The RunVMC.com (Vince M. Camiolo) Blog

Before her car came into full view in the long-term parking lot at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, Natalie Rockwell felt a familiar sensation: Something bad happened to her car.

Vince M. Camiolo | Click to enlarge

Considering her 1993 Honda Civic has been broken into and vandalized on at least five occasions in as many years, it is no wonder that Rockwell has developed a sixth sense when it comes to her car’s vulnerability. Although her sense this time was accurate, she hadn’t anticipated one specific, major aspect of the crime: The entire rear passenger side door was stolen. The stereo faceplate and a mobile phone charger were taken as well, but that was nothing new to Rockwell. But an entire door was certainly a new addition to her car’s storied past.

Never heard of an entire car door being stolen? You are in good company. Neither the police who took the report nor any of the staff at two separate junk yards are familiar with such an occurrence. If anyone would have heard of this happening before, it would be them.

Vince M. Camiolo | Click to enlarge

And the airport’s reaction? Not their problem. But they still demanded the more than $100 parking fee as the car was towed from their lot after a 10-day stay.

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Rockwell, who happens to be my girlfriend of more than five years, agreed to pose for a couple quick portraits on our way to Sparks, Nev. to look for a replacement door.

This Sunday brings one of the biggest events of the year to Incline Village, Nev. Athletes from all over the world descend upon the small Sierra town on the north shore of Lake Tahoe to compete for an overall US title in an off-road triathlon known as the Xterra (although the automaker, Nissan, which has an SUV by the same name in their line, has played a sponsoring role in the past, the Xterra series existed before the adventure-oriented SUV by the same name).

©Vince M. Camiolo | Click to enlarge

Surrounding the US championship is a weekend full of events, including five and 10K trail runs, the collegiate Xterra championship and a friendly canine competition.

Despite being bum-rushed by some rowdy bacteria (or a virus) on Friday night, I forced myself out to get some shots of the dog competition. I then headed straight back to the couch to rest up for Sunday’s professional US championship.

During the past two incredibly satisfying Philadelphia Phillies playoff games I have fallen into the habit of posting updates and interesting stats, from the game, to my Twitter account. It’s not immediately clear to me why I started doing this, but I do have a theory; its genesis was personal, its development, professional.

Of my modest social circle here in Lake Tahoe, none are Philadelphia sports fans (aside from my girlfriend Natalie, but she concentrates her fanatacism on the Eagles). What’s worse, both playoff games have been during the mid-week workday, limiting my potential commiseration to the small Corey Rich Photography office. Needless to say, I’m the only one who cares. Which brings me to the basis of my theory of genesis: Twitter began serving as the fellow fan in the room to whom I express enthusiastic observations (i.e. “Hey, Brett Myers has no-hit the last 15 Brewers batters in a row!” or “All Phillies have reached base, seven by walk.“).

But the tone developed into serious reporting. Anything of significance was immediately tweeted, such as any bases loaded situation and especially Victorino’s second inning grand slam in game two. Regular updates were tweeted every two to three innings with the score and any interesting stats I had observed.

I enjoy taking the reporting of the game seriously (even if I’m annoying my followers more than informing them in this case). I was trained to report, but most of my reporting has been done visually. This is giving me a chance to hone my textual reporting skills. I am committing myself to thoroughly report-by-tweet the duration of the Philadelphia Philles playoff campaign.

So follow me, and the Phillies, all the way to a World Series win!

Should that mountain be on fire? Actually, yes, it should.

On my drive home from the Corey Rich Photography office yesterday evening, I rounded a bend on SR28 in Incline Village and found a large electronic sign flashing the message, “RX BURN. PLEASE DO NOT REPORT.” As I looked up I was a bit shocked, despite the warning, to find a good portion of the side of a mountain glowing with flames. It was just getting dark enough to silhouette the mountain against a cloud-covered sky and provide a deep contrast to the orange glow. It was quite beautiful. I pulled over, grabbed my camera and tripod and captured a few frames. Click on the image for a larger view.

©Vince M. Camiolo

©Vince M. Camiolo

The early morning of Saturday, September 20, a group of adventurers-in-a-hurry convened at Northstar-at-Tahoe in Truckee, Calif. and then dispersed on mountain bikes onto the surrounding trails and

©Vince M. Camiolo

 roads. By the time they returned to Northstar they had mountain biked at least 24 miles, kayaked more than eight and spent about two hours wondering around on foot in search of elusive check points.

 With certain advantages at my disposal, like an automobile and mountain bike (racers had to do the orienteering course on foot) I attempted to follow the racers the best I could to capture key moments of the race. I had a great time following the racers and getting a chance to experience the sense of community adventure racers seem to create and embrace at the events. Click the link below to watch a slideshow of some of my images from the Tahoe Big Blue Adventure Race.

<Tahoe Big Blue Adventure Race Slideshow>

As of today, the blog is back, thanks, in part, to the addition of reCAPTCHA!

