High Tech Challenge Olympic Club Golf Tournament - Special Olympics Northern California

Headed over to the beautiful Olympic Club Golf Course in San Francisco for the 34th Annual High Tech Golf Challenge benefiting Special Olympics of Northern California - SONC.

I arrived early to take some shots of people signing in.

On the putting green.

And at the driving range.

It was awesome to see the athletes, like Lindsay, proudly displaying their medals.

Then one of the athletes, Stephanie gave a speech to all the golfers. I asked her if she was nervous before and she replied "Nope! I just went to the bathroom to fix my hair, I've practiced my speech and I'm ready! They better stand up!" I WISH I had that much confidence.

When she gave her speech she shouts the Special Olympics oath and had the golfers repeat after her "Let me win; but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt"

Then it was time for some golf!!

Do you think you have to be hands-free on a golf cart? ;-)

But a minor traffic jam as the hundreds of golfers went about the course in the scramble format.

Jennifer Klein was there with her crew for Photos in a Flash taking pictures of each group of four and making prints on site for them to take home.

This freed me up to take some action shots of the players golfing.

Including some of the SONC athletes. At the athlete hole, Charlie was at, they had a deal if his ball ended in a better spot than yours, you could use his ball instead. And I heard a good number of golfers took advantage of that. I know I would have had to!

Was such a great event for an even better cause!

Big thanks to Ilisa Kessler who I worked with at the now defunct FC Gold Pride, now the VP of Marketing and Strategic Initiatives with SONC and reached out to me to start working with them. Looking forward to many more events in the future!

Cal Football defeats Presbyterian 63-12

Headed over to AT&T Park, but not for baseball. This time for Cal Football vs Presbyterian, but not for Cal or Presswire. This time for Presbyterian. Add that to Water Polo being played in McCovey... and it was a unique day indeed!

Cal Football is being played in AT&T Park while Memorial Stadium is under renovation. Though I am not covering CalAthletics for Golden Bear Sports, I have thankfully been able to find a way to photograph many Cal events through US Presswire, this game I was fortunate to be hired by Presbyterian College to cover the game for them through CollegiatePhotos.com

Though I love the fast paced environment of shooting editorially, I also really enjoy working for a team, providing coverage that tells the story of the game, but always puts the client/team you are working for in the best light. Sometimes it's a bit of a challenge when the team you are covering loses 63-12 on two touchdowns by the defense. But there were still plays in between to make Presbyterian look good!

Though I focused on Presbyterian, sometimes Cal overshadowed the play with Sean Cattouse's interception.

But Presbyterian also had some big defensive plays of their own, a blocked punt for a touchdown, and an interception for a touchdown.

I miss shooting at Memorial Stadium and there are some challenges to photographing games at a baseball park. But the challenge is mainly for the players who might lose their footing in the dirt, or kick up dust after trying to catch the two point conversion. So if they can adapt, I should be able to as well!

All in all, I'm happy to see my alma mater get a win, happy I was able to capture some nice images of Presbyterian that they were happy with, happy to be making progress with CollegiatePhotos.com and happy to be doing what I love =)

Full set up at: http://www.collegiatephotos.com/2011-2012/football/presbyterianatcalifornia