A criterium, for those who don’t know, is a special kind of bicycle race.

Last weekend we had one of those bike races in the beautiful historic downtown of Wake Forest, North Carolina. Unfortunately it was badly rained out, so the spectators were very – well, let’s say “limited in numbers”. It was still a nice and well organized event, with excellent racing and lot’s of great opportunities to do some sports photography.

I like to photograph events, like sports events or other festivities. A few days back I had a chance to attend and take pictures at a Pow Wow, the 44th Annual Powwow of the Haliwa-Saponi Indians in North Carolina.

It was the first event of this kind for me, obviously a fascinating experience for somebody who grew up in Germany

Last weekend was not only the commencement ceremony at Duke, but also the “Capital City Classic“, a ten kilometer running race in downtown Raleigh.

The above photograph shows one of the elite runners of the race, shortly after he crossed the finish line.

Yesterday was a special day here at Duke University: Commencement for the class of 2009.

While the commencement by itself usually makes for a full Wallace Wade Stadium, yesterday Duke had a special guest: Oprah Winfrey received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.

After receiving her degree Oprah gave a speech with many inspirational and guiding messages to the new graduates, for example:
“Each of us has to stand in our own shoes. Will you stand in them in humility and compassion and courage? Every day will give you a chance to make that choice.”

Working for higher education, esspecially a good university like Duke in Durham, has many advantages over working for a corporate business.

One of the nice things is the presence of students, which helps me to keep my mind young, inspired and fresh. One example for such an inspiration happened a few days ago:

I noticed that students had made dozens of small stick-figures out of aluminum foil, and those little figures were hanging from trees, doorways and stone arches all over West Campus. Neat idea, so I decided to build one of those figures myself and see where it could climb.

Maybe the next step could be to have climbing competitions of aluminum foil stick-figures?