It was 110 degrees out today when I went to the track at Angel Stadium located at
ASU's campus in Tempe, AZ for
the Track and Field tryouts for the
Paralympics.
I happened to hear about the tryouts on the radio that Friday morning and figured it was a long shot, but why the heck not try to go and photograph some of these True Olympians.
I arrived about 30
mins before the 600pm warm ups and walked over to the media tent to seek permission to photograph the event....I figured there was no way they'd let me a free lancer with no media affiliation in to photograph. I had my cameras around my neck and my 3 foot white 400mm Canon lens on my mono pod, ya know the type of lens and cameras you see during football games on the sidelines (or maybe I'm the only one paying attention to those). So I walk up to he media coordinator and she asks "Which publication are you with"? t
o which I answered, "None, I just love the Olympics and its my dream to photograph them someday." She took a look at my gear and said "That gear is all the credentials I needed to see"....she only asked that I share the photos with her staff and allow them to use them for the
Paralympics website! I was ecstatic!
What I had the opportunity to photograph will forever inspire, motivate and change me. Congrats to those
Athlete's that have made the US Paralympic team and bring home the Gold from the 2008 Olympic and
Paralympic games in Beijing.
hris.