September 20th, 2009 by admin

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.

February 12th, 2009 by admin

© 2009 Loren Worthington

The Phoenix Coyotes Sled Hockey team hosted a two-day tournament On Friday, Feb 6th and 7th at the Ice Den in Scottsdale.

The first day was a loss as I had to shoot from above the stands and behind a safety net. The 2nd day I brought my own ramp and was able to get into the penalty box. Thanks to Judy for the assistance. No thanks go out to the Ice Den maintenance guys who did nothing to assist on Friday.

The event feature four teams, the Utah Golden Eagles, the Colorado Avalanche, the Phoenix Coyotes and Team USA U20, which consists of our best national team who are under age 20. The kids were fast, and good.

Hockey poses a few problems for photographing. The plexiglass is useless. You have to find a semi-safe way to get close and not eat puck. From the penalty box you cant get shots of the person’s eyes as they’re scoring. Its always their back. So you want to focus on the goalie and try to frame the shot to get the black puck against a white background. Below is one of 6 shots I let rip. Only this one shows a clear puck. And lastly, the fluorescent lights just suck. Especially at the Ice Den where the light varies from one end to the other. I ended up setting WB to auto, and adjusting way too many shots in PS.

Avalanche goalie Scott Stacey (55) blocks a shot from Utah’s Jim Week (15).

Nikon D300 200mm f4.5 1/320th 2200iso Read the rest of this entry »