Hello Again!,
Recently I had the great pleasure of attending the twenty-fifth annual "Man-trip" with six of my closest friends who I've known since we were all in our early teens. The Man-trip is a sacred annual three-day summer event that a couple of my friends conceived a good while ago, and that we've succeeded at keeping sacred for twenty-five years so far. We all have so much fun on each Man-trip that no one misses it unless it is absolutely necessary.
The number of friends that attend each "Man-trip" varies each year, and has fluctuated from seven to twelve attending depending on the year. All of the members of this very close group of friends originally grew up in Central New York, attended the same high school (not necessarily in the same graduating class), and all share a similar passion for the outdoors and life in general. One of our fellow Man-trippers has lived in San Jose, California for the past twenty years, another in Vancouver, another in Charleston, South Carolina, and the remaining members live in various towns within Central New York.
On each year of this fabulous adventure, we make it a point to explore a different region of the massive and beautiful Adirondack Park. And every year of the trip, we meet at our friend Bill (and Liz's) house in Cortland on the Thursday (after work) that signifies the beginning of the trip, say our goodbyes to Bill's wife and children, then we convoy the four-plus hours to whichever new (to us) region we're headed for.
As the group's photographer, this year I decided I wanted to create some truly unique images during this particular trip. As someone who normally photographs weddings as well as editorial assignments, it is refreshing to create something truly unique whenever I have a little free time. Hence, I decided a couple of months in advance of this trip that I really wanted to somehow create the illusion of a Mexican wrestler standing on the surface of a remote Adirondack lake in the beautiful early evening light. To me, there's something magic and surreal about the colorful, macho masks, capes, leotards, etc. that comprise the costumes that various Mexican wrestlers wear. Hence, I proceeded to seek, find, and purchase the wardrobe items I would need via a Mexican wrestling gear supplier in Los Angeles.
I still had a few other challenges to overcome, the first being who would play the role of the wrestler (which was a no-brainer since my long-term Man-trip friend Bink takes great pleasure in doing outstanding, hilarious, and masterful character impersonations). Also, I had to figure out how to construct and position a platform that we could place underwater that would support Bink's one-hundred and eighty five pound body, and how to get him to the platform fifty feet or so out in the lake in a way that wouldn't get him wet, and lastly I needed the weather to cooperate.
It did rain during much of the trip, which had me thinking that I wasn't going to be able to execute this carefully planned concept, however during the early Saturday evening of the trip the weather cleared and we just happened to be exploring a relatively remote lake in the northern section of the Adirondack Park. I had essentially given up on my photographic concept when one of my fellow "Man-trippers" said, "Bob, this looks like the perfect time and place to do your Mexican wrestler shoot"!
We had around thirty minutes of good light remaining, so I told everyone what they had to do to make it happen and everyone came together like the well-oiled team we've always been. Three guys got busy building the platform to the precise height I needed, another friend helped Bink to put on the carefully chosen wrestler costume, and another two friends per my request got a canoe off the top of one of our vehicles so that we could transport Bink to the platform fifty feet out into the lake. All of this seamlessly came together simultaneously in around ten minutes total which was truly amazing.
Two of us guided the canoe that our wrestler was sitting in towards the carefully positioned underwater platform and we steadied the canoe while he climbed out of it onto the top of the platform which was just slightly underneath the water's surface. Our Mexican wrestler looked truly incredible as he miraculously stood on the surface of the water Jesus-like in that sweet and subtle early evening light. I then quickly got out of the water, grabbed my camera, walked chest-deep back into the lake and ecstatically commenced photographing the water walking Mexican wrestler! Bink being the amazing character actor that he is, gave me exactly what I wanted in terms of body positions, attitude, machismo, etc. From my point of view, this was creative, synergistic, and spiritual ecstasy!
Here are a few of the many resulting images I created that evening which I hope you enjoy...
