Sailing on Seneca Lake

Last Christmas a neighbor of mine, Martha, bought her guy, Chuck, a gift of my time as a photographer to photograph his sailboat, the “Delta G”. We had been waiting for the perfect weekend with great clouds, blue skies, and good wind, and this past Sunday seemed to be the right day for everyone.

His boat is a beautiful, not overly large craft that he has put a lot of work into, redoing and refinishing. And Chuck and Martha seem totally at home as sailors and love being on the water. That was evident.

We had to have a chase boat for me to ride on since they wanted pictures under sail, with the hills and clouds of the New York Finger Lakes in the background. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the lake and their friend, James, obliged with his boat for the chase. Chuck and Martha had been up the lake for an overnight with some other boats and were on their way back in the afternoon, so we met them as they approached the south end of the Seneca Lake.

We cruised round and round passing and circling each other while I sat on the bow and shot away. Fortunately the light was generally good with clouds coming and going, good bright sun and dappling light across the hillsides. The wind would come and go, but generally cooperated.

After a couple of hours of shooting Chuck’s boat, we swapped places. With both boats pulling up close together, I took my life in my hands and leapt from one boat to the other after passing the camera bag to safety. It was a moment of gasps and grappling hands as I almost went into the lake, but kept dry with Chuck’s quick assistance. And so the transfer complete, I sailed off on Chuck’s “Delta G” to shoot James’ boat for a while as a return gift to him for providing the chase boat for the first go round.

All in all, a beautiful afternoon to be on the water, and a great day for sailing pictures. Let’s do it again.

Images Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.

Running To Places does Sweet Charity

On August 2, I was delighted to attend another stage performance by Running To Places at the Dryden High School auditorium in Dryden, NY. The production this time was Sweet Charity. I was knocked out by the professionalism and talent of these fantastic students.

Emily Dowd starred as Charity Valentine. Emily is a veteran of numerous shows and productions. She has nine years of dance training at Ithaca Academy of Dance and two years at Movement Untitled. She has an amazing voice and a commanding stage presence, a comfort and confidence on stage that makes her look like a Broadway natural.

Her scenes with co-star Travis Jones were amazing. The stage chemistry with these two was funny, sensitive, and totally charming.

Travis, also a veteran of Running To Places productions as well as Shakespeare In The Basement (a totally youth run Shakespeare company) played his roles with great affect and humor. Possessing an excellent voice, his scenes with Charity were incredibly entertaining.

Adam Beckwith and Shauna Belkour gave great performances as Vittorio Vidal and Ursula. The bedroom scenes with Charity, Ursula, and Vittorio were hilarious with Charity hiding in the closet and stuffing her face with food as Vittorio and Ursula express their real love for each other.

Charity’s best friends at the dance hall, Helene and Nickie, played by Rorie Dean and Anya Gibian, gave great performances, with their biting sarcasm and humor in the dance hall scenes, and fantastic vocal and dance routines.

The entire cast was dead on great, not missing a beat and credit goes out too to the stage crew who made the whole production really flow. Joey Steinhagen did a great job as director of bringing out the best from these talented kids, and Todd Peterson’s choreography made the whole thing look so professional.

Great music from Mike Wade and Erica Steinhagen and the pit band and all the rest of the support staff and production team doing their thing to make this small, young production company a joy to experience. Bravo, Running To Places, BRAVO! We can hardly wait for Damn Yankees.

Images Copyright © George Cannon.

All images from this event are available for individual purchase at http://www.georgecannon.printroom.com