Olympic gymnast Raj Bhavsar hanging from a goalpost
I had the opportunity to collaborate recently on some sports portrait photographs of Olympic gymnast Raj Bhavsar. Raj was on the 2001 and 2003 U.S. World Champion gymnastics team, and was a bronze medalist on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team in Beijing.
After a weather delay derailed our first shoot, we regrouped a week later and had a wonderful day with clear skies for our rescheduled shoot. One of the chief concerns was finding a suitable location for the shoot. Raj’s gym was a typical fluorescent lit nightmare for photography. I knew that we could get cleaner and more dramatic photos outdoor somewhere, but Raj is a badass in the rings event…..where do you hang his rings outside, so that you can still get a sky/clean background behind him?
Raj at the edge of the Galveston seawall: sometimes you lose the strobes and go with what God gave you...
After thinking for a few days, it hit me…..why not hang them from the goalpost of a football field? This is Texas, so football fields are everywhere and easily accessible. We wanted a location that might give us several different options, both with the rings and without, so we finally decided on Galveston Island. I used Google Earth to scout football fields, and to look at the directional layouts of various fields. Google Earth rules, and has become an invaluable scouting tool for us.
We began the shoot at Galveston Ball High School (we got permission from the school district first), and used a ladder to rig Raj’s ring setup to the crossbar of the goalpost. We decided to do this shoot with Raj dressed in jeans, and we did some shots with and without his shirt on to showcase his highly developed upper body.
After breaking down the ring setup, and after an interview and quick costume change we took Raj down to the Galveston seawall, and photographed him there. The evening light was beautiful and warm, so we went with natural light on this series. For sunset, we traveled to the end of the seawall and photographed him holding an amazing pose as the sun went down. The sunset shots were lit simply, with a Plume Wafer Hexoval 180 held by assistant Nathan Lindstrom over very uneven rocks in high winds. Raj was really interested in photography, so he made a fabulous subject. I can’t wait to work with him again soon.
Raj holding an unbelievable pose, lit with a Hexoval 180
Neftali Feliz and Derek Holland for Sports Illustrated.
I recently photographed Texas Rangers pitchers Neftali Feliz and Derek Holland for Sports Illustrated. While brainstorming ideas for the shoot with the photo editor, he mentioned a picture I had done several years earlier for a Sporting News cover of CC Sabathia in which I had lit Sabathia’s face with a small strobe hidden in his glove. He mentioned that he would like to see this treatment with the Feliz/Holland duo.
Sabathia, “throwing” the 25 dollar Morris Mini Slave.
In the original photo, we lit the background with a strobe with a blue gel, to give a graduated spot on the background wall behind Sabathia. I then used a (no kidding!) 25 dollar Morris mini slave strobe in Sabathia’s glove……since the strobe was circular and of similar size to a baseball, we even shot some photos of him “throwing” the strobe/ball at the camera. It made a pretty cool picture.
Strangely enough, that photo of Sabathia was taken in Arlington when he was pitching for Cleveland, and visiting the Texas Rangers. Several years later, here I was in the SAME ROOM beneath the Ballpark at Arlington shooting Feliz/Holland in a very similar setup. Weird. Sometimes I feel like I know the hallways, storage rooms, and locker rooms of these stadiums better than the actual field.
The downside of using the Morris Strobe, is that they aren’t very powerful, nor can you vary the power. We decided that the much more sophisticated Canon 580’s would probably work much better……however hiding them in a tiny pitcher’s glove proved to be a challenge indeed.
Anyway, we knew the Rangers photo was to be combined in the final layout with several other pitchers from around the league, so we kept the background a simple black. I decided to rimlight the two guys with a pair of medium softboxes ( Plume Wafer 100) with a 30 degree grid on each side. We added a Plume Wafer 140 in the center of the set on a low stand directly below the camera, for fill. It was important to set the fill light at a low enough power to keep the white uniforms from blowing out. We just wanted the fill to barely illuminate some detail in the uniforms and faces of the players. Then we placed a Canon 580 Speedlight with an Omni-bounce in each player’s glove with a Pocketwizard Multimax to trigger each strobe.
Assistant Will Rutledge testing the glove strobe.
