It’s been a long time since I spent eight hours on a single shoot. And it’s been quite a long time since I had so much fun and got so many great images on a single shoot as well.

I’m going to add some more details and observations later tonight. So for now, here’s a link the 586 images in the Flickr Gallery (I shot a total of 725 images).

It’s a big gallery but there’s some great stuff in there.

Enjoy.

——-

Ok, the additional I meant add to last night…

First off, once again, I was really blown away by the overall friendliness and warmth of the Sertoma members and volunteers. In general, Lancaster people are friendly. It’s one of the reasons I love my adopted home so much. But as one might imagine, my MOOSE duties put me at a lot events such as the Sertoma Barbecue and there was truly just another level of friendliness and a spirit of teamwork I was really surprised. I had been there maybe an hour when more than half a dozen people had come up and introduced themselves and asked what I was doing. They would ask me if I needed anything, they offered food and drinks. It was unique in my experience. And since I had come thinking I may only be there an hour or so, the offer of something to drink was very much appreciated.

About that teamwork. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of events generally similar to the Sertoma Barbecue. Never before I have seen such a deep sense of pride in what was taking place and such an overall, well, happiness, during some very hard and very dirty work. It’s easy to be nice when your body isn’t pushed beyond its limits but consider just a few of the numbers I know. These folks were cooking 31,000 chicken halves with 16 tons of charcoal. All of that chicken and charcoal had to be moved by volunteers from one station to another. It’s a pretty fair assumption that most of these people have jobs and spent Friday working all day then, starting that evening, they spent another twelve hours or more, working their collective butts off to make the Barbecue happen. All of this took place in an atmosphere of friendly competition (amongst the various teams working the pits) and genuine teamwork. Keep in mind, I attend a lot of events like this and I sort of have a “nose” for problems. It’s what I do, document things. I didn’t witness a single incident of flared or frayed nerves or anger. That’s pretty unusual and I think it says something about how the Sertoma mission influences the members and the volunteers.

I was also somewhat surprised to learn that as many as 70% of the people working there were not club members but volunteers. They do it just to support the cause. In numerous cases I talked to people who had volunteered for more than one, usually a few, Barbecues.

Now this is somewhat obvious but I think it bears mentioning, I was continually impressed with how organized the entire process was. Sure, after 54 years, they should have it down but it’s more than that. Again, I’ve seen a lot of events like this and the level of organization; the break down of duties was impressive. It was almost military in its specificity yet, what it made room for was that everyone could enjoy themselves within that framework. It was an interesting combination of regimentation, organization and social engineering.

The inventions, yes, the inventions really amazed me. And maybe I’m wrong here, I’m no enormous barbecue expert but the things these people devised to specifically deal with the enormous amount of work that must be done was astounding. The specially designed and constructed carts that store and dispense the barbecue marinade (look for the beer kegs on carts in the images), the grill “racks” that allow for quick loading and unloading and simple turning, these were two things that really impressed me.

I had more than half dozen conversations with various Sertoma members and what consistently came through was their pride in what they accomplished each year. And this isn’t only about the Barbecue; it’s about the Craft Fair, the July Fourth concert and the Country festival. It’s about their work in Long’s Park in general. They’re very conscious of their contributions and I think that pride, rather than fueling some kind of arrogance, keeps them grounded in their mission of service. They have some big responsibilities (which they have assumed voluntarily) and that means a lot of work. And they are proud of that work, justifiably so.

As for the artistic observations, I have a few I’ll add here.

When I was preparing my gear bags for this I was thinking that sunrise would likely yield some unique images and right away, in my first few conversations with people there, that was confirmed. Once I saw the smoke and the way the pits were laid out and the trees that lined the area, I knew this would be a photographer’s dream. Of course, that changed my original idea that this would be a one or two hour job. But the temptation of capturing what the members had told about the smoke and then, in the morning, the sunrise through that smoke was far more alluring than just spending another comfortable night in bed. And it was well worth the reward.

I think the one thing I could have done better was capture the people involved. I was partially handicapped in this area having sent my longer telephoto back to Nikon for repair earlier Friday. So I had to be close to the people I was shooting and that removes some of the candid element. Also, shooting with a flash, you really cannot hide. The flash gives it away so you generally only have one shot to capture what’s really going on. If I am invited back next year I will definitely spend some more time focusing on the people involved.

The other thing was, I was really overtaken by the enormity of the scenes there. The huge plumes of smoke that billowed and curled over the pits were entrancing. So entrancing that yes, I focused on them more than the actual humans working.

And finally, why I shot what I did. I explained this to a few of the members I spoke with so here it is for everyone. I think the one thing that annoys me about newspaper work is that it’s so predictable most of the time and really, with all due respect to the fine photographers at the local paper, no place is this more true than at the Lancaster paper. And maybe it should be blamed on editors if so, then I’m fine with that. But I was shocked but not surprised that throughout the night not one other photographer was there to record, even briefly, what is surely one of the biggest annual events in Lancaster. So comfortable is the local paper with it’s supremacy that, apparently, all they needed to do was show up at noon, shoot the requisite picture of cute kid with a box of chicken or a long line of cars going into the park that they really missed a much more compelling side of the event. Well, not so much miss as ignore. And for that, I thank them.

So I could have stayed into the day but, in a sense, while my own record would have been more complete, I would only be duplicating what is already out there from other photographers.

Anyway, the real story here is what goes behind the whole thing, everything I’ve mentioned above. That’s what’s amazing. Without that story, without documenting that work the box of chicken has no context. It’s just a fairly inconspicuous lunch. With that story, it’s really something much more.

So enormous thanks again to all of the Sertoma members and volunteers who made my evening and morning so enjoyable, so educational and so rich artistically.

I hope in another year I’m posting more thoughts about the 2008 event with an even more complete record of the event.

Thanks for stopping by.