How did you do that ?

Its been a while since I shamelessly self promoted the alter ego but then again thats what the blog is all about anyways isn't it ? I have been meaning to put up my tears from this months Wired magazine for a while but then I was fired into action by this email over the weekend:

Hello,

I recently read the Wired article about the Cougar Ace salvage team, and was intrigued by your photos.

I am an amateur photographer, and I LOVE the effects you used on the pictures of the crew. May I ask what process you used to achieve this look? They look like an almost 1970's aged feel, maybe using HDR? I'm not sure. If this is a trade secret you can't divulge, I'll understand.

This photo in particular is fantastic...

Thank you.

Well there are no trade secrets its all pretty straight forward; especially to anyone who knows me and my work. The process is quite simple after all: color neg, straight up traditional c-prints, one on camera flash, daylight when available and no retouching, well not on my end but doesn't look like the mag did any touch up.

My emailer it turns out is 29, a writer who lives with his wife and two dogs in Dallas. Not really wanting to get into a debate on the merits of analogue v digital but am I presuming that many folk don't even consider film as an option when questioning the technicalities of a picture they like these days. A generational thing perhaps ? Maybe thats why I get a kick out of the "1970's aged feel" line. Anyway what the fuck is a photographer doing shooting film for Wired shouldn't they be up on mandating all contributors to use the latest technology.

I always bring a similar camera and lighting package on all my gigs. I find that the results are always different each time I go out; there is always that intangible variant that makes the consistent inconsistent. I could and do use the same set up day in and day out and the results are always different. You may argue that my stuff always looks the same but I swear there is always something going on, another lesson to be learnt from unpredictable happenings. Sometimes the light just doesn't do what you want it to and doesn't look like you had envisaged it. Some subjects just suck up the light, I think some of you know what I mean. You do your set up on your assistant looks great then your victim steps in, a quick polaroid followed by "what the fuck ! where's the magic gone ?" Maybe its their skin tone, what they are wearing but I have been having me a lot of this recently.


The 'Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The race to Save the Cougar Ace' is an epic tale and a terrific read; available for free in its entirety here. The story is about the recovery and salvage of the Cougar Ace a deep sea car transport ship, its 14 decks packed with 4703 new Mazda's bound for the USA. The ship and its cargo: valued at $ 103 million, ended up losing stability during a transfer of water ballast and developed a 60 degree list to its port side off the Alaskan coast in 2006. This is when my subjects the men of Titan Salvage got involved and brought there particular skill set into play.


The portraits were taken over two days back in November. Unfortunately there would be no shipping wrecks for me to use as background although most of the crew were heading out to Japan on assignment the next day and there was a moment due to scheduling when I might have had to head out with them. Four of the portraits were taken at Titans home base in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This of course sounded a lot more exotic then it ultimately was. The location was basically an office and a black hole of a warehouse a couple of miles from the sea. It was certainly challenging, especially with all the photographs of their successes scattered throughout the premises. They had me of course dreaming of what might have been. Time per person was a little limiting too so there wasn't much opportunity for multiple set ups not that there were any anyways so thats why I did the tighter head shots trying to load the bases in my favor as much as possible. How about having some of this crazy shit below as a background, how could you go wrong, just point and shoot right ?



Courtesy Titan Salvage

The other two portraits were taken in a shipyard in Salinas in the Dominican Republic (read earlier post here) which was certainly a visual relief from the limiting Ft Lauderdale location. The guys worked out a treat and were certainly gracious and willing although a little hesitant at first.


The mag did a fine job giving me space in the layout considering the main opener isn't one of mine, after all I wasn't on scene back in 2006.

I have come across some discussion about the story and pics on chat rooms here's a few lines that pertain to yours truly, again with the 70's thing:

The portraits of the guys involved say it all: a harder looking crew would be difficult to imagine.

