Catching Up with the Westchester Track Club

I had the pleasure of photographing the Saturday weekly workout of the Westchester Track Club today in Rockefeller Preserve.

What a gorgeous place to run! And a humbling place too, unless you can run multiple 5 minute and sub-5 miles like the runners out today. Very impressive. Among the runners was local masters speed woman, Charlotte Rizzo who recently won the master's division at the prestigious 5th Avenue Mile in Manhattan in a time of 5:11.

Check out a few photos of Coach Mike and his runners.

The WTC celebrated another great showing at the New York City Marathon this past Sunday, with Ethiopian runners Kassahun Kabiso and Lete Berhe placing 18th male and female, respectively.

Worku Beyi was at the workout today.


You can also read a great article written about Mike and his 30 years of coaching runners in the New York Times archive. If you can't open the link, email me and I'll send you the text.

Election Day in Queens

On assignment for my ICP Seminar Leader (and Chair of the Photojournalism department), Alison Morley, I went out photographing the election.

Many of my classmates were barred from entering polling stations with the intention to photograph. Fortunately, I met without resistance in the early hours in Jackson Heights, where I live.

When I returned later this evening, the police officer wouldn't let me enter.

On the brighter side of this election, both during the day and in the evening, dedicated activists were working the streets ...
everyday folks looking to promote school reform and increased funding, revamping the election process,

and Teamsters union officials pushing for the election of
Eliot Spitzer... who became New York state's first Democratic governor in 12 years.

More NYC Marathon Snapshots

More photos from the Redis family of the wack-job (one of my father's many terms of endearment) courtenay enjoying the NYC Marathon. Thanks for the photos, Pops and Beaner!

Thank you to Shannon Linzer for the hat, Nancy Dirito for the earrings, Eileen Soden for the white undershirt (!) and Halloween at EHouse for the many years of kilt usage!

New York Times Coverage of Marathon

Check it out ... there are slideshows, audio files, and all sorts of media goodies covering the 2006 NYC Marathon.

NYC Marathon in The New York Times

By the way, these runners, captured by another photographer (I was busy running in the back of the pack!), include Worku Beyi and Kassahun Kabiso, two friends you can read about later in my blog. They are pictured here wearing the blue kit of the Westchester Track Club.

Welcome to my blog!

I finally went and did it. I ran the NYC Marathon yesterday and now I'm hopped up on sudafed and diet coke so what can I say? A lot, apparently. Hence, the start of my blog and some other online resources as well.

I've been inspired by my sister, Jelly, and my hipster friend, Donna, to join up with myspace.

In the process, I also decided to follow my new biking and photo buddy David Gray McLean's lead and post with Flickr.

Which reminded me that my professor at ICP, John Smock, has a lot of his Associated Press and SIPA images on yahoo and google...

In other words, a small decision to take the leap into the blog-o-sphere has started a chain reaction that may leave me drowning. The sites are in process, but here's a start.

If you follow my links column on the right margin of the blog, you'll note that I have pages on my own website, eyewitnesslife.com, sportshooter, flickr, myspace, shutterfly...and now here! I've also included links to great photojournalism resources, photographers, online magazines and other items of note. I'll update these links from time to time...and if you have one to suggest, send it my way!

I look forward to sharing a daily photo (or two or three or seven for spiritual wholeness) and comments about what I'm up to here in NYC. I hope you'll check them out from time to time.

As Jimmy Durante liked to say,"Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are."

Or, more recently, we have been reminded of Edward R. Murrow's famous, "Goodnight and good luck."

I'll have to come up with my own closer... Suggestions? Free large print to the best suggestion as judged by me!