It took some careful testing to get the ratios just right, which we of course tested before the players arrived (I think we got about 10 minutes with them).
Basically, we set the camera up at F11.0, then adjusted the softbox rimlights a full stop hotter (F16.0), the speedlights in the gloves were set and metered to 11 1/2, and the Wafer 140 softbox, our fill light, was set to 5.6 1/2.
In addition to this photo, we also shot individual portraits of both players, and a couple of different versions of a “safer” shot of the two of them together. For the “safe” shot, we simply ditched the 580’s, kept the rimlights in place, reposed the players, and raised the fill light onto a taller stand and adjusted the power up one stop.
MOVES magazine did a story on my sports portrait photography work recently. It was published a few months ago, but they’ve recently revamped their website, and a good chunk of the 18-Page portfolio is now online on their website.
For those that are unfamiliar, you can’t walk into an NBA, MLB, or NFL locker room without seeing stacks of three magazines………..ESPN, Sporting News, and Sports Illustrated, perhaps? Uh, no……… The Robb Report, duPont Registry, and MOVES.
Not my work, just various covers from MOVES
MOVES (About Professional Athletes, For Professional Athletes) is a lifestyle magazine aimed at young sports star millionaires. It’s a big, thick, beautifully printed publication (think Cigar Afficionado or Communication Arts), and like the other two aforementioned mags, it’s chock full of of high-end advertising for corporate jets, nice cars, watches, etc.
They’ve featured two other photographers in large portfolio features: legendary Madison Square Garden photographer George Kalinsky, and the great Walter Iooss. How I got thrown into the mix with those two, I couldn’t tell you, but I’m grateful and very humbled all the same.
I was recently asked to collaborate with the fashion staff of GLOSS, a monthly glossy broadsheet fashion publication produced by the Houston Chronicle (Hearst Newspapers). Over the past few months, I’ve shot four cover stories for GLOSS. I thought I would share a few stories from those shoots, since they presented some interesting lighting challenges.
Bottega Veneta coat (Plume Wafer 100 with grid, Dramalight optical spot for rimlight, Plume Wafer 75 for the background),
Fashion photography is a nice break from shooting sports portraits of famous athletes, or annual report photography with CEO’s. It’s nice to be completely creative, and work closely with a talented team of writers, editors, stylists, and designers who produce the section. Even though you can experiment more and take chances with the lighting (more so, than with a CEO for example…); you still have to keep in mind the paramount principle of fashion photography….the point is to show (and sell) the clothes!
During our first shoot together last fall, our showcase piece of the season was a purple Dior suit made of ostrich. We really wanted the texture to come out in the exotic skin, so we kept the light soft and simple, but directional, with a dim backlight on the background in the center behind the model. The idea was that the model be almost anonymous, so your eye would really focus on the texture of the suit. We kept the lighting similar for a purple velvet hat/coat ensemble.
For a gray-purple Bottega Veneta coat, we took a slightly different lighting approach. The coat featured all sorts of embellished fabric….stacked layers of loops and fringes outlining the shoulders and sleeves of the coat. Lighting it in exactly the same manner as the other two wouldn’t show this critical signature feature of the piece, so we placed a Dramalight (a Flash Clinic custom modified optical spot), behind the model and tightly focused on her back to highlight the irregularities and loops of fabric in the coat. The keylight was a Plume Wafer 100 with a Lighttools fabric grid to limit the front light to her face and front ¼ of the clothing.
Many of the clothes had a funky sixties feel to them, so our makeup artist, Wendy Martin created some really over-the-top heavy eye makeup to keep with that era.
Herve Leger bandage dresses (Photek Softlighter).
With the exception of the different treatment of the Bottega Veneta coat, we used a Photek Softlighter (essentially a 60” umbrella, with a diffuser on the front) as our main light for most of the day. With the grey background formed by either not lighting (or in some cases barely lighting) the white cyc wall background, this gave a very similar look to Avedon’s 60’s lighting style, which fit well with the dresses and makeup.
The Photek is an interesting piece of gear. At 90 bucks, I often call it my “Ghetto Octabank”, but in reality it gives a look with more contrast. If you place it close to the subject on a high boom, you get a similar look to the lighting style of Avedon or David Bailey in their 1960’s heyday.