I like how each member of the team is like a character from a movie or videogame. Each with his own speciality and look.

to me they totally look like old scanned and retouched pictures from the 70s and 80s.. in a good way

Big up to Zana Woods my editor on the piece, the writer Joshua Davis and all at Titan. I hear that the story has been optioned as a movie maybe the film company could use of my retro flair for the posters and promotional campaign.

Down in the swamp

I have developed a fondness for college sports here in the US. Coming over from Ireland as I did I had no real idea what a huge part they play, particularly football and basketball in the fabric of this country. I am a big sports fan, soccer/football is my thing but I have discovered the joys of baseball, American football, basketball and even Nascar.

My first exposure to the passion and intensity of the college game was a couple of years back when I spent a week on the road with the Illinois basketball team during their undefeated run for ESPN the Magazine. I was amazed to see how much preparation and organization went into running a program like this. Its really hard for a European to get ones head around the fact that although amateur most of these schools have facilities and stadiums that would be the envy of most professional franchises. The fact that Michigan can play a home football game in front of 110,000 fans is mind boggling and big number attendances like this can be found through out the country on any game day.

I have found college sports to be that more pure then its professional counterparts. The ebb and flow of the games allows for more spontaneity and ultimately more excitement. There is lots of pride at stake and rivalries are fierce. More often then not its all about the team and not some overpaid superstar who's only real allegiance is to his huge contract and sponsors. The fans really get into it too, its more like being at a soccer game back home. It can be hard to see from the TV how young these athletes really are.

So I had experienced the basketball and was hoping for a little football action. ESPN ? Anyone ? Well Fortune came knocking a few weeks back. The choice assignment was to spend a weekend in Gainesville Florida covering the University of Florida Auburn game, only it was not a story about the athletes, the gig was to photograph some of the University's big money donors aka The Gator Boosters Inc, The Team Behind The Teams who put their hands in their mighty wallets and donate cash to various college programs. The ones I was concentrating on were particularly involved in the schools athletic programs.

This is the type of job that fits me like a glove; environmental portraits on the fly mixed in with a little reportage and local color. These are the gigs I love and the ones where I think I excel. I don't mean to sound big headed but I think its important to realize where your strengths are as a photographer. I want to be hired for this sort of assignment, its always a challenge but always rewarding, personally and photographically.

Access was good but a little limiting at times and although I was in situ for three days most of the heavy shooting happened on game day which ran long into game night. Thankfully the stadium known as the Swamp for obvious reasons was a little more forgiving this day with the intense heat and soupy humidity turned down a few degrees below normal. Still the 90,000 in attendance sure kept the place boiling over.

Its always interesting walking down the sideline at a big sporting event like this, me with my Hasselblad, stumpy 60mm lens and film backs while the other pros are macked out with their mark IIs and 600mm lenses, you wonder what they are thinking ? Who's that nutter ? Whats he at ? What the fuck is that thing round his neck ? Is he shooting fuckin film ? Fuck its like F4 at a 30th of a second at 400asa under these crappy floodlights hope he's not shooting live action ! Doesnt he know it always looks so much brighter on the TV then it is in reality ? Must be an art student or something.

Unfortunately there wasn't room in the budget to take another assistant with me from New York. I normally travel with one but in a case like this where you are dealing with huge crowds and location logistics another set of hands to even just keep an eye on the gear is a big bonus. Using our smarts we figured that maybe one of the fine students on campus would be game ball for a little extra payola. So we scored and with a school this big, some 48,000 students there was of course a photo journalism class.

It was a real pleasure to meet and work with one Jeremiah Stanley the brave young man who accepted our call. Its always a treat to come across someone so enthusiastic and willing, who just sucks up every morsel of information. He was a real asset and a huge help on a long 16 hour day. His local knowledge was a major plus especially when we got the shaft with our official parking credential that put us miles from the stadium. That's the thing about watching sports on the telly once the games over you can go about your business or whatever but when you are there in the flesh its the nightmare of getting out of a parking lot that awaits, never much fun particularly after a loss.

