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 »

February 7th, 2009 by admin

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.