JayKnight Life: Running, Reviews, Photos

The leaders, Race 13.1 Durham      Who writes about volunteering for a race? Nobody. All the glory, fame, pain and humble-brags come with running a race.       Let me tell you something- I'm really glad I decided to volunteer instead of run the Inaugural Race13.1 Durham.      I had a lot of fun and it was really cool to see the race from a different perspective. I've volunteered once before-- well, let's call it one and s half. The first time was for the Ironman race in Raleigh  we were the snack and drink station. The second time, I volunteered to be a pacer, but my registration got overlooked. So, I got to run a race for free. This time was all 100% legit. I was a corse monitor. I was to control one intersection. Keep cars from moving while runners were passing through. If you ran this race, I was the guy with the GoPro on his head.     The intersection after mine--- the dude didn't show up.     I gue...

    So, I took Ethan to his first Durham Bulls game this week -- thanks to some great tickets from work. It was quite the school night for this little six year old.      We had seats almost right behind third base.. and right in front of the warm up area for the relief pitchers. We got to the stadium a little late... and of course-- we missed almost all of the action. we got there about an hour into the game at the top of the third inning. Bulls -10 Braves- 0.     Yes, 10 runs scored before we even stepped foot inside, and Ethan was still bugging me to get something to eat. So we did during one of the intermissions. I thought it'd be good to give the crowd a break from Ethan's dancing. On the way back we picked up a number one finger.. and as we were walking out of the door.. in walks Wool-E-Bull. No line, no wait... EJ gets the mascot to sign his finger. awesome moment.

          Week 11 was pretty easy. I picked up a left over topic from last week: Paint. I didn't want to get fresh paint. that just wouldn't be my style. It had to be something that looked aged.. peeling and cracked.... you know how that old lead paint used to chip and curl up and come off in layers. That's what i was thinking in my mind when the Paint topic came up. Instead I just happened upon this wall in downtown Durham... not even thinking about my 52 week challenge and took a couple of pictures.           Seriously, It wasn't until I got home and looked at the pictures that I thought... hey I could use this for the blog. The family was waiting to get into Dame's Chicken N Waffles and I decided to take EJ for a little walk around the block.... just to see what else was in the immediate area. I hope you like. I think this could be the scene for a future photo shoot easily.

Roxy Paine, Askew-  a 43-foot tall hand-wrought, stainless steel tree        In week 10 of my 52 week challenge, I tried to tackle three subjects and kind of succeeded at tackling one--  Sculpture and monuments. To be honest, I didn't have a lot of free time to focus on the three topics, but at the same time,... I kept forgetting what the other two topics were. So,.. its kind of hard to  plan a picture or even run across a good 'shootable' scene based on a topic that you can't remember. Wondering why this picture is shaped funny? it's a poor attempt at a panoramic shot Ursula von Rydingsvard, Ogromna - a 19 foot tall vessel shaped cedar and graphite sculpture I also learned something in this week:  that "kit-lenses" may get a bad rap, but they have their place in a photographer's tool-kit. I love shooting with my nifty 50mm, but it didn't fit on this job. The 50 is great for close ups, portraits or macro shots... but in a ma...

       So it's been a while since my last 52 week challenge. But I'm not giving up nor have I been wasting away my weeks by not shooting.       For one, I still committed a lot if my time in February to Black History month stories along with it being a ratings period at my real day job. So, blogging took a back seat.         What else have I been doing? Photo shoots.          So far, I've done two photo shoots with models from the networking site Model Mayhem. The pictures turned out great. One shoot was up in Creedmoor.. the other right in downtown Raleigh. I'll link you to the albums from the pictures here.      By the way, that was one of my goals for 2013 and one of my skipped challenges: "fashion shoot."

So, I have some left over pictures/stories from black history month. This is a group of them.   I'm not going to get too much into it. North Carolina Central reminds me of FAMU in a lot of ways. It sits in the same city as another large, well-known and highly funded University (Duke = FSU). The obvious: it's an HBCU. Great programs that draw students from all around the globe. Big Campus with a lot of new buildings.. and NO Parking. It was hard to find a place to park. I don't think i found a lot that you didn't need a sticker to park in. I just happened to stop by on the same day as a Career fair, .. I took the chance that i wouldn't get ticketed and towed. Anyway, I love how their Track & Field and Football stadium sit right in the middle of campus. I can only imagine what their homecoming looks like. 

Durham near the bus station May 1940- Library of Congress         Even with all that the African-American community was capable of at the turn of the century in Durham.. they were still at some levels facing a glass ceiling. They may have been successful in their own right... Jim Crow was real and ugly. Many of the pictures of Durham from the Library of Congress show Whites Only or Colored signs everywhere. But still it was home to the world's largest African-american business... America's largest hoisery run by African-Americans and staffed by African-Americans.     History doesn't make sense sometimes.. it just is, what it is. It shows that no matter how successful you are -- can i say it simply -- "haters gonna hate." A Cafe' near the Tobacco Market, May 1940      North Carolina Mutual Life was founded in 1898. It still operates today. It still has a bank branch ring on Black Wall Street. It is the oldest and largest Afri...