Jeremiah has just started a blog 'You've Always Imagined !' and I encourage you all to bookmark it. I am very much looking forward to his insights as he documents his journey through college. I wish him lots of luck and hope that our paths will cross again.

Unfortunately Florida lost the game and are now 0-3 since my visit but I had a magical time and I have to say that my subjects were some of the most gracious and sincerely decent millionaires I have ever photographed.

Go here to read the story courtesy of Fortune online.

As featured in . . . . ESPN the Magazine

It has been a busy couple of months and I am now beginning to see some of the work come to fruition as printed matter. First up is ESPN the Magazine where I am fortunate enough to be heavily featured. I have been working on a 'package' for them about people who have cool jobs in sports but who don't actually play the games themselves.

The feature was split between myself and two other fine photographers Peter Yang and Misha Gravenor. I was aware that other photographers were shooting simultaneously but I did not know their names. Hard to know if it would have been a good or bad thing. I like to think I bring my A-Game no matter what but competition is always good and I am rather pleased with myself scoring the 'Opener' and 'Closer'.

The above (opener) was actually the first shoot I did. Its definitely not as subtle as the Larry Sultan pic I featured from the previous issue here, but the concept of the package was to feature the subject with one of the athlete(s) they service while creating a fun and interesting yet relevant image. So to get the ball rolling I photographed Chris Doyle the senior product development specialist at Burton Snowboards with Winter Olympic gold medal snowboarder herself Hannah Teter. It was shot on location in his workshop at the Burton HQ in Burlington, Vermont. Chris was game for anything as was Hannah. I tried a couple of different set ups before this one the last one. The editor, Maisie Todd, had requested that Hannah be photographed on Chris's desk only problem Chris didn't really have a desk, just a work bench but we made do and improvised. I think it worked well as you need a strong image to open the feature and whet the appetite.

Next up was the above spread with Yang top and Gravenor bottom.

Then me again, but where is the image ? Well you are going to have to get yourself an issue to see this one. The picture was bought out by the subject and I am not permitted use it in any form, on the web, in my portfolio, resell etc. But I can tell you about it. It features Sari Mellman a nutrition guru/counselor who has an unusual approach to healthy eating and has more then 150 star athletes as clients, including Grant Hill, Oscar de la Hoya and she is accompanied in the pic by Superbowl winning defensive end Dwight Freeney of the Indianapolis Colts. This was why the magical talents of food stylist Ed Gabriels were required see earlier post here. It was certainly an interesting day, we arrived in the night before and were at Dwights house at noon as scheduled. The concept on this one to shoot Sari and Dwight with all the food he would typically eat in a week. The list goes a little something like this.

14 lbs. Buffalo meat
14 lbs. Black Cod
1 bottle of Honey bear organic honey
6 Bundles of Bananas
4 Bunches of Green Grapes
1 lb. of Pecans
1 Bottle of Grapeseed oil
10 Bottles of Organic White Grape Fruit Juice (Lakewood)
7 Whole Watermelons
6 cans Black Beans
Rice
Bread
1 Bottle of Sari Mellman's A Little Magic-Hypoallergenic Vitamins (17 caps.
per day)
1 Bottle of Sari Mellman's DMG

We were given two hours set up time in Dwights kitchen in Carmel, Indiana followed by two hours to shoot. Plenty of time, right ! As with most shoots there is always something. In the end Dwight did not arrive till 5pm. A bit of a hassle seeing as we had gotten all the meat and fish ready for their 2pm close up, it can be tricky dealing with food it has a short shoot life. He was coming from Syracuse where he had been having some pre pre season workouts. His flight was delayed and I have to honestly say he really didn't seem in the mood by the time he got to us. But when Sari finally showed up, she was even later and we reset the set Dwights spirits changed for the better. Maybe it was my congratulating him on the new $ 72,000,000.00 contract he had just signed the week before with the Colts that really saw him seeing good and not the raw meat and fish stinking up his kitchen. I knew I wouldn't have him for long so we managed to wrap it up in 30 minutes. Got to take what you can get.

