This weekend I traveled up to Bear Creek Mountain resort in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to witness the first ever Tough Mudder event in the United States.   This event was brought over from England and consists of a a 7 mile course with 17 obstacles.  I wanted to get as many pictures as possible so I started at point 1 and went up and down the mountain to hit up every obstacle.  Somehow I missed 1 obstacle(#6) which was located on the black diamond.   I guess I will have to get that one another day.  I looked like I was in the race because I was sweating so much. Who knew walking up blue and green ski slopes could be that tiring especially with my camera gear, I definitely got some quality exercise.  It was a new experience for me and it was totally awesome. I got to access areas that the normal spectators could not enter as well as get some action shots of some of my friends running the race.   I saw a lot of people dressed in a variety of outfits other than athletic gear to distinguish themselves amongst the 4500 competitors.  It seems like this competition will be very popular in the U.S and can’t wait for it to hit D.C in 2011.  While it sounds like all fun and games, there were also a lot of injuries such as twisted ankles, knees, and people passing out from the event.  I witnessed 2 people being carted away on the back of an ATV totally unconscious.  So when they say this is the toughest one day event on the planet, it’s no joke.   Because of the difficulty of the race, they were offering free tattoos of the tough mudder logo to all competitors.  Now here is a glimpse of some of the obstacles throughout the day.

So watching the U.S Open made me want to go play some tennis but I had jammed my thumb and couldn’t go out to hit. The next best alternative was to go out and take pictures of some friends playing tennis. The tennis court lighting wasn’t the best but with a little ISO boost and the image stabilizer on, it was ok. Here are some pictures from the night.

Here is the first post. We got to go surfing in Waikiki and learned from the best, Dane Kealoha, who is a former Pro surfer and legendary Hawaiian Pipe Masters Champion. He knows his stuff and teaches it well. So if you’re ever in Waikiki, look him up at Hyatt Regency Surf Academy .  Here are some pictures from the surfing adventure courtesy of Walker Langley.  He used the canon 40d and wide angle lens in a waterproof casing so he was right in the water taking pictures, how cool is that. I was able to catch some waves but not before I wiped a few times.   Below is our group picture before we hit the water.

All images copyrighted by Hyon Smith Photography

Anyways, they are in the process of creating a new website and needed some head shots of the EP trainers for the site.   I’ve never done head shots before so it was definitely a new experience.   I made it through the 14 trainers and we did a casual group shot at the end of their training session.

The guys were acting like they weren’t paying attention to me and my camera but they all secretly wanted their pictures taken.  Now they can’t wait til their next game so they can get their photo op. Here are some of the pictures from the night. Since their game was the last one of the evening and the refs didn’t know that at exactly 11pm the stadium lights would go out, the game ended with 6 minutes remaining. In the last picture,there was just 1 light that was on so I boosted the ISO on the camera to 4000 and took the picture. No light = no problem. Gotta love the 5d mark II!