The beauty of photographs

More and more races these days seem to have official course photographers (or rather, arrange for a company to come and take photos of the event).  I really value this, as I tend to go to races on my own and there's no-one to take any pictures for me!  Although the resulting photos are usually extortionately expensive, I usually end up buying a couple. 

Sussex Sport Photography.com were the company working at this weekend's Roding Valley Half Marathon, and, I suppose because it was a lapped course, there were lots of opportunities to take pictures, but even so I was really surprised, and pleased, to see that when the race gallery went live online there were loads of photos of me...the grand old total of 18! 

There was a package deal if you bought all of the photos, which worked out much cheaper than buying the ones I particularly wanted, so although it made a ridiculous dent in my wallet, I forked out for the lot of them.  They all looked good in the low-res quality that were online, and I was really looking forward to getting the high-res ones that I'd ordered...and they arrived today.

As you'll see, I've scattered a few of them through my blog post about the race and I'm really pleased with how those ones came out - in fact all of them are great from a technical point of view - colour, clarity, sharpness etc!

However..... most of the photos that I haven't used in my blog, I really hate and it's through no fault of the photographers.  

It's because they show me how I really look...which is of course the beauty of photographs!  The ones that I've chosen to put on the blog have all fortuitously caught me in a relatively flattering position but most of the other ones haven't, and it's a real reminder (read slap in the face) that although I lost a fair bit of weight last summer, I've started putting it back on, and I never got down to where I wanted to in the first place!

So, the photos are a wake-up call.  I've had a lot of those in the past, and blogged about "how this time I'm sorting out my diet", but it never seems to last, and I usually forget about whatever the wake-up call was, about the time that I fancy a biscuit or someone brings in cake to work, or we decide to have pie and chips for dinner.  

I think I need to print out a few of the really shockingly wobbly photos and tape them to the fridge and store cupboard!!  Just imagine how fast I'd run if I was skinny! :)