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| The site below was placed online in July & August, 1996, and has largely been left in its original form |
U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Whitewater
Canoeing & Kayaking
| Home | Print Store | Portfolio | Road Trips |
| The site below was placed online in July & August, 1996, and has largely been left in its original form |
| First of all, depending on your computer's video capabilities, and
your "taste", the photos on this page may appear *funny*. In an attempt
to capture the flowing beauty of this sport, and the awesome power of
the whitewater, I used slow shutter speeds (1/4 to 1/15 of a second) and
*panning.* This results in what some people might call "blurry" pictures.....I
meant for them to be that way. As always, my philosophy is, "If you don't
like it, don't look at it."
I ordered tickets to this event for the Olympics, but, much to my surprise,
there was such a demand for seats that it became a "lottery event"......as
usual with anything connected to the word "lottery", I lost. To take
the edge off my disappointment, I decided to go to the U.S. Team Trials. So my friend & fellow photographer Charlie McCullers met me at "cock-a-doodle-dark"
(that's before sun-up, for non-Southerners) on Sunday, 5/19/96, and
headed for the hills. 100 miles, a high school parking lot, and a bus
ride later, we walked up to the river, and there it was......the rapid
they call "Humongous" (shown at left and below) Pictures can hardly convey the power of this particular rapid. The
river side rescue squads had a busy day, diving in for 8 or 10 paddlers
who had gotten sucked back into, or overturned by, this water beast.
The rescue guys did a heck of a job, as this is one Olympic sport that
can kill.
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text & images at this web site are ©1996-2001 Reid Stott, and may not
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As
I warned you at the beginning, I'm not a journalist, so I didn't studiously
copy the competitors names, or even get a program. I can't tell you
the names of the athletes pictured on this page, but I've convinced
myself they are certainly of the winners. At any rate, they were all
pretty amazing, and these images are my effort to capture the essence
of their performances.....not silly details like "names" and
stuff. If you like them, and want to see four more, click the camera.
If not, click the torch for more stuff I saw.
