There are times when I get invited to photograph an event that is totally out of my comfort zone– this was one of them!  I don’t often do things like this because I like to focus on my wedding & family clients, but things like this force me to be a better photographer on the fly, and that is a crucial skill set!  And I love to help out our community, and this was sponsored by the City of Newport News.

I had a hard time grasping the idea of the nature of this event at first.  It’s a sort of Olympics for heavy equipment operators.  They get to show off their skills (like in a rodeo, but with heavy machinery) with these giant machines & it’s pretty cool to watch!In this event, the operator has to use this hook to lift up the weight, move it to the other side of the machine, and drop it in the cone, then return to a resting position.  I was impressed!

All in all, it was a pretty cool event!