April 28th, 2009 by admin

© 2009 Loren Worthington

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.

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April 22nd, 2009 by admin

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.

April 19th, 2009 by admin

On Saturday, the  3rd annual Over The Line tournament took place in Phoenix.  OTL is a 3-man sport that’s somewhat like baseball.  The sport has been adapted for people in wheelchairs.  Each team tries to score runs by advancing ghost runners around the bases.  The event was held in the parking lot of the North Phoenix Baptist Church.  This year eight teams participated, and there was a 2nd event for youths using a wiffle ball.

The sport allows you to photograph up close but unfortunately in a tournament like this, the backgrounds arent too pleasing.  So I got a lot of experience looking for photo opportunities that didnt include j-johns and trash cans in the background.

I had to leave before I got the rosters, but I’ll add the teams, rosters, and winners pretty quick. More photos are inside article. Read the rest of this entry »

April 11th, 2009 by admin

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.

As for my photos, clouds and rain really reduced the type of shots I could get. Read the rest of this entry »