Words and Light

On Wednesday, for the first time in more than a year, I laced up my trusty Chuck Taylors and went for a run.

Then I went to work, where my two assignments for the day consisted entirely of walking. First, four injured veterans and other volunteers are walking across (most of) the state to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. They entered York County on Wednesday. Bill (the reporter) walked with them on the Rte. 462 bridge across the Susquehanna River. I walked with them as they left Wrightsville.

© 2011 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Michael Barbot of Martinsburg, W.V., leads about 20 other people walking the Pennsylvania Hero Walk for the Wounded Warriors Project on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, in Wrightsville. Barbot, who is a resident in the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Johnstown in Cambria County, is one of four wounded veterans participating in the two-week walk from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to raise money to aid wounded service members' recovery. Barbot served in the Army from 2004 and 2009, and was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Later, as evening approached, Bill and I met up with a father and son who are trying to lose weight together by regularly going on an almost four-mile walk near their house.

© 2011 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Zack McFatridge, 11, and his father Kerry wave to a neighbor as they walk up Round Hill Church Road near their home in East Hopewell Township on Wednesday, June 15, 2011. The McFatridges have been walking an almost four-mile loop regularly since March in an effort to lose weight together.

Shooting this assignment was interesting. Bill and I — plus Kerry’s sister, who got him into walking — were accompanying Kerry and Zack on this walk, and we (mostly Bill) were talking to them the whole time. But every time we went up or down a hill or approached some nice scenery or light, I’d look at Bill, Bill would move to the other side of the road, I’d run ahead (usually uphill) and then I’d start walking backwards to make pictures.

Short of renting a helicopter or backing off by about a half-mile to shoot with a 400mm (which I don’t have anyway), I think I made just about every “walking” photo I could have. You can view more photos on the article page to see for yourself — and you should read the article anyway, as Bill did a really nice job.

Needless to say, by the time I returned to the newsroom, my legs and feet were sore. Running in the morning, walking in the afternoon and running up and down hills in the evening… it was a good workout.

Also, I think I need new shoes.

These tears just keep... tearing.

My track record of functional journalist footwear is not very good.