Day 279 - Project365

"Its as free as you can be" said Skydive instructor Manny Neto of Skydive DeLand, today just after Joyce and Jessica safely returned to earth after a quick decent from nearly 13,500 feet above our green and blue planet at about 120 MPH.

This was Joyce's first time skydiving and from the look on her perma-grin you could tell it was one hell of a rush. Jessica had recently made her first jump and described it as amazing yet not as impactful as the her jump. Impactful may not be the right word to use while describing Skydiving as it just sounds like death! "did you see that skydiver plummet to his death?" "Ya, he sure made one hell of a impact!"

We arrived at the airport just before noon. The sky was dotted with white fluffy clouds and the wind was breezy at about 15mph. I could tell Joyce was a bit nervous as we walked up to the registration office. The ladies were immediately sat down and instructed to watch a short video explaining that death is a very real threat when jumping out of a plane (obviously). It went on to explain that in the event that you plummet to your instant and very "impactful" death that your aires can not sue. This all from a guy sitting behind a desk with a very long grey beard. The whole video wreaked of a cheap lawyer commercial. I couldn't tell if it was done deliberately or not. while the ladies were signing away their life I decided to see if anyone at the establishment had read my email I sent a week prior. I had went over who I was, what I was doing, what I intended to do for them and most importantly what I wanted. The email I received back basically said that they didn't read the first 2 paragraphs explaining what I did. They told me it would cost x amount of dollars to ride in the plain as a observer. When I got there a young girl that really had NO idea of this email or what I wanted to do basically told me I was getting an attitude and that they run a business and people pay to skydive. I would not be able to see anything as I would be riding copilot. I just get frustrated when I get stonewalled by people not taking me seriously. I know that skydive establishments have no shortage of footage or photos. I just like to think that not being the typical photographer they see daily, I could have brought a interesting twist to what has become a pretty standard look for the sport.

The woman wasn't interested in what I had to say and I realized it was a waste of time. I'll wait and coordinate a real shoot with people who want to work with me. I'm working on that now. No hard feelings. I understand that with out really talking to me and looking at my work, most people think I'm just another GWC (guy with camera) looking for a free ticket.

So as the ladies suited and prepared for take off, I grabbed one light and my camera. As the ladies took off I was in the spectator area ready for the drop.

It didn't take long for the plane to reach its max altitude. I had looked up just as the plane was exiting a cloud. The pilot gave the cue for the jumpers to go. Time was limited as they had a small window in the sky without clouds. Moments after the plane was visible was when I caught sight of the first jumper. 5 jumpers later Jessica jumped, followed lastly by Joyce. In reality I wasn't watching the jumpers exit the plane I was seeing them open their chute after almost 1 minute of free fall.

The ladies describe that minute as lasting an eternity. I can only imagine since I've yet to jump out of anything higher than a tree. When I asked if they felt a feeling of falling they said no. You reach terminal velocity pretty quick and the feeling of falling fades. "Pure accelerate" "Exhilarating" "Disorienting" are a few words they used to describe the free fall. To sum their experience up in one word is "Exhilarating" Joyce had mentioned Orgasmic but quickly changed it to Fan-frickin-tastic. They've pretty much sold me!

When the ladies landed safely I had to meet the men who made sure they didn't splatter. Manny Neto, the man Jessica was strapped to has over 9 years experience with 9000 jumps under his belt. That sure is a hell of a lot of jumps. Thinking about it mathematically, you'd have to jump nearly 3 times a day for 9 years to to get that many jumps in. He was energetic and rightfully so as he spends a good portion of his day at speeds well over 120mph.

Fraser Feltner, the man pictured in today's picture says he got into sky diving because it was on his bucket list. 11 years and 3500 jumps later he still finds it exhilarating as he instructs other extreme adrenaine junkies.

Not that I think about the worst case scenario all the time, I just had to inquire as to close calls! Fraser looked at me and smiled as he went into a few scary stories about having to cut away his main parachute on three occasions, one of which was when he was flying tandem. Obviously all ended ok as he was still in one piece and falling daily.

Think your too old? Think again. Manny said his oldest jumper was 85. "They can barley walk to the plane!" he said. I just laughed as these guys talked with the same enthusiasm for sky diving as I have for photography.

Before leaving the air field we stopped into the bar and grabbed a quick beer. Guinness was on tap and that was all it took. Monday starts the Juice diet so I'm living it up till then!

Today I finally broke down and ordered a brand new Macbook Pro 15", 2.2 Ghz Quad core I7 Processor, 750gb HDD, 1GB Video Card. WIth a nifty military discount thanks to Carl Lund I saved just over 200.00. Thank you Carl! I hope you don't mind that Joyce dropped your name. Once they heard the name drop they were like yes sir, hows 200.00 sound. Any friend of Carl is a friend of ours. Boom… Discount.

I tried to get a free Macbook battery but I guess I had used up all my hookups. The discount that I did receive was nearly tacked back on with stupid sales tax. Since when do they charge tax for shipped items. Apple tacks on tax to everything according to the state its being delivered in. I should have had it shipped to either New Hampshire, Delaware, Alaska, or Montana as they don't have any sales tax. I know for sure it would have cost less to have a friend ship it from one of those states. I knew it wouldn't of cost anywhere near 145.00 to ship. That just kills me!

Lighting:

AB800 Med Softbox 4:00 3/4 power Triggered via Cyber Commander.

The ladies were proud of their jump and had to show there certificate of not being splattered on the ground.