I’m soon heading home. Our local clubs (UMTA, WOTA, and NMRA) got lots of kudos from the FIM, motorcycling’s international governing body, as well as the riders and manufacturers.
I spent the entire weekend taking photos and posting them along with scores on the site’s weblog. The plus: lots of recognition, both from those following the event who couldn’t be there, as well as those who visited the site before arriving in Duluth. The minus: I missed out on a lot of socializing before and after the event each day since I had to be holed up sorting through photos on someone else’s laptop in their hotel room.
In some ways this fits my more introverted personality, as I tend towards reluctance when it comes to inserting myself into unstructured social situations. But I tend to enjoy myself more when I overcome this reluctance and put on a social face. So I don’t think I’d like to cover live events too often. Taking photos for later publication would be ok, or just uploading them for someone else to sort through and publish.
A camera can be a good way to meet people at an event but it also can be distancing. They’re “subjects” initially, which colors how I see them and how they see me, now that I think about it. Too often, I’d just snap their photo and get their names without seeking them out to get to know them better. Slam bam thank you m’am. So maybe with a bit of a different perspective, I could get the hang of it.