Fashion editor Clifford Pugh and designer Kellye Sanford prep model Megan O”Leary.
The 3 light, rim light setup, with a small stripbank directly over the camera.
UPDATE 8/24/2012: Lance Armstrong Portrait photographs available – contact us directly for information.
I recently had the opportunity to photograph seven time Tour de France champ and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong in Austin, Texas for an editorial client.
Lance was preparing for his Tour de France comeback, so he was only in Austin for one or two days in the time period that would make our deadline, so there was a very narrow window to schedule the shoot.
Celebrities have lots of demands on their time, and are often dealing with tons of requests for interviews, photo shoots, etc. Lance preparing for the Tour was no exception. On the day we were shooting him, he had a charity event scheduled, two or three television interviews, a live radio broadcast, and our shoot….all crammed between 7:30 and 9am, so that he could train the rest of the day.
3/4 length with the broad Hexoval 180 source.
Lance owns a really cool bike shop in downtown Austin called Mellow Johnny’s, and the shoot (as well as the other events) was scheduled for the bike shop location. We scouted the shop the day before, and determined that the best location would be in the basement area of the shop, where we could essentially set up a studio shoot, away from the charity event crowd and his other interviews. For the shots of Lance, we knew ahead of time, that we were only going to get a portrait of him in a Livestrong t-shirt. He was not going to pose in a jersey and bike helmet, he wasn’t going to pose on a bike….it wasn’t going to happen, so, in a way, it simplified things. The question then became, how many looks can we get out of a black t-shirt portrait in 4 minutes?
With limited time and no props, and no environment, I decided to try to get as many different looks as possible in the short time frame available. If you try to move a celebrity around to multiple locations, or move lighting equipment during the shoot, you are wasting their time, and you risk the shoot being over even quicker. The best way to photograph them and get multiple looks, is through careful planning, and essentially encircling them with all the lighting equipment you’re going to use.
I decided on three shots: The first would be a double rimlit tight portrait, with a small stripbank over camera; the second shot would be a broad softbox source –a large Plume Hexoval 180 slightly from the side; the third shot, would be a dramatic profile, lit with a Plume Wafer 100 with a Lighttools 30 degree fabric grid, with a projection of a bike wheel centered behind his head.
Another broad lit hexoval portrait, with different toning.
We started with a grey seamless backdrop, because we knew in the limited space that we had, we could use it as a grey/tan backdrop, we could make it go black, or if necessary, the art director could make a clip path and turn the background white….it gave us a range of options.
We arrived early, near 5:30am and began our setup. Each lighting setup was plugged in to a different set of power packs, so that we could switch between setups simply by turning power packs on and off. This kept things organized and simple, and allowed us to get multiple looks without fumbling around, switching heads, packs, stands, etc.
Andrew Loehman, the assistant on the shoot, actually hung a real bike wheel from a piece of fishing line, and held it at the proper distance between the background and the light to create the shadow of the wheel on the wall. A custom Dynalite projection spot provided the light. With more time, we could have created a custom bike wheel “cookie” for the spot, but with limited prep time, an actual wheel was used to provide the signature bike wheel shape.
Lance was in and out of our setup in about 4 minutes. Other than turning his body 90 degrees for the profile shot, he never moved, and even with that limited amount of time, without changing his wardrobe, and without a bike, we were able to give the art director several looks to choose from for the story.
Curtis Brown, makeup by Wendy Martin; photographed with the Canon EOS1Ds MkIII, 24-105/4L (at 70mm), 1/250 sec., F10.0, ISO 100.
I recently had the opportunity to test the new 24.39 megapixel Nikon D3X.I currently use the Canon EOS1Ds MkIII, which shoots a 21.1 megapixel file, but I’m always looking for the best equipment, and I try not to buy anything without testing it first. In addition to some lens tests and landscape shooting, where I compared the lenses I would most likely be using to my current Canon equipment, I also put together a studio shoot to compare systems.I figured it made sense to set up a shoot with people and interesting lighting, since that is the main focus of my business.I was anxious to see what the camera could do under controlled conditions, with light falling on a subject from highlight to shadow.
