Day 7:
Waking up the before the sunrise has been the norm on this trip. This time it was to get to an early morning camel race, the one we’d heard about the day before. As we arrived, the sheer scale of the race became apparent. Toyota Hilux after Toyota Hilux flew in through the sand to the track. Men dressed in the best, with daggers (Khanjars), guns, and bullet belts were everywhere. As the sun rose, the morning light illuminated the excited faces of the race goers. The track was a straight mile and created two points of interest. First was the race start. Camels were tied to the fences and men and boys huddled around them in large packs, judging and preparing their bets. Jason and I waded through the thick crowds looking to get close to the action. Maybe it was because they were distracted by the race about to start, or perhaps it was the pomp and circumstance, but people were much more receptive to photos and didn’t seem to object as they often did in other instances. As the races got closer to starting, Jason and I positioned ourselves right at the gate, ready to capture that first instant. Setting my camera to drive mode, I tried to capture as many frames of the beginning of the race as I could. The twist was, Jason had duct tapped the back of my camera again, so I had no clue if I was getting results. But the tape was good for me, as there was to much action going on around me to be stopping to check my results. So much so, even working two cameras, I was starting to worry that I should have brought extra memory cards out into the fray with me.
Working the starting line was a challenge, there was no way of knowing when the race was going to begin and the best vantage point was low, very low. Laying on our bellies in the sand and dried camel poop, I kept my eye glued to the viewfinder waiting for the gate to raise and react. Using my super wide-angle lens, it was also hard to tell how close how close the camels were actually coming to me. And looking at the images now, I was probably inches from getting stepped on by a charging camel. After we had finished with the races, I checked my camera to find that I had taken over 1000 frames, and it wasn’t even before 9am. A great morning, but note to self, stay on Jason’s Left shoulder when he’s working fast otherwise I end-up in his images! Again he grabbed a fucking awesome frame of the start of the race. The man knows how to make Nat Geo pics. Kept thinking about it after I saw it. Almost a lil discouraging. I have a ways to go.
Making our way over to Sur, we headed to an old dhow building factory. However, when we arrived, we did not find the warm reception that we expected. The owner, who had recently taken over the company from his father, was not happy about us coming in with our cameras and for a while it seemed like he would not let us shoot. But with a little sweet-talking, Jason got us in and we had an hour to walk around the boats. After seven days of pre-dawn wake ups, I was exhausted and as Jason described it, I had a bit of Shutter Fatigue. But I wandered around the boats, looking for candid shots of the workers. It was nice to be near the water, cooler. I stayed and watched a man fiberglass the hull of a bright red boat for a while. Though my photo taking had slowed down, it was a pleasant way to end our penultimate day.
