Disc Golf Action

Robert McAlpine plays disc golf on the 18-hole course at Rankin Lake Park on Saturday November 1, 2008. McAlpine was practicing for a Gaston Disc Golf Club meeting and night play Saturday evening where players use small LED lights taped to the plastic discs to play in the dark. 

It seams like the fun assignments just keep coming my way. Saturday, before heading out to shoot a high school soccer match, I was asked to do a little feature hunt for Sunday's paper.

Since the standard kids on a playground feature stuff just doesn't appeal to me, I decided a while back that the next time I was asked to get feature art I was going to shoot something I enjoyed doing like rock climbing or mountain biking. Or disc golf.

It was a beautiful fall Saturday, so I figured there would be people rock climbing and mountain biking at the local crags and trails. I even had my climbing gear in the truck with me--I just didn't have time to use it. Nor did I have time to set up lights to shoot mountain biking.

What to do?

I quickly decided I would just head over to Crowders Mountain State Park (where I spend a lot of time anyway) and get some pics of people hiking and enjoying the fall color. Not long after leaving the paper, however, inspiration stuck me like a thunderbolt.

I was driving by Rankin Lake Park, which has a superb 18-hole disc golf course I've played many times, when it became luminously obvious to me what my feature art was going to be. I found great light, some fall color, and enthusiastic subjects that helped me get the shots I needed and get out in time for soccer.

The guys were a bit surprised by the equipment I was using--namely the 400mm f/2.8 super telephoto that I was taking to the soccer match. It was a bit long (a 300mm would have been a better fit), but I made it work.