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.
If you roll around Phoenix for more than a few days, odds are you will run into someone who knows Corbin Beu and knows about something he built or adapted or somehow made accessibile for himself or someone in a wheelchair. And if you are guy who likes all things rugged, and adventurous, and outdoor-like, then you’ll also like hanging out as his garage.
A few weeks back I stopped by to thank him for welding up my chair to support a pair of leg casts. Before long he’s showing me his new lift that takes him up to his fold-out camper loft. Watching Corbin go from the driver’s seat to his crib is 10 minutes of mechanical amazement.
So it’s May in Phoenix and before the heat sets in I knew I needed to get some photos of his mobile loft. We met up at Papago Park and managed to get an hours worth of shooting before the park police showed up.
Last weekend, for the 2nd year in a row I shot the Symbius Medical Over the Line Tournament in Phoenix, Arizona. There is more tourney info at www.AccessingArizona.com.
If you ever want to experience what it means to be passionate about something, come meet Pia Douglass at a fencing event. She heads up the Grand Canyon State Fencing Foundation (www.gcsff.org) and with the assistance of her two sons and others, knows how to put on a nice program.
The venue was a conference room with low ceilings, fluorescent lights and nothing too exciting for backgrounds. Not really the makings for a great photo expose. Fortunately I had a softbox with me and decided to shoot some portraits as well.
To see all the photos, click the link below each frame.
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.