Peter Yang above x 2.

The final featured shot and perhaps the trickiest one for me involved Nascar artist Sam Bass and Petty Enterprises Nextel Cup driver Bobby Labonte. Sam designs the cars art work, on computer but he is also an artist and he paints officially sanctioned water colors of the drivers and their cars. Sam had been asked to bring some of the tools of his trade with him but unfortunately the message didn't get through and apart from arriving a little late, he came empty handed so this one shot was a real scramble. He had just driven from Charlotte to outside Greensboro so all his kit was a couple of hours back down the high way, bummer ! Although having plenty of set up time before the subjects arrived there really weren't many options, the car was the main prop but suitable spots were limited. We were relying on Sam to bring in da funk and the noise (sorry Robert I know that's your line but I laughed hard when I read it on your post here, very appropriate) but had to make do with whatever we could find last minute. Bobby was the utmost professional but he was really doing Sam a favor so the clock was never really on our side, but we got at least one usable image that didn't totally suck. Relive that weeks travel adventures here.

The above was shot as part of the previous 'package' but ended up running directly after as its own entity as a day in the life piece. This feature involved following Michael Thompson, Director of Corporate Communications for the New Orleans Hornets basketball team around on NBA draft day. Its a fun piece, I really like the opener, its semi real, he has got his wife on one phone and is waiting to do a radio interview on the other with all his notes and news in front I knew it kind of worked at the time not knowing what would be in store for the rest of the day. This shot was taken at 7.00am in his office, it was the first roll of film of what would end up being a 13 hour day. We had just arrived in to New Orleans a couple of hours before from Boston due to plane delay, delay, delays, read the recap of the week here.

All in all I am very satisfied with the results, a lot of work for each picture, but each one rewarding in its own way and every one a new life experience personally and professionally. Oh and I thought I would leave all the advertising in just as it appears in the magazine next to the pictures, its a real battle on the eyes sometimes. Come on Big Red give me a crack at Montoya and some of those fine advertising dollars.

Collaborator . . . . . Davy Rothbart

Last weekend saw a trip to Arlington, Texas and another gig for GQ. I cannot go into too much details, doesn't look like the story will see any page time before next Spring, fuck its such a long ways away but they do like to work well in advance and the event I was covering was a once a year type of deal.

The bonus on this trip was my collaborator. Every now and again I get to work closely with a writer on a particular piece. On this occasion was I not only accompanying him I was also photographing him as he engaged in the activity he will ultimately be writing about. I have done this sort of thing quite a bit and its a real treat to finally read their written word and to experience the experience from their perspective. After all I was there so I have my own experience of their experience, how different will it be from my own ?

It worked out really well, it always nice to be there in real time that way hopefully the pictures and writing will be somehow syncopated. More often then not one has no contact with the writer and just gets the text to work off. I remember a case in point from last year. I had been commissioned by Marie Claire magazine to do a feature on the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of South Dakota which is located in Sioux Falls. The writer had been out in advance and had already put the piece together. I had a meeting with her and my editors to go over things and their needs and expectations. Anyways the way she described the physicality of the clinic building and its environs gave me (or at least I thought) a clear mental picture of what to expect. She mentioned narrow slit windows, so that snipers would not have a clear look in on potential employee targets, armed doors, bullet proof glass etc. So there I was conjuring up images of a fortress ala something from 'British Watchtowers' by Donovan Wylie. It is crazy how the mind works I had myself convinced that this was easy peasy I had the 'opener' I was onto a winner.

