- Tempe, ARIZONA
I must say that Tempe Arizona is one of the most beautiful places I've stayed. I was only here during the summer months, so that's where my opinion is based. It's true it gets very hot here during the summer, averaging maybe 35 degrees, but that just reminds me of home (Melb, Australia) on some of the warmer days in summer. Many people can't see what there is to like about this stinking hot place. What I liked was that every day afforded a rich, blue, nearly cloudless sky. What clouds did pass over were beautiful, light, whispy and ever changing - and the red, pink, orange and gold sunsets were awe-inspiring. As with any two seasoned location, if there was any rain to be had, it tended to dramatically arrive in dark, rolling clouds (often accompanied by spectacular lightning displays), pour down heavily (and refreshingly cool) for ten minutes to an hour, and leave just as quickly.
The relatively small town of Tempe is beautifully clean, and full of palm trees. The architecture here is quite modern, and being the home of the state university (ASU), rocks with young and trendy vibrance on the weekends. It is true that outside of the town is basically dessert, but I just loved the amazing extent of cacti (government protected by the way).
These are my friends Rick and Tara with whom I stayed for 4 months in Tempe, Arizona. Being photographers they were able to get me passes to many events like football, NASCAR races and ice hockey, some photos of which are shown below.
FOOTBALL
Taking a break while helping Rick on one of his football shoots. My job here as 'photographic assistant' was to carry any cameras he was not using and to stay by his side in the event he needed one. Of course, that is easier said than done as the entire game was spent running from one end of the field to the other as the players moved back and forth - but at least I got to be down by the sidelines, a privilege that not too many people get.
Here they are lining up ready to charge into battle. I'd love to hear some of the testosterone infused taunts being passed back and forth just before they clash.
I'm sure the ball's under there somewhere.
After the game Rick and I raced onto the field to get some close-ups of the players.
N.A.S.C.A.R.
I went with Rick to shoot a car race in California. Our press passes allowed us to go into the center of the racetrack where we spent most of our time. The best places to shoot from were the corners. Many times the only thing between us and the cars was a bit of space (maybe 15m) and a pile of tyers. While I was in some other place taking photos, the owner of this car was talking to Rick and offered to give me a ride around the track. Unfortunately, and much to my disappointment, Rick only remembered to tell me when we were half way home. Doh!
Welcome to the NASCAR Championship at the Phoenix International Raceway, Arizona.
My photographers pass allowed me to shoot from any point around the outside of the track, designated points on the inside of the track, and even atop an access bridge right above the track, where this shot was taken from. I was standing in amongst international professional photographers. This is also where one of the TV cameras was located.
This point afforded a spectacular view. At one point one of the cars got shoved into the wall about 3m away from where I was standing. See the bridge in the background that says 'Goodyear Eagle'? It's on top of there that I took the above photo. Another great spot was on that grassy area to the right, behind a concrete barrier of course.
This car often gave quite a nice display of flame from the exhaust while decelerating on the corners.
This truck blew the right-front tyre; yet even though the yellow flag came out, he still for some unknown reason did two more laps until he was black-flagged off the track. He came into the pits with sparks spraying from the wheel. In the photo you can see the rubber shreading from the tyre.
ICE HOCKEY
The last thing I did in Arizona was to go to an ice hockey game. Armed with a press pass I got in free, but of course being photographer I was not allocated a seat. Not to worry, it meant I was able to watch the game (partly through the camera lense) right up against the glass. For those interested, it was the home game of the Phoenix Coyotes. I can't remember who they were playing, maybe the Devils.
I bet these guys are just itching to get onto the ice.
A foul was committed near the goal. They're about to hit off again.
And no hockey game is without a good punch up. I was about two feet away from this one, with only the glass between me and them.
Now there's a happy spectator for ya. Maybe it was his team that just won.
GENERAL
Rick was contracted to shoot college jackets for a catalogue. He needed some people to model them, so asked me if I could help out. This is one of the photos used. Here are some more of the studio photos taken on the day. Many, but not all were used in the catalogue.
An associate of Rick and Tara's was organising a community child immunisation project. It was expected that the childeren would have to wait for long lengths of time in line, so they organised two cartoon characters to keep them occupied in the meantime. Yep, you guessed it. That's me in there - Bart Simpson to the rescue! (Don't have a cow, man) The lovely lady by my side was to help me into and out of the costume, and to lead me around the shopping complex (I'm looking out of the mouth).
Halloween in USA is well celebrated. Last year I went to New Orleans, which was pretty wild. This time in Tempe I decided to take a walk down the main street to see what was happening. They had sectioned off a large part of the street for the celebration. Nearly everybody was wearing a costume of some kind. This was just one of the cool costumes there.
Evil hard rock bikie vikings or something.
Ok, OK. So I like ice-cream. I asked the guy at the shop what was the biggest ice-cream he could make. He said "from the cone to the tap", so I dared him to do it. The result was the first ice-cream that has actually been able to fill me up, starting from hungry.
In Tempe there is a hill upon which is cast the letter A (for Arizona, derr). Every second week, when the next opposing college football team comes to compete, they sneak up and paint their teams colours on top of the previous colours. Pictured here is Mum pretending to look calm while trying not to slip on the rather steep letter. Here she is a few minutes later.
I have a list of some things I just HAVE to take a photo of. For example one of them is a rattle snake (which I still haven't seen yet), another is a big-ass cactus. And what better place to find them than the dessert of Arizona.
This is just one of the beautiful scenes in the Sedona area, 2 hrs drive north of Phoenix.