want something that is a bit more, perhaps with a zoom or more manual settings.    You are gearing up for the big trip this summer or for the coming holidays or you just always wanted to take on photography as a hobby, so you find yourself hovering around those big, professional-looking cameras at Best Buy and Sams Club.    Eventually, you buy one in a Black Friday sale or on a combo deal.  
You go home, all excited because you know you've taken the step into photography and you feel like you got a good deal.

(Honey, it has TWO lenses and it was only $600 THIS weekend only).

At first, you use the heck out of that camera.   You get some great shots but you probably keep it on the big green A (for Automatic).    As the honeymoon wears off, in about a year your shiney camera finds itself not getting used, sitting at the bottom of the closet.    You use it for special occassions and then eventually not at all.

In two years you buy a Point and Shoot.   The other camera is just so big and bulky, surely Point and Shoot cameras have improved in the last few years!! 

They haven't.   In six months you find yourself looking at the ads for another amazing deal on a DSLR.
..and the vicious cycle begins again...

If you feel this could be you..

Do yourself a favor, spend a little more money now and buy the NEX-7 with the SEL18200 18-200mm lens. It isn't cheap, probably $1800 for the camera + lens.  But, I'll see you in 4 years, you'll still have it, it will still work and you'll have 4 years of great photos to look back on.   

Sure, it won't be the last camera you'll buy - things will evolve and improve  but your next camera in 5 years probably won't have the flippy mirror thing and will look more like my Sony NEX-7 than my Nikon D800. 

..and for Pete's sake, don't buy a P&S, especially the big ones with crazy zooms that look like DSLRs but without the removable lens, your iPhone 4s, 5, (6?) will take much better shots..

"What about you Bill, isn't it hipocritical to say the NEX-7 is all you ever need, you still shoot with a D800 and you aren't even a professional"

Yeah, leave me a lone.   I'm a big, bald kid that likes his toys. ;)

Admissions of Guilt

I really feel like I need to take this time and apologize to my little Sony NEX-7 for not giving it the respect it deserves.

I've been guilty of some megapixel snobbery, opting for the D800 for things that I consider "serious outings" while the neglected little NEX-7 sits on the bench.  

"Put me in coach!! I'll show you what I can do!!"

Because, you know, 24 megapixels, that isn't enough.  :|

And .. as kids birthday parties approach or random family outings, I'd pick up the NEX-7 w/ the 18-55mm kit lens and do the dutiful "take a picture of my kid, please, camera-guy" bit.     I'd turn over the images to the requestors and smugly think to myself, "Imagine if I had brought the REAL camera."

Then.. gearing up for Bahamas, Disney, summer photo walks and some hopeful travel this fall, I decided to change up things a bit.     I'd use the D800 w/ a 14-24mm (on a tripod) for landscapes and starfields and the
NEX-7 with the 18-200mm lens for walk-about stuff, tele, sports & macro.

I started using this new 18-200mm last week, I'll post more on it later but the one sentence is:

"Sony NEX-7 w/ 18-200mm, where have you been all my life?"

I think this is going to be a winning combo!

I don't know why I'm surprised.   This would be my third Sony Alpha camera, 2nd NEX-class and fifth Sony Alpha overall, if you include the film Minoltas that these cameras share DNA with.  They've all been great.

and that didn't work, so I found a longer pier ...

Haven't quite gotten the hang of this new lens.  I've rented it three or four times and never had problems with it.   

Still getting a lot of noise /lack of clarity compared to my 28-300mm for the same ISO and compared to others I've rented.

I guess I'm not smart enough, I didn't think an optical issue would manifest as noise.   Gotta be something I'm doing wrong.    Ah, well, trial and err then... :)

She told me to take a long walk off of a short Pier

 I should have shot this with a tripod but I didn't.   The clarity at 1:1 isn't where it could be but hey, the sky was neat.

 Happy May Day

Bushes that Get Deflowered Nightly

I'm not sure what these are, I am not educated in such things, yet.   Apparently whomever owned my house before us knew something about tropical landscaping because these are all around the back yard around the pool area.   

They only seem to last a day (maybe a little more).

Maybe I'll call them by their scientific name...  Flowers.

UPDATE: One of my smart friends on Flickr has informed me these are Oleanders and are poisonous. Good to know!

It Wasn't on Any of His Charts

The wind changed abruptly.

The sails luffed suddenly and from the tiller he looked at the indicator atop the mast.  Nothing.  
It was a moonless, calm night and he peered through the dark looking for the lights of a distant shore.  

Nothing...except.. wait...is that..?

Directly astern, lights appeared and the distant sound of music and revelry as the winds picked up, now pushing right on the bow.   He began to tack and the headsail filled, leading him back from where he'd just been.

This time it was somehow different, was this place here a minute ago?

He pulled down the jib and the mainsail and coasted easily against the dock. He then secured the lines and stepped on shore.  His legs were unaccustomed to the unmoving surface of the land-attached docks.  There were sailboats around, softly swaying against the breeze.   The sounds of laughter and revelry, the smell of boiled seafood mixed with the salt air and this strange place felt familiar somehow.