Top: Nikon D3X, 24-70/2.8G; Bottom: Canon EOS1Ds MkIII, 24-105/4L (Both photos taken at 70mm, 1/250, F10.0, ISO 100).
With my good friend and stellar makeup artist Wendy Martin, we came up with a couple of ideas.One of my favorite places on the planet is California’s El Mirage dry lake bed.Inspired by that location, I’ve always wanted to do a photo of someone covered in cracked earth makeup.
Wendy knew all of the tricks for making this happen, and was quickly able to research and buy all the right supplies and colors for the shoot.
Next, we needed the perfect model for the shoot.We were hoping for someone with a shaved head and really interesting eyes.We looked at a lot of models, but my favorite was Curtis Brown, of One Model Management.Curtis is a veteran model, and has been featured in Soloflex and REI ads.He has killer green/hazel eyes.He travels all the time for modeling work all over the country, but we were very fortunate to land him for a day and collaborate with him on our shoot.
We booked a rental photo studio with Holly McDonald, a fabulous producer from 808, Inc., and were all set for our shoot.Nathan Lindstrom was on board as an assistant to complete our small crew for the day.
Wendy spent quite a bit of time mixing the masque material with various airbrush colors and a powdery red makeup, that almost looked like dirt.After experimenting for a while, we discussed airbrushing the cracked masque in various colors, particularly earth-tones, but finally decided that the reddish color would be a great contrast to Curtis’ eye color.
Makeup artist Wendy Martin applies the mud makeup to Curtis Brown. (Photo by Nathan Lindstrom)
After mixing the makeup, it was time for Wendy to apply several thick coats to Curtis’ head and shoulders.She used a hair dryer to dry the makeup until it started cracking.Just the movement of Curtis’ facial muscles and skin caused the tight dry makeup to crack and give us the perfect look we were all after.
We had two different lighting schemes in mind, but eventually decided to stay with a very simple setup……one large Plume Wafer Hexoval, slightly to the right of the camera, equipped with a single Dyna-Lite 4040 head.
Everyone did a great job, particularly Curtis, who sat for hours with all sorts of gunk caked all over his face.He is a serious pro.
Both cameras produced great files, but in the case of this particular picture, I thought the camera I currently use, a Canon EOS1Ds MkIII, produced the best image.I shot several tests over a couple of weeks with the D3X, but this photo was instrumental in convincing me to stay with my current Canon system.
Another image from the shoot in black and white.
Read more about my Nikon D3X vs. Canon EOS1Ds MkIII test at Sportsshooter.com.
Robert Seale and Brad Mangin at the entrance to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
I recently visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, where I was asked to speak with my good friend and colleague, Brad Mangin at the first annual “Baseball Photography Education Day.” Brad and I gave two different presentations during our visit to the museum: a presentation on the history of baseball photography through the years, and another program, delivered together, of our own work.
LEFT: One of my cover portraits of Roger Clemens from 2004. RIGHT: Me holding the actual glove from his April 29, 1986 20 strikeout game.
I worked at a national magazine, The Sporting News (the nation’s oldest sports magazine (founded in 1886), once known as the Bible of Baseball), for nearly 11 years, so I showed a selection of my portraits from my time there, and some of the work I’ve done for Sports Illustrated and ESPN since I left TSN in 2006.
Brad has worked for Sports Illustrated and MLB for over 20 years and has a fabulous body of action photography work. We’re good friends, covered many events together, and have talked a lot of baseball over the years, so we thought it would be interesting to present our program together, mixing up the sequencing of the images, and trading stories about players during the show.
The baseball history talk was a lot of fun to present. Brad did most of the work researching and gathering the photos, and it was great fun to help him put the show together, tell stories, and honor all the great photographers we respect so much. The show featured historic baseball photography, beginning with Charles Conlon’s iconic images, work from mid-century greats like Ron Kuntz, (who came from Cleveland to see the show!!!), Hy Peskin, and Louis Requena; some cool early Sports Illustrated work from the 60’s by Walter Iooss; photographs from the 70’s and 80’s by Michael Zagaris, Rich Pilling, V. J. Lovero, and Chuck Solomon, and modern work from Brad and myself. Stephen Light, from the Museum, was on hand to show off classic cameras, including an old 70mm Hulcher High-Speed Camera from the late 1950’s.
