Compression sleeves and my brush with Derek Jeter

       A few months ago my good friend Christine, called me to help her out with covering an assignment covering Derek Jeter for the New York Daily News since she'd be out-of-town on the second day of the assignment. I was happy to help out.I spent the morning standing outside the Yankee's Training Facility waiting for Derek Jeter to arrive for his rehab session. I have had a bit of paparazzi experience from all of my years of working in newspapers, but it's never been a comfortable assignment for me. I don't enjoy taking stars pictures because I am of the thought that they're pretty normal human beings and I'd want to be left alone if was them.Derek finally showed up and headed into the facility. Luckily I was with a reporter with credentials who could get us into the facility. I shot some pictures and then headed out of the facility to wait for him to leave. I was hoping for the off chance that he'd stop and sign autographs for the fans waiting outside. He did, I shot some photos and we went on. Derek did make the off-hand comment that I needed more sunblock. Yes, I'm a bit fair skinned :) The photo ran in the New York Daily News and the reporter emailed me a day later to tell me that one of my images was published on the back page. Later that day I received a few phone calls and text messages from friends in New York to tell me that my image was plastered all over the subways. Cool!I later received a call from Newsday to ask me to go back. My friend and colleague Greg was out there as well writing about Jeter's injury and needed a photographer out there. This time was much more comfortable since I new what to expect. It was also better because Derek was actually working out which made for much better pictures. I spent quite a bit of time photographing him.Perhaps my favorite moment came after he was done. As he was walking off the field, he was approached by a few reporters asking about his recovery. He responded by stopping and answering all of their questions. After they finished they all walked away and he was just standing there. Me, in all of my awkwardness walked up to him and asked him if he was wearing a compression sleeve. I'd never seen that type of sleeve and was pretty curious.We chatted for a second and then again, I went back outside to get some photographs of him and as I stood there he asked me why I'd asked him about his compression sleeves. I explained to him that my husband was a running coach and had me sleep in my sleeves sometimes after long runs. I went home, printed a few images and gave him Hank's business card. So, when Hank starts coaching Derek Jeter in running you can say you know where it started :)