The colors were off and to the senses of this place as somehow, different, off perhaps.  

As if in a soundstage on some hollywood backlot.    

The pine groves in the distance made no sound whatsoever.   The only sounds that permeated the air was the lapping of waves, coupled with chatter and laughter.  Happy sounds but ... different.. somehow.  The chirps of a million crickets and frogs, the occassional rattling of the Heron's wings as they launch into the sky -- were all missing.

As he passed the sweeping magnolias and entered the plantation-inspired structure the doorman greeted him with a smile but didn't speak.   The inside was lavish and covered with warm-toned woods adorned with the artwork of masters.   The room was comfortable and the people milling about seemed familiar to him.

At the back of the room on the first floor, a long bar stretched from wall to wall, surrounded in gleaming crystal and the brass of an expresso machine.  The bottles behind the bar didn't have labels and all seemed to match.  A lone Patron sat the bar.  He pulled up to the bar near him and ordered a coffee.  

"1 coffee, black please"

The bartender responded genially with the diction of a swiss bellman and scurried about to the monstrous brass contraption to coax a coffee from its unwieldly controls.

"You know son, after all these years, you still belly up to the bar and order a coffee?", the stranger muttered as he looked into his whiskey glass.

 He peered over to the stranger with a chilly sense of confusion... speechless.

"Good to see you, son.  Its been awhile."

The hazel eyes that stared back at him were familiar.   Like his own but older and more knowing.  A reflection that isn't.

A confused silence lingered and he finally muttered, "Dad?  But you can't be here.. you..."   

The words trailed off, it is hard to express to a person's face that they are, in fact, among the deceased.

The stranger filled the emptiness with his own words as he waved off the unspoken notion. "Meh.  There is no such thing as here or there, alive or dead, even you or me.   It isn't all so simple as that.. We are all here and we are all not.   It is always today and it always isn't."  He paused for a moment and seemed satisfied with that puzzle, sipped his drink and finished with "A sailor huh?  I never took you as the explorer type."

Somehow that bit of nonsense satisfied his unusually muted curiosity and he answered, "Yeah, I dunno, really..  I just ... felt the call of it..   I guess.. maybe I've been looking for something."

The stranger responded in silence but lifted his eyes from the glass to meet his gaze.  That hardened, wrinkled face allowed a kind glance to beam through.

"How's mom? " he inquired of the man.

"She's proud of you, son.  She couldn't be here right now. There are limits, you see."

The two men continued their chat into the night.   The barkeep refilled their glasses and they recounted stories of their adventures in life.    

As the morning colors started to penetrate the black sky, the two men found themselves in comfortable rocking chairs on the huge wrap-around porch of the building and the older of the two looked knowingly towards the horizon and back at the younger man.

"Well, I guess our time is drawing near", the older man said.

"Wait, what do you mean? I don't really understand this", said the younger.

"The only advice I can give you, son, is that real satisfaction is in the trip, not the destination.   We are all on our own journeys, the paths of which cross and divide in an intricate plan that we cannot understand.   Enjoy your journey, don't sweat so much the destination and but keep your heading true.  We are always looking, we sometimes find but the thirst is never fully quenched."

At that, the morning colors of the coming sunrise rose to blinding intensity and the surroundings washed away in white to be replaced by the gentle lapping of waves on the boat's hull and soft luffing of sails asking to be tuned.

In the cockpit once more and tiller in hand, he adjusted course and continued his Journey.

___

One of the most vivid dreams I've ever had, it wasn't long after my dad passed away.  I almost never remember them but this one..  I can still smell the boiled shrimp and feel the eerie calm of the place.  I can still taste the bitter coffee and feel the leather edges of the stools and the grain ridges on the over-lacquered bartop.

The first time I saw the building pictured here, the Yacht Club in Fairhope, I wasn't so sure it was a dream at all. Having never been there before, I have no idea how it nestled into the limbic region of my brain - yet, it did. Standing on the pier across from it near Devil's Hole on a hazy night, I thought about it once more.

Probably not the transcendent experience that one one think.

Most likely, Too Much Jimmy Buffett Music via Pandora + Rum = This Dream.

Still... one can reflect.

Happy Birthday, Dad.  Thanks for all that you did.

April 29th, 1943   - July 6th, 2011

Delta Woods & Waters Expo @ Five Rivers

This Morning, we brought the family along for the Delta Woods & Waters Expo at Five Rivers.

Lots to look at, on a warm spring day, I think everyone had a blast..

This evening The City of Spanish Fort will celebrate their 20th Anniversary with a CIty-Wide BBQ starting at Five Rivers.

One part that I enjoyed was a traveling exhibit of various raptors..

Just your run of the mill hooter shot

This photo just begs to be captioned..

Getting Mooned (and a making-of video that I promise is cheek-free)

I Got Mooned (and so am I!) uhhh..
(and a making of video that I promise is cheek-free)

Last night was an unusually clear April evening, the full moon was pretty great.

