I was looking at volunteering so I could hopefully get some better access for personal photo's, has anyone done this for Alli Action before and can offer some advice?
I advise against volunteering just to get better access to take photos. You volunteer to do a specific job and if you are focused on taking photos you are not focused on the job you should be doing. I have shot a lot of events that volunteers bring their cameras and they tend to get in the way of the working shooter. Just as an example. I shot the Iditarod a couple years ago and had a perfect location at the start line, at the intersection of the snow piles where the chute started. No one could be in front of me, and anyone who wanted to shoot from a similar location would be next to me or on the other side of the chute. Race starts, first dog team leaves the start line and I have them framed great. Next thing I see between shutter flicks is a leg. I look up to see a volunteer, someone who was there only to give information to visitors and keep fans in the designated view areas (behind the tape/fence), on the other side of the piles of snow standing in direct line with a Canon rebel with kit lens, taking pictures. Me and about 5 other photographers yelled at her and she did not move, no she waited to pet the dogs as they are running full speed by her. First team went by we were all angry, but this person moved back to where she was suppose to be. 90 seconds later the next team was up, and it happened again. I went over and reamed her that she was getting in the way of 5 photographers in a designated media zone, and she was in a security only zone getting in everyones way. Her response was to tell me that she would go get security to have us, the photographers, removed. I really wanted to clobber her with my monopod, but instead I moved about a block away, no other photogs in the area, set up right along the chute going down the middle of the street, and waited for the next team. When the team comes down the road, a "fan" runs under the rope right in front of me to take a photo, and I look for the volunteer who is suppose to keep people off the course and they are too busy taking their own pictures to realize the job they are suppose to be doing is not getting done.
It is a bad idea. If you volunteer, do the job you volunteer for. If you want to take pictures, buy a ticket, get their early, and try to get as close as you can. Not close enough, contact the media department and ask for media credentials. Most likely they will say no, but you never know.
