This was 2nd time I photographed this event. It’s great because it’s so diverse. Indoors, outdoors, daytime, night, young and old athletes, vets, and some people with amazing physiques and talent. This year there were athletes from both Canada and Mexico.
If you have 4 minutes, there is a better flash folio at www.AccessingArizona.com. As always, if you are one of the athletes or sponsors, I am happy to provide you with photos for free.
It was finally nice to shoot a tournament where all of the teams showed up. The event featured the TIRR Hotwheels (Houston, TX), the Hammer (San Diego, CA), the Suns (Phoenix, AZ), and BORP Bay Area Cruisers (San Francisco, CA)
The Hotwheels won all 3 games on Saturday, and beat the Hammer again on Sunday to win the tournament. On Sunday, the Phoenix Suns beat the Bay Cruisers for 3rd place.
I only shot the two game on Sunday. Here is a link to the photos;
#24 - Dusty Ferreira or the Phoenix Suns, and #12 - Gerard Ah-Fook, of the UoA Wildcats cover one another during the tournement held in Mesa, Arizona.
This was billed as a tournament including 6 teams. On Friday there were only 3 teams. So I focused on getting some solo shots of the players. Once the sun goes down and there’s no ambient light, the Broadway Rec Center goes fom crappy to virtually unusable. Even with a few strobes, it’s pretty dismal.
I didnt return for the games on Saturday due to prior commitment. Addition Photos are here.
The Phoenix Outcasts hosted a 2 day tourneyment in Mesa over the weekend. Because one team was a no-show, a 4th team consisting of a few players from Phoenix was added, and they then borrowed a player here and there to add some competition to the event.
When this happens it becomes difficult to photograph and keep track of who’s who. As well, the teams dont always follow the schedule and that further reduces my ability to photograph the entire event. That said, the team from U of A went undefeated and looked impressive.
At last, its almost bearable outside and the sporting events are filling up my calendar. Lately I’ve been working on a photography project to benefit the soon-to-be-built Virginia Piper Sport & Fitness Center in Phoenix. The first project is to create a 2010 caledar featuring 12 local athletes participating in their sport or recreation of choice.
So this weekend we photographed Greg Hockensmith in his road racing hand bike. He is one of the coaches at the monthly hand-bike clinic held at ElDorado Park in Scottsdale, that is sponsored by the Arizona Disabled Sports Association. Jerry O’Conner was the principal shooter and will no doubt have some great photos, but here’s a few I squeezed in.
Many thanks to Greg for enduring the heat. Stay tuned for more shots.
The Desert Challenge is the biggie for adaptive sports in Arizona. The annual event, sponsored by Arizona Disabled Sports features swimming, weight lifting, archery and various events in track & field. The 3-day event is held in Mesa and is sanctioned by the various governing bodies for the respective sports. Basically it’s fun event for local athletes of all ages and a tune-up for a few of our national athletes with 2012 London Paralympic ambitions.
A special thanks to Jodi of Jodi Davis Photography for letting me come shoot with her. She’s the ADS team’s official photographer. Any participant wanting event photos should visit her site. She does great kid photos too.
Click the jump for some photos of Track & Field, Swimming, Weightlifting and Archery.
Hand Cycling is a great escape from the day to day rigors of using a wheelchair. First off, they are comfortable and you need’nt be working so hard to keep your balance. The second cool thing is you can go pretty fast and the breeze in your face feels great. Definitely a good work out.
So the good guys at Phoenix Parks & Recreation offer Tuesday night cycling for free. I’ve indulged in the past but wanted to get some motion shots. Only problem is there was no motion to be shot. So I got one descent shot of Renee Tyree using a bare strobe off camera left that was pretty close to what I wanted.
Getting a low angle shots from a wheelchair isnt easy. I use a small monopod and turn the camera upside down. I then just lower the camera and guestimate whats in the frame. Using a wide angle lens gives the photo some cool perspective. In this shot I cropped out just a little on the left.
Hopefully this entry is work in progress and I can add some more action shots along the way.
The NRA hosted it’s first ever Open Range Day for people with disabilities at Ben Avery Shooting Range today. As a student, I briefly worked for the NRA. So I know that NRA never does any event half way. True to their reputation, Vanessa Warner and team didnt show up with a few hand-me-downs and the old pea-shooter. Participants got to shoot new Ruger semi-auto pistols and AR-15’s rifles, Remington and Baretta shotguns and there was plenty of ammo for everyone to make lots of noise.
We in Phoenix have one of the country’s premiere shooting ranges just north of town. The Ben Avery Shooting Range offers every type of shooting (and archery) you can imagine. Even better, the entire facility is very accessible. So the National Rifle Association (NRA) selected Ben’s to be the venue for their first ever Open Range Day.
Unfortunately it was a rainy cold day so we didnt have great turn out, but for the 15 or so that did arrive, there was that much more time on the firing line. Ben Avery is a big range and so hats off to the NRA for getting accessible buses to hussle the groups around and for catering a good lunch.
The Wildcats of Tucson went 5-0 and handed the Phoenix Outcasts their only defeat on Friday in a narrow 48-46 victory. The Phoenix Outcasts staged a great comeback with a final minute goal and strong goal line defense to beat the Texans on Sunday to finish the tournement 4-1.
Jump to the 2nd page to review two batches of photos. One from Friday, and one from Sunday. If any of the teams are interested in getting copies, please contact me. If anyone has photos from Saturday, please contact me.
I’m not even sure this counts as a sporting event. I envisioned it to be more of fishing tournament, but really it was more of a family outdoor event. It was sunny and nice, and it is held at Tempe Lake, so that makes it a winner regardless of what you call it.
Joni & Friends is a organization that works with disabled children. There was plenty of other photographers roaming around Tempe Lake so I decided to try some low-level wide-angle shots. I used a short mono-pod and flipped the camera upside down, between my knees. Basically, with a 12mm lens, you can point in the general direction of what you want to shoot and be sure it is going to get everything. I’m using a remote trigger cable to fire the shutter.
Maybe it is just because I’m so use to seeing photos taken from my typical wheelchair perspective, but I really like finding way to get some low-level shots. I want to try this out for sled hockey and racing in the future.