I shot a shaky-cam smartphone video of how this shot was gathered, using a telescope and a smartphone.

http://youtu.be/znZFQsz7xAI

What was used to get this:
A Meade ETX that I found at a liquidation outlet for $200.00
http://www.amazon.com/Meade-ETX125EC-Telescope-Electronic-Controller/dp/B00004SPCH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366984238&sr=8-1&keywords=meade+etx+125

A 25mm Orion Eyepiece
http://www.amazon.com/Orion-Sirius-Plossl-Telescope-Eyepiece/dp/B000UIW9A6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1366984394&sr=1-1&keywords=25mm+orion+eyepiece

An iPhone 5 
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPhone-16GB-White-Unlocked/dp/B0097CZJEO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366984286&sr=8-1&keywords=iphone+5

An Orion SteadyPIx Smartphone Adaptor
http://www.amazon.com/Orion-SteadyPix-Universal-Smartphone-Telescope/dp/B0090D5N00/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366984349&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=orion+steadypix+deluxe+camera+mount

I filmed it with a Galaxy Note 2 (which did a piss-poor job)
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Note-GT-N7100-unlocked-/dp/B0099LATZ2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1366984447&sr=1-1&keywords=galaxy+note+2

The beverage for the evening:
http://www.shopmerwins.com/guinness-black-lager-6pk-btls.html

:)


I'll post some more complicated examples (like planets) and doing astrophotography with an actual camera later in the summer, when I get my Sony back from cleaning.

Are you staring at my stamen?

I Bring Gifts of Water from Planet Contrast

Color Me Rad 5k

About 2 months ago, my wife & daughter signed up for the Color Me Rad 5k.    We arranged a sitter for our littlest and the plan was for me to go and try to grab some fun shots, not just of Dina and Jena but the event at large.

I had a very good time.  They had a GREAT time, as did most of the runners.   In fact, I think this may be one of those moments as a photographer where the only regret is being an observer on the sideline of the action instead of being IN IT.  

I intended to take the little Sony NEX to spare my Nikon body the abuse put out by exploding bags of dyed corn starch.    At the last moment, I grew a pair and took the full frame instead.  Although she needs a cleaning before next month's trip to the bahamas, I'm glad I committed to the full event and not by half-assing it with the smaller camera.  Many of my favorite shots wouldn't have come out without the zoom and crop potential of my full frame camera body.

I have to give major kudos to the event organizers (http://www.colormerad.com/) for having their stuff together. It was clear this wasn't their first rainbow-colored rodeo.   

EDIT:  It didn't occur to me until I proofed this, that I've used the word "bomb" several times in reference to a running event.    I wanted to mention that these guys did a moment of silence for the Boston Marathon tragedy and raised donations (matching dollar for dollar) for Boston Marathon Victims.    A straight-up bunch of folks that seemed very respectful of the timing of this event..

They tiered out the starts to keep the spacing comfortable for the runners and they kept the starting line entertaining between starts.

Here, the designated professional Color Bomber uses some sort of fire-extinguisher inspired device for optimal color bombedness..

"Ryan" aka Gumby, started off each group of runners with the level of enthusiasm that can only be provided by a green clay humanoid.

As with any event such as this, folks showed up with varied levels of preparedness.  From moms and dads running with children on their shoulders to masked, bald sweat-band yielding anonymous runner man, pictured here. 

It was easy to get caught up in the excitement, "no I will not hug you while you are covered in Orange Shit, dude."    Nice hair.

Bags of "Color Bombs" were sold, available for pickup along the router and often showered upon participants from the M.C. who, among other things, "Reward Beards with COLOR!" Costumes, hats & general enthusiasm would also get your pelted with bags of color.

Here, my little Jena thought she would save her color for later.  That didn't last.   it was tossed in one of the color toss mosh pits pictured later.

WOO!!!!      ... I'm not sure why but WOOO!!!!!! or is it (WU!!!!!)? is this universal thing that young people exclaim while excited and in groups.   Is it a Noun?  I'm not sure.  I really should have paid more attention in English.   .. Apparently, Bald Guy with big Camera is WOO!!- Worthy.   That or somene hot and interesting was doing something behind me.

Some kids are just too cute to spray down with color:  
"Dude Seriously, If you Spray me with that Crap I'm going to Take you OUT with a cuteness HADOUKON!"

RUN! (Or the masked lady in the rainbow tutu will GET YOU!

 
My little Jena again, this time trying to decide whether or not to brave the yellow liquid sprayers..

My favorite moments from the run were these mosh pits around the stage.   On stage is this total morning-ride DJ type "dude" that coordinates events and terrorizes volunteers.    Every 15 minutes or so they would do a color toss like so.

See that little yellow packed, not expanded around the middle of the screen?  That's Jena's doing.   She apparently didn't get the whole "you need to open it first" part of this.    So, to whomever around her got pelted by a full bag... Sorry?

Finally, some words of wisdom.    When someone, sounding like a DJ Dude, on a date 4/20 asks for volunteers..

Consider that the result is probably going to suck a little bit.