Arnold Classic 2010

Last weekend my mentor invited me to work in his crew at the Arnold Festival for the second year this year. He has been doing it for about ten years and it's to a point where when Governor Schwarzenegger walks in the room, he walks right back to where we are set up, shakes the photographer's hands, jokes with them for a few minutes before the assembly line of sponsors and winners come through to get their pictures with him. It's pretty neat. Then when we are through with the pictures, Arnold speaks as well as others. This was a great learning opportunity for me. My mentor told me "I owned the room" and to not be shy walking around to get pictures I need. If I were the "hired" photographer I would have had no problem... but I wasn't... so I was a little shy. One thing he really taught me though was to not be. It is my job to take great pictures and I have to do what it takes. Well, it is something I will have to overcome as I have been shy my entire life but there's something about the camera that makes me feel more confident... maybe a little too confident. =)

This year included a couple of surprises. Slone accompanied the Governor as they chose a local artist and a woman was dressed as a character from Avatar. In this picture, Governor Schwarzenegger is talking about his "tiny little" part in Slone's next movie.