TOP: My photo of Mark McGwire's 62nd home run. BOTTOM: The cooresponding box in the BHOF basement, with McGwire's batting gloves from that night.
One of the coolest parts about visiting the Hall of Fame was the great “Behind the Scenes” tour arranged by librarian Jim Gates and archivist Sue Mackay, who showed us all sorts of artifacts and documents normally not on display to the public.
Former MLB Photo Editor (and Cooperstown native) Paul Cunningham, as well as my wife, Houston Chronicle photojournalist Karen Warren, joined us for the basement tour. We were able to see and hold in our (white gloved) hands great old artifacts, like the original lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” the “Curse of the Bambino” canceled check that sent Babe Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees, bats from Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner, and gloves, bats, balls, and uniforms from a host of other famous players. It was really neat to see items from games and players that we had both covered.
Brad, a lifelong Giants fan, was interested in seeing memorabilia from Mays and McCovey, while I actually got to hold and touch a wool 1930’s era Houston Buffs hat. It was a real treat, and Sue and Jim were very gracious to put the tour together for us.
If you’re really bored and have a few moments, check out a few more of my favorite baseball images in a simple slide show here.
I thought I would share a cool job I did for Under Armour a while back.Under Armour began as a small sports specialty clothing company based in Baltimore, Maryland.Legend has it that the founder, a Maryland football player named Kevin Plank, started the company after he was unsatisfied with the t-shirts and undergarments players wore under their football uniforms.His company was the first to develop the stretchy, moisture-wicking fabrics that are commonplace today.
The sequence composite
Anyway, Under Armour has grown into a gigantic company that makes all sorts of sports apparel and shoes.I was contacted by them to do an advertising shoot featuring their new line of products for lacrosse players.
We used real college lacrosse players as models, which was a huge help, since I’m a Texas guy.Football, basketball, baseball, track and field: no problem…..but I was not equipped to teach any models the finer points of lacrosse form.
Fortunately for all of us, the Art Director from Under Armour, Steve Grudzien, did a great job of imagining the final ad.His idea was to shoot a sequence of a player in action, and then combine the individual shots into a composite.Since we were shooting in the daytime on a lacrosse field, we had to really crank the strobes to overpower the ambient light and create the backlit “Under Armour Lighting” that the brand is known for in all their advertising.
The diving shot
Steve did a great job of seamlessly combining 5 separate shots into the finished ad.
We had two great models to work with, so after nailing down the sequence shot, we set up mats on the field and staged some diving shots.We slowed the shutter a little on these to create a bit of motion blur around the player.Another Under Armour designer, Megan Bolster did a great job of designing the diving shot into another cool ad.
Sometimes you have an idea in your head, and even though you don’t know who you might eventually use it on, you know that one day, you’ll eventually realize your vision and take that photograph.
For several years, I knew that I wanted to photograph someone, (ANYONE), their face painted with theatrical face paint, emerging from a pool of water, or just under the surface.I could picture this photograph in my head before I ever had a subject to photograph.Usually, my imagination wandered toward blue water and gold paint….maybe it would be a photograph of an Olympic swimmer or diver, who knows?…. but nevertheless, the vision stayed with me for quite some time.
When I received an assignment to photograph Warren Sapp, a big NFL football star, who had recently changed teams, I knew the time had arrived to float this harebrained scheme. Sapp had just signed with the Oakland Raiders, whose crazed Raider-Nation fans dress up in other-worldly costumes, face paint, crazy masks, etc… and attend games in costume.He was known for having an outlandish personality matching his oversized frame.My thought was that he might be crazy enough to let me try the face paint on him, in a silver color matching the Raider Nation fans I had seen at so many Raiders games.I made some sketches of him in the crazy fan uniform and of the “face-emerging-from-water” photo that I had been thinking of for so long.
Sketches from my Moleskine notebook....try not to hate.
