My friend Leila is in Beijing China competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics. We grew up in eastern Montana and know each other through track and field. I went to school in Savage MT, a small class C school, she went to school in Sidney, Montana. We would often practice at their school before District and Divisional meets because they had a rubberized track and ours was a crummy dirt track. Sometimes different class schools would compete against each other because there’s not a whole lot of schools in Montana to start with.
About six months ago she asked me for some photo advice. Some of her fellow Stanford track & field friends were thinking about doing some fitness modeling. I’ve been to California several times this year for photo assignments and we both hoped that I could get to the San Francisco area on assignment and also photograph Leila and friends.
Fast forward to the other week. I thought I had a last minute wedding south of San Francisco, but the job fell through. I knew that Leila had made the trials for the Olympics and still needed some photos. She wanted to document her physique and have, “Something to show the grandkids someday.”
I messaged a friend and fellow photographer Gene X Hwang of Orange Photography - San Francisco to see if he could help.
Gene was able to help Leila and here are two of his studio photos:
© 2008 Orange Photography - Woman Olympic Athlete Pole Vault - Leila Ben-Youssef
Check out Gene’s blog post on the Orange Photography Blog to see some other photos. While I would have loved to photograph Leila, It was nice to connect two people I know and Gene did an awesome job at photographing Leila.
Gene met me while searching for a photographer to help with an assignment in Scottsdale Arizona. He googled and found my flickr photos and website. After meeting Gene in person at the corporate event we have keep in touch online as well. Gene has hired me several times to cover some Orange photography projects in the Phoenix area.
If you’re watching the Beijing Summer 2008 Olympics look for Leila. She’s representing Tunisia. I guess she’s was too good to make the USA team! 
I’m off to goggle for “gym membership in Phoenix, AZ”.
Adam Nollmeyer
Arizona Photographer
http://acmephotography.net
August 8th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hey Adam thanks for the post and referral - hopefully we’ll be working together on more photography projects - let me know when you get out my way too!
August 24th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Wow! I’m taking networking notes…
I’m shooting in San Fransisco next month and I’ve never been. Are there any “can’t miss” places you would suggest?