So there I was a week later (June 2006) in Sioux Falls. Now the weirdest thing about this whole gig is that I have a 1st cousin who lives there. He is a very successful surgeon and moved from Ireland direct some 20 years ago. We see each other from time to time but I had never made the trip his way so this was a nice bonus. You know to be honest I always thought I would get out that way on someone else's buck. Anyways I arrived on a Saturday and was scheduled to shoot in and around the clinic on Monday but before I hit the hotel I wanted to check out the clinic itself. I have to say I was really excited to see this architectural marvel, this is a pretty serious story for me, sometimes I get a little pigeonholed as the funny quirky guy ! But I like to think I can bring a little something to the plate and cannot say enough about Alix Campbell (now at In Style) and Melanie Chambers the editors I worked with on this and other pieces, they took a gamble on me ? Maybe but not really the ongoing debate I can keep ongoing.

As I was speeding through suburban Sioux Falls, I was salivating at the opportunities that would be presented photographically by the upcoming structure. Well wouldn't you know it FUCK nothing like the picture I had drawn in my minds eye. No barbed wire, no steel structures, no guards with guns, no wide open Dakota fields with storm clouds gathering on the distant horizon, the crack of thunder and lightning as the dark foreboding night gathers over the great plains, the searchlights high above the compound illuminate the shadows as umpteen security cameras keep a watchful eye over the patrolling dogs, beyond the high voltage fence a sea of protestors compete vigourouly with natures fury to have their voices heard all the time unmarked cars sped through the fortified gates . . . . see I should have been a writer. So I was obviously disappointed and worried with this pretty non-descript one story office type building.

Anyway to make a long story short everything worked out really great. I worked hard to load the bases, I had three portraits to do and they were fine but really worked the ancillary stuff in the end the portraits were mere thumbnails but were effectively used in telling then story. I was so blown away by the final layout in the magazine. The creative director at the time Paul Martinez (now at Mens Journal) had just launched a redesign and came up with a fab spread. He really elevated the whole thing, its an example of how good art direction can take your pictures to another level.

So back to GQ, I know I go on a ramble sometimes but its all somehow related isn't it ? My fine on site in the flesh collaborator on this story is a man of many hats. Introducing from Ann Arbor, Michigan, playing point guard, at 5ft 11 inches, 160 lbs (a guess) the 3-point buzza beatin "I love this game" razzle dazzlin road warrior himself, give it up for number 28, the one the only DAVY ROTHBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART ! Now there's a little hint as to what we were up to.

Turns out Davy is multi faceted. Among other things he is the man behind Found Magazine, a story teller (This American Life), an author, a performer, an old schooler (he recently upgraded from a walkman to a discman). We had a fab time and it was a real treat to hang with Davey, my first time, although we share some mutual photographer friends/acquaintances, more on that next week.

Here's to you Davy, thanks for having me along for the ride and don't forget what to do when the NBA come knockin on the door ! Fuckin open it and live the dream !

I am a . . . . Conspirator

Well I think it is finally time to fess up and come clean. Now that we have moved into June and into another cycle of magazines I have to reveal that all is not as it seems in my GQ story from May, 'The Boy of Summer'. If you haven't read it yet go here before you go any further.

Chris Outcalt aka Johnathan 'Jake' Nettles Floyd, photo courtesy Outcalt family

The story is a fake, a complete hoax, Jason Gay GQ's articles editor came up with the idea and I was fortunate enough to be given the assignment. His idea was to do a piece on the number of young general managers now prevalent in sport and particularly in baseball. Oh but there was a twist, he wanted to invent a minor league team who had a 13 year old in the driving seat and sell it for real, he even had the idea of posting a website to drive the reality of the premise home (that doesn't exist by the way). And so was born Jonathan 'Jake' Nettles Floyd a 13 year old child, a wonder kid GM who had developed a unique statistic to evaluate a players ability - the ISH, or infield stolen hits, and the, OSH, or outfield stolen hits, had a 9 year-old assistant and is heavily courted by the New York Yankees.

Some of the final GQ selects here and below.