It was the off season, so there were not the usual practice time constraints, or teammates watching, and since we were doing the shot at his agent’s (Drew Rosenhaus) home in Miami, there would be no nervous team PR man there telling us we couldn’t do it.After setting up the shoot and making sure Drew had a pool (who doesn’t have a pool in South Beach, right?), I asked Drew’s marketing guy about my idea….black water, silver face paint….an abstract homage to the Raider fan.I’ll never forget his response….”Hell yeah!He’ll put all that spiky costume shit on for you too!”
I had a tight schedule with another shoot in Indianapolis, a half day at home, and then a shoot in Denver, with two days at home before the Sapp shoot in Miami.I used what little time I had to scurry all over town looking for props to create a true Raider Fan outfit…..I found latex shoulder pads and a skull belt and shoes via a Gene Simmons Halloween costume, ordered a Raiders jersey, which I ripped to shreds, and bought football pants and Umpire’s shin guards, to which we attached little silver painted skulls and spikes that we found at an art supply shop.I painted and touched up the Halloween costume, which was looking a little old.
My fearless friend David in the pond
The next trick was to test my black water idea.I knew I wouldn’t have long with Warren, and I wanted to make sure everything was perfect before we tried such a crazy idea.I also thought it might help to show him the photo so he would know what we were going for.I knew that we needed a black pool, since a regular pool would have picked up a light blue tone from the water.I have a fairly large koi pond in the back yard, and I had recently bought one of those pre-formed black plastic water garden pools, to keep fish in while cleaning my main pond….I decided it would make a great test pool.I needed to find a test subject with a shaved head like Warren,who was also nutty enough to let me cover them with face paint and lay in my pond for a test photo.I somehow convinced my only bald-by-choice friend, David, to help me out. I determined from the test that we needed a larger light source, since it made more interesting reflections on the water, and that the water needed to be disturbed, or it would just look black.
I went to the airport the next morning for a leisurely flight to Miami….I built in plenty of time to look around the neighborhood, rent additional lighting gear and prep for the shoot the next day.Unfortunately, a huge thunderstorm had other plans, and I literally spent the night in the airport while doing the constant rebooking/flight cancellation dance between gates all night.I finally made a flight at 5:00am, and barely made it to Miami in time.I’ve always been anal about arriving in town for big shoots at least the day before, so 18 hours of flight delays made me very nervous.
The Ultimate "Raider Fan"
A trusted assistant Cy Cyr, and makeup artist Paula Abraham were already en route from Orlando and met me at Drew’s house.Paula setup her airbrushing tools, while Cy climbed in the pool and covered the bottom with black plastic.We used weights to secure it to the pool floor and keep the plastic from floating around. We set up lighting for both shots, and waited for Warren to arrive.
It was an interesting location for a shoot.Drew is probably the most famous sports agent in the world: he’s the only agent ever featured on the cover of SI, and he’s reviled in many NFL front offices for his hard-hitting negotiating skills.For us, he was a gracious host, and we were happy to photograph Warren in a comfortable, relaxed environment.
Warren was great during the shoot…..an absolute showman, and he went through a million great poses for us, screaming and hissing like some sort of Raider monster.He was having a great time, and was fabulous to work with.We had both setups done quickly and we were able to get him back in his normal attire and on with his day. As I returned to the airport, I was able to scratch another crazy idea off my list.
On February 13, 2009, I took part in the Do1Thing project by shooting portraits of homeless teens at Covenant House in Houston. The project was the brainchild of photo editors Najlah Feanny Hicks and Pim Van Hemmen. They had previous success with the Heart Gallery project, in which photographers donated their time and talents to photograph teenage foster children.
Do1Thing grew from that project, and on Feb. 14, professional photographers and award winning photojournalists around the country came together to produce documentary work, portraits, and multimedia to highlight teen homelessness.
I was humbled to have been asked by Najlah to participate in the project. There were ultimately over 114 photographers involved, including 31 Pulitzer winners, and some of the top commercial and magazine photographers around the country.
In Houston, I was fortunate to participate with Dave Einsel, Smiley Pool, and Todd Spoth, each of whom tackled a different aspect. Our work is slated to be combined into a multimedia project featuring photographs and audio interviews with the kids at Covenant House.
To find out more about Do1Thing, check out the website here.
To donate locally to Covenant House in Houston follow the link here.
