Lion Ride made a return to the Sault last night playing at the RockStar bar. Seeing at it was essentially the first long weekend of the summer the turn out was less than desirable but the people who did show up seemed to have had a good time. The boys in Lion Ride rocked out and put on the same stage show that they always do; if you just watched them you wouldn’t know if they were playing to a packed house or not. The theme of the night became “F camp” assuming that’s where everyone was.
I attended the show mainly as a spectator taking more of a backseat to actually shooting them. When I did shoot I tried not to shoot them how I normally do and had a vision in mind. Below is some sampling of that; success or not. It was another fun night out, hanging with the Lion Ride guys, always a good time. Here’s to hoping more people come out for their next show in the Sault (possibly fall).
In the summer months I sponsor my own slo-pitch team. We have been together for 8 years now and I took over the sponsorship last year to give us a solid sponsor year after year instead of our general scrambling. Our team name is the Curt O’Neil Photo Beards.
This year was time to get us a proper jersey. After searching around for exactly what I wanted it seemed like it was impossible. Finally a solution came from Stefan at Sault Screeners who recommended “just get what you want” and the plan to order them custom made was put into motion. The goal after getting Jeannette from Jeannette’s Custom Cakes to design the logo was for the shirts to look like the throwback San Diego Padre jerseys. Each jersey was hand sewn and assembled which made them delayed for this season. This week is our last week of games and the jerseys came in last Friday.
So what do you do when you have awesome jerseys, little games left to play and not that great of a win-loss record? You give your jerseys their own photo shoot and official unveiling on your website.
It is not every day the Olympic Torch runs through your city – okay it’s probably a once in a lifetime opportunity unless you live in Athens I’m sure – so Jes, her sister Heather and I decided to brave the cold and watch it run by. When I say cold I mean -20C to -25C (-4F to -13F). We thought we’d be only a handful of people on our stretch of the relay as we were near the start and it was running just around the corner from our house. We were debating if we would head downtown to watch it finish and go inside the Essar Centre to watch the ceremonies there.
We brought along the camera as well as my new Flip MinoHD portable camcorder. We got to our spot just before 6 and there was about 20 people on the street at that time. More and more people showed up as the time went on and the excitement kept building as the small parade before the torch came by. After experiencing it here our decision was made and we raced it downtown. As we hit Queen St. we couldn’t believe the number of people that turned out – it was amazing. After Jessica (our community torchbearer) went inside the Essar Centre we rushed in assuming we’d be able to get a seat or find a spot to watch in standing rooom. This wasn’t the case – the place was packed. The floor, the seats and standing room/upper aisle was just thick with people. It was definitely a great turnout by the city of Sault Ste. Marie for this amazing event.
Below are some pictures I shot. We were actually beside Jessica but I crossed the street trying to guess her path. It was a bad move as the media truck stopped right in front of me so I had to run around it. Below the pictures is a video compilation shot by Jes on the Flip MinoHD which I attempted to edit today (and failed). Jes hates the song, I like it! The shots and the video aren’t the greatest of works but hopefully it provides a glimpse of this event to anyone who may have missed out.
Jessica is the Sault’s very own Paralympic medalist winning silver at the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000 and competing in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. She also holds 5 Canadian swimming records. One of the highlights of the relay (for us because we find things like it funny) is when Jessica’s dog stopped during her leg to “do his business” – when you have to go you have to go I guess.