Jason managed to find a team and league willing to take part in the charade. The Ash Fork Miners of the Desert Cactus Independent League are really the Canada Miners of the Golden Baseball League based in Yuma, Arizona. Kevin Outcalt the leagues commissioner was in it from the beginning and saw the publicity potential.

My part in all of this was to cast the fictitious GM and team owner and use the Desert Sun Stadium and the real Miners as a backdrop for the scam. We were going to use a professional child model but in the end Kevin had suggested his own son Chris and we thought it would work out great, which it did and Chris became Jake Floyd the 13 year old GM of the Ash Fork Miners for a day.


We had worked out some scenarios in advance and I got in a day early to scout around and figure out the set ups. The whole thing was done on the secret. The Miners and 3 other teams share the stadium and facilities during the Arizona Winter League and no one was told apart from a select few what was going on. We came up with some cock and bull story about shooting Kevin and his son, there was always a chance that what we were up to could be leaked to the local media, who cover all the games, and then before you knew it it could go national and we would be plastered all over Sportscenter and the whole scam would be ruined.

It was a long fun day and Chris was a great sport. We shot around the training facility and then took in an evening game. I got a ton of stuff and really worked it as much as I could. As with many shoots so much of the film never makes it to the layout but the magazine was well pleased and I think it all looked pretty believable in the end.


We shot the story in February so it was great to see it finally in print in the May issue. I was asked by the magazine not to discuss any of the shoot details in case a prying ear might overhear and the scam begin to unravel. Jason did a terrific job on the writing and those who read the story carefully will find some signs of his trickery especially those with a knowledge of baseball. Also Floyds birthday is April 1 (April Fools) and Gay's bio at the end of the piece mentions he is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, which he is not.

Well that's where the story gets more interesting. I posted about the piece, here, when it came out and a lot of baseball fans and media started googling and because Jake Floyd doesn't exist and I do, I started getting hits and then enquiries. Film producers, 60 Minutes, The Late Show were all looking for the magical mythical 13 year old wonder kid, if its in print it must be true right. Everybody was trying to land a real live sit down interview. Nobody was able to track him down, one researcher tried to track him down via the public library in the real Ash Fork a town of 400, just north of Phoenix Arizona but only got the answer machine and a Phoenix TV station even sent a news crew.

GQ is due to reveal the hoax in its July issue but NBC sports has beaten them to it. Read their revelation here and I get a mention too ! Also USA Today has its own report here and singles out my initial post and give me a heads up for keeping a straight face. So I guess its okay to come out and confess my part in this elaborate tale.

As featured in . . . . GQ

Its not often that I get to work on a top secret project where I've been sworn not to reveal any details about the assignment until publication but for the May issue of GQ I had that very privilege.

The story is about Jake Floyd a 13 year old, who is the General Manager of the Ash Fork Miners a minor league baseball team in Arizona, yes thats right he is only 13 ! The writer, Jason Gay who was doing some research on a piece about the minor leagues when someone happened to mention that a small-town team had a then 12 year old Jake as its GM and voila we were off to discover the boy wonder behind the myth.

There is now a proliferation of young GMs in MLB especially with the success Brian Cashman (NY Yankees), the golden child himself Theo Epstein (Boston Red Sox) and others have enjoyed, so this is a great piece on the state of the game and perhaps the next generation of even younger GM major leaguers.


I got to spend a fun day with Jake and the Miners in Arizona. I have become something of a baseball fan over the last few years, 'Lets go Yankees', and when I am on the road for work during the summer I try and get a game in if the schedule allows. So far I have made it to Jacobs Field Cleveland, Coors Field Denver, Wrigley Field Chicago, PNC Park Pittsburgh and I was @ the World Series for ESPN the magazine last year so I can knock Comerica Park Detroit and Busch Stadium St.Louis off the list too. I have of course been to Yankee Stadium and Shea on numerous occasions. It was fab to experience the game @ its grass roots and to be a part of this unique story. We shot in January so GQ didn't want any word getting out and anyone else getting the scoop, sorry ESPN !

