Rolling Thunder: a loud and characterful spectacle

A young marine held on to her flag on Memorial Bridge while thousands of motorcycles roared past for the annual Rolling Thunder event.

This young marine concentrated hard on her flag which was whipping all over the place.  She kept her eyes steady and to the front.  She was smaller than many in her group, but she was the steadiest.  Several of the others shuffled, wiped their necks of sweat, looked sideways, looked up at their wavering flags.  But this one had a steely gaze I admired.

Man and machines. This hefty biker navigated his large motorbike, and then navigates around his tiny cellphone... Taken in the middle of a sea of motorbikes at the West Potomac parking area.

What caught my eye at first was the color of this guy’s Tshirt, amidst the sea of black-leather and motorbikes.  But then I caught his cell phone and I knew he wouldn’t notice me clicking away.  It struck me later how he was using these two different machines of vastly different proportions.

Addendum

After class critique, my professor encouraged me to throw in another photo that caught her eye. The timing of this shot was sheer luck.

Rolling Thunder Flags

Street Photography Basics

In this class I’m going to be pounding the pavement, going into restaurants, standing in crowds, going to music festivals, and taking pictures of the scene, including people, capturing moments, finding poignancy, levity, spontaneity and other notable moments.  I will snap, crop, and post.  Stay tuned.