It was around the time of my last post — seven and a half months ago — that the deluge of spam comments started. Several times a day a group of waiting-to-be-moderated comments would appear in my inbox, full of hyperlink-laden sentences with little relevance to anything, if they made sense at all.

It wasn’t long before the technology blogs started publishing articles about the search engine optimization poachers’ assault on blogs published on the WordPress platform (like mine). And the assault continues.

I had planned to suspend the blog to redesign my overall site, but the spam assault was all the motivation I needed to abandon blogging on RunVMC.com for an extended period of time.

When I finally settled on a format for my site I decided it was imperative that I incorporate the blog. But this meant finding an effective method for squashing the spam comments. The most convincing advice I received, via Twitter, is simply installing a CAPTCHA.

A CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) is typically a set of distorted letters and numbers that a human can decipher and reproduce with keystrokes, but a computer program, or “bot,” cannot. If one has spent any time on the Web in the past year or so, it’s likely CAPTCHAs have been encountered many times.

The particular CAPTCHA I have employed is called reCAPTCHA, and it’s a genius system, in my opinion. Each reCAPTCHA serves a dual purpose: First, it prevents predatory bots from auto-filling out forms, like blog comments. Second, it helps digitize books. Go here for more info on the technology. 

I’m happy to finally be putting an end to spam comments (I hope). It will be nice to believe that an incoming comment is a legitimate contribution to my blog. I’m also happy to be employing a technology that I have admired ever since I first heard about it on NPR more than a year ago. As one who has studied historic archaeology, the more text that is digitized and search-able, the better.

I’ll be sure to let y’all know how the reCAPTCHA is working on the frontline of the war against comment spam.

FYI: If you find you may want to comment on several occasions, simply registering on the blog will allow you to bypass the CAPTCHA.

I have never spoken to, or even emailed him, but Sheldon Brown was always there when I needed him. He always said exactly what I needed to hear (well, read, really).

In times of cycling mechanical crises, Sheldon Brown has always been my go to guy.

Through his Website, SheldonBrown.com, Brown has become the ultimate resource for do-it-yourself bicycle maintenance, repair, restoration, construction and general bicycle education, especially to the single speed and fixed gear communities. His site features a plethora of articles on subjects ranging from wheel building to building your own tandem, many of which have appeared in publications such as Bike World, Bicycling, American Bicyclist and Adventure Cyclist magazines. Brown’s site also features a complete bicycle term glossary.

Aside from being a hero and guru to cyclists worldwide, he was also a husband, father, actor, singer, photographer and camera collector, a Web enthusiast and overall an inspirational person.

On Monday, February 5, the world learned that cycling icon and guru, Sheldon Brown, passed away at the age of 63.

His legacy will live on through SheldonBrown.com, as he continues to assist the cyclist sitting mechanically frustrated in her garage at 2 a.m for generations to come.

Washoe County School District bus no. 7021 ascends Village Blvd. in Incline Village, Nev. in an afternoon snowstorm today. Several vehicles, none of which bore tire chains, were unable to successfully ascend the street.

Click the image to enlarge.

For photojournalists, the term “multimedia storytelling” means the future of journalism. Few have embraced that concept more than Brian Storm, founder of the multimedia production studio MediaStorm.

The presentations on MediaStorm are renowned for their quality in both production value and engaging storytelling. Some are simply engaging stories; others are engaging and sociologically important.

I have included links to two presentations that meet that latter criteria. It will take about 20 minutes out of your day to watch both. Not only will you get a glimpse of the future of photojournalism and some of the important work being done by photojournalists (often times largely ignored by the mainstream media), but you will be entertained and enlightened.

Be warned, however: Your heart may wrench. But these stories are told in an attempt to work toward solutions. Information and links to guide you toward your role are provided. Click on the descriptions to go to the presentations.

“The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the deadliest war in the world today. An estimated 5.4 million people have died since 1998, the largest death toll since the Second World War, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

After successive waves of fighting and ten years of war, there are no hospitals, few roads and limited NGO and UN presence because it is too dangerous to work in many of these regions. The West’s desire for minerals and gems has contributed to a fundamental breakdown in the social structure.”

“The wildlife trade is the third largest illegal trade in the world, rivaled only by guns and drugs. Every year up to 30,000 primates, 2 to 5 million birds and 10 million reptile skins are traded.

The problem seems insurmountable; one way of curbing the rampant killing and to decrease the demand for rare animals is by educating future generations and removing antiquated and false beliefs.”

As my first election as a resident of Nevada rolls in, I had the opportunity to caucus for the primary. It was an interesting and enjoyable experience; a quintessential community event.

Although I had not planned to cover the event as a photojournalist, I walked over to the area middle school with my camera slung over my shoulder anyway. After getting there and firing off a few shots, I really began to regret not coming more prepared (with a couple strobes and an audio recorder).

I put together a little slide show of what I shot. Just go to my front page, let the show load a bit and click the play button.

The slideshow can now be found here, as featured in the multimedia section of my portfolio.

Enjoy!