Its a great bit of writing by Jason who by the way is a keen cyclist and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Its not available online @ the moment, I will post the link if/when it goes live but the May issue is on the newsstands now.

As featured elsewhere . . . . Inspirator Jon Naiman (again)

Photo © Jon Naiman

Just no keeping Jon out of the spotlight these days and all perhaps as the result of a chance meeting here.

Jon whilst on a voyage of self discovery, although I imagine he was just googling himself, came accross this review of his work by Greg Fallis of UTATA as part of his Sunday Salon series. UTATA is a collective of photographers, writers and like-minded people who share a compelling interest in the arts and whose goal is to become a semi-civil online tribe devoted to creating and promoting good art.

In his review Greg comes to the conclusion that Jon is in fact a man, that he likes his work and that he's pretty sure it would be a real pleaseure to sit down with Jon over a few beers and talk.

Heres to you Jon Naiman ! (again)

As featured in . . . . ESPN the magazine

I have some stuff coming out in a few magazines this month and I thought I would share the story behind the story so to speak.

'March of the Penguins' (above) is a piece on the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team for ESPN the magazine, centered on four players, two younger (Crosby, Fleury) and two older (Gonchar, Roberts) youth and experience and how this mix has helped change the teams fortunes and drive them to NHL playoffs.

The (pesky) Penguins were a little more uncooperative in reality than we had been led to initially believe. The magazine had asked me to concentrate on the 4 and my brief was to get individual portraits, group if possible, player interaction, practice, the locker room and anything else that caught my eye. My main problem going in was that the Penguins PR had shot down the idea of the group shot and I would not be able to schedule any individual one on one time nor would I be able to set up a small portrait set, I would have to grab everything on the go, fine I have done this before no problem. Well as it turned out things got a little trickier.

I did not realise (nor did the magazine) that I would be part of a larger press pool and would have shared access in the locker room and where ever else. It was a bit of a scrum and the players were seldom without a microphone in their face. On top of that the players were not told of my presence nor was I introduced to any of them by the PR and had to pick them out myself, so it was impossible for me to establish any connection with any of the subjects, frustrating.

I attended two practice sessions, one @ their training facility, the second @ the Mellon Arena the following day which was a game day. I had no access to the players before practice, when they were on the ice I was stuck behind the glass and then had to make a dash for the locker room with the media pack. It was all a bit sketchy. Whilst the first day was a little chaotic I was assured the second would be more self fulfilling. This as it turned out was not the case. One of the players Gary Roberts wasn't even in the locker room the second day, good job I had gotten 5 frames on him (although not very good) on the first.


The job was shot on Canon 1DS Mark 2 (digital) a change from my usual mediums of choice (hasselblad/film). The format is certainly a challenge and I am more inclined to shoot horizontal as I find the vertical to be a little long and skinny especially with my attraction to the square format.

As you can see from above and below my pictures underwent some dramatic cropping. I gave the magazine full frame 35mm files, I try not to crop my own work and this is especially easy for me when shooting square, my books are square. It can be quite the challenge for an art director to work the square on to a rectangular page and my work is usually cropped in some fashion but there are some great (good) layout surprises from time to time.

Photos © AH

I think the layout looks good all things considered. Did I get anything for my own book ? Probably not but that was not the exercise, in trying circumstances like this one needs to put the clients needs first.

As it turn out and per an earlier post I have had limited fortune with Pittsburghs finest (sport stars). Having dealt with a contrary Ben Roethlisberger (his luck took something of a bad turn shortly after our encounter) maybe the torch has been passed onto the Penguins as they were dumped out of the 1st round of the NHL playoffs last night. Looks like you are free of the Hetherington hex Ben, good times are here again for Steeler nation !