Yesterday was a special day for me. Very special indeed.
Anyone following this project with any regularity knows that I'm a lifelong Mets fan. They also know about the wonderful blog Faith and Fear in Flushing (
http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/ ), co-written by my friend Greg Prince. And they know I ran the New York City Marathon last year as a member of Team McGraw and raised money for the Tug McGraw Foundation.
Yesterday, all of these things came together for me, along with my nascent photography skills.
Shortly before the Marathon last year, my friend Jeff told me that I would also be running for his friend David Roth, who was battling brain cancer. It was a touching message, and I kept David in my thoughts during the Marathon. My running made David aware of Team McGraw, and as a result of that David's friend, Roger Hess, climbed Mount Denali and raised $10,000 for the Tug McGraw Foundation in the process! The Mets learned about this, and invited David and Roger to be their guests for Batting Practice last night.
Greg, who is also a friend of Jeff's, has been covering David and Roger's story in Faith and Fear in Flushing, and because of that coverage was able to arrange for media credentials in order to cover their BP adventure. Not only did he get credentials for himself, but he arranged to have a photographer as well - it is well acknowledged that I am not the most proficient photographer that Greg knows, but because he knew that I wanted to take pictures of David and Roger on the field, he appointed me Faith and Fear in Flushing's photographer for the event. My Media Credentials are resting on my D7000 with my 70-300mm lens, which I used to shoot the event. Notice, by the way, how the credentials were signed by longtime Mets Vice-President of Media Relations, Jay Horwitz.
I took well over 300 pictures last night. Some are better than others, but I think there are some decent ones in there. Being on the field to shoot these wonderful people, and being able to get some up close pictures of the Mets as well, was a truly amazin' experience.
I have posted my photos to Flickr, and will eventually go through them, decide which ones to post on Facebook, etc. I am hoping to have taken enough decent shots of David and Roger so that Greg doesn't regret his choice of photographer. No matter how the pictures turned out, though, this will go down as one of the most memorable things I have ever done.
Thank you Joseph!
Thank you :)
I'll tell you what Warren - you can check them out here -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slgc/archives/date-posted/2011/09/02/
And I like this crop of Justin Turner's sunglasses - http://www.flickr.com/photos/slgc/6107325463/in/photostream/