The Best Field Trip Ever!

Hello again everyone out there in Internet land. I’m back again with another super exciting blog post! This entry is more of a story rather than random information spewing from my brain to my hands. A tale of excitement, terror, romance and, above all, giant bouncy pillows. So prepare yourself for... The Most Amazing Field Trip Of All Time!!

So there we were. standing around at 1 o’clock in the IC classroom when all of a sudden none other than Paolo and Tristan burst through the door. We all turn our heads, mesmerized by these crazed characters who have entered our midsts. The two of them quickly leap about the room handing everyone a single sheet of paper. When I am handed mine, I look down and realize where we are going on our field trip today. Grand Prix Amusements! A very cool outdoor amusement center with mini golf, bating cages and go karts. I am a huge car nut so when I saw this I could barely keep my cool.

So what the assignment actually was, was this: we had to split into two groups and take turns driving the go karts and taking pictures of the other group driving. My group was first up to photograph. So we all scrambled into the center of the circuit and set up in what we thought would be the best spot to photograph carts speeding past us at a million miles an hour. My spot was pretty awesome as you can see by the pictures. It was overall a great experience since we had the whole place to ourselves and could move about freely. You won’t get those kind of privileges at Monaco. This was great

since we had to get a lot of different types of shots; such as motion blur and stop action as well as different reactions from drivers as they flew past. After Group One had finished their laps, it was our turn. So I quickly placed my gear on the picnic table next to the track, grabbed a helmet and squeezed myself into a kart. Next thing I know, I’m flying around the first corner on what feels like two wheels. Passing people left and right I was quickly tied for first! Neck and neck around the second to last corner I suddenly find myself falling behind my arch rival! The apex! How could I be so blind.

Being too enthralled in the battle I had taken the corner to fast. Utterly defeated, I picked up my camera and tripod and sulked back to the grassy knoll for round two of picture taking. But all was not lost! There was still a hope of recovering my dignity. Mini golf was next.

As before, we all had a wide variety of images to capture while minigolfing. Some stop action and motion blur again, but this time we also had to capture the very essence of the game of mini golf. The Clap and The Nod. Very rare and hard to capture in their natural habitat. I managed to capture both of these phenomenon. Very exciting I know. I also had the chance to capture a few of the various reactions from the golfers themselves. Some were very excited from just sinking a ball in one shot, others very angry in not sinking a ball in ten.

As we journeyed on through the many pirates and mighty sailing ships, we discovered that there is more to life than work and papers and finance. There is a calmness, even on the windiest of days, that you can only get being out in the world photographing life. Not just passing everything by in a rush, but really seeing. The little details as well as the bigger picture. Living life to the fullest. I hope you too can live life to the fullest and start to appreciate the little things in life more after reading this.
Until next time, this is Patrick Rocheleau signing off.

Patrick Rocheleau
PV Student 2011-12