Yesterday, Dawn went in the annual Color Me Rad 5K run for charity with our cousins and friend. Click here to view the photos in a slideshow. This event is very popular due to the amount of energy they put into it using paint to cover the runners in all sorts of different colours. The proceeds go to the Stollery children’s hospital, so it’s a good cause. The girls had a great time and I got a few good photos.
Sorry to those on my email list that got a taste of this yesterday when I accidentally hit Publish instead of Preview…
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Steve Boer Photography 
Great shots of a interesting new pasttime. These colored dust runs (which I guess started in India as the “Holi – Festival of Colors” eons ago) are such a curiosity to me. I guess it adds a new level of excitement to something that was otherwise so routine. 😉
(A word of warning. I moderate photo.stackexchange.com…the last time there was one of these Color Runs, we ended up getting a number of questions about whether this dust could get inside a camera. One person actually proved it does, and when it does, and can completely ruin a lens, and it is VERY difficult to get out! The focus action of the lens tends to suck in the colored particles, and you have to take the lens apart to clean it…
If you intend to keep shooting these things, I highly recommend doubly weather proofing your camera. A weather sealed camera won’t be enough…this power is so fine that the particles slip right through even high end sealing like you find in a 1D X or a D4. The best recommendations on the forum were to wrap the cameras in saran wrap multiple times (around everything, especially the buttons and dials…”Set it and forget it!”, tighten it with rubber bands, and make sure you have a well-built UVP on the lens (possibly even use a very small amount of grease around the edges of the UVP lens to block any particulate from getting in. That seems to be sufficient to prevent particulate from getting in and mucking up the works. Another recommendation was to get a water proof compact, which are sealed well enough to be submerged several feet deep or more, and should be enough to protect against this kind of dust.)
Thanks Jon. Yeah, I’ll have to check things out thoroughly. I was trying to stay far away from the actual action, but did notice a bit of residue in a few places when I got home. Hopefully I haven’t ruined anything… I don’t plan on making a pastime of this, the only reason I went was because my wife was running in it.
I think as long as you saran it, you should be fine! I know a couple people who did that (fans of running and biking photography in general, but they seem to love the color runs and color festivals), and that seemed to protect their gear pretty well. I would be willing to bet some manufacturer will come up with a special camera case for people who do this often at some point as well. Anyway, if your wife runs again, at least you know you can protect your gear. 😉