Swimming with Alligators... again

I'm haunted by photo shoots that could have been a little bit better if the light was brighter, the conditions different, or subjects more cooperative. I think this is the case with any artist. We are simply never satisfied. Maybe it should have been different after I climbed out of the alligator pool with Chris Gillette and Ashley Lawrence still owning all of my digits, but I knew there were better images to be made.

So, I went back for round two. This time, the water was warmer and gin clear; and a fresh crop of alligators inhabited the pool. I still used the same rig to shoot Chris handling the alligators but without the backscatter of debris and a better understanding of what I was going for, it went without a hitch.

Here are the results. These were all shot with an Aquatica housing, 15mm Sigma fisheye, and two Sea and Sea strobes while on SCUBA.

Savage Race Georgia 2013

It's all starting to become a muddy blur of screaming savages and weekends on the road. There are only two more Savage Race events left this year and the big daddy of them all is in two weeks: Little Everglades Ranch, Florida. But before I get ahead of myself, let me just say how much I love the Georgia Savage Race venue at Moonlight Stables; it's a hard act to follow. The thousands of participants showed up, got chewed up, and then spit out on the hardest Savage Race event yet. The course was 6 miles through undulating hills and the creators introduced a new obstacle that forced everyone to drag their tired bodies up a hill by climbing along the underside of a cargo net. Gnarly. 

The weather was beautiful, much warmer than Pennsylvania but it also provided 100% sunshine all day, which made me rely a lot more heavily on my strobes to balance out the harsh light. 3,400 photos later, here is a handful of my favorites from the day.