Throwing footballs with an NFL QB

I was on a corporate photo assignment when an elderly gentleman looked over the two cameras I had slung over my shoulders and asked me “What is your favorite photo that you have taken and can you tell me about it?”
I have been asked variations of that questions many, many times but I never really have a clear way of explaining that I do not have a favorite. The joy I receive from this profession is from the actual process, not the finished product. My next photo shoot was the perfect example of this...

I got a call from USA Today to photograph college football great and current Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow as he worked out near his Jacksonville home. The NFL owners locked out the players, so many of them are coordinating practices on their own. The access was worked out through his agent, not the team. 

In my almost 20 year career, I have shot over 350 NFL and NCAA "Division 1" football games and practices. I was interested to see what an NFL event with no PR handlers would be like. Of course, I had two factors in my favor. Tim is probably one of the nicest professional athletes that you could ever deal with and I have photographed him 5 times previously, putting him on four Sporting News covers. 

Tim Tebow stiff arms me after our first photo shoot

In each of those earlier photo shoots, it was vital to be as professional as possible. I would always arrive early with my assistant, set up the lights quickly, have an efficient plan and end early. When you schedule these high profile athletes, you will always have a set amount of time that the athlete will pose for you. It is a good goal to surprise them and finish before the subject wants to go. That will endear you in the eyes of the team and the player. I also made sure to bring 8x10 prints from each of the previous photo shoots so that he could give to friends and family.

When Tim pulled into the parking lot next to the grass field near his home, he quickly exited the car and gave me a warm welcome. Joining him were three Denver Bronco receivers who flew into town to run routes for him. Tim was first to have his shoes on and was ready to go as his receivers were still sitting on the ground, spike-less. 

I said “Tim, throw me the ball”. I backed up to about 20 yards and threw the football with him. Normally, I am not one to be starstruck, but throwing a football with an NFL QB is very cool - definitely a moment to remember. Now, judging by my friend's comments on my Facebook post regarding this, I will answer the most common questions:


1-Yes, Tim has fixed his throwing motion. There is no more hitch. 
2-Yes, he throws the ball very hard. (He is an NFL QB)
3-Yes, I threw tight spirals right back at him. 
4-Yes, it is weird catching a ball thrown by a lefty (it spins the wrong way)
5-No, it was not as cool as catching Roger Clemens but only because baseball was my favorite sport growing up.
6-Yes, I did manage to drop a few balls, but I refer you to #2.

Over the next hour or so, I shot Tim throwing curls, digs, slants and go patterns to his receivers. It was weird to be able to walk up next to them as they discussed the routes and then shoot the action with a 15mm lens. As someone who was annoyed with the media handling during games and practices, this was a once of a lifetime experience. I tried to deliver photos that were normally impossible to get. I doubt I will ever be able to feel the speed of the receivers running around or feel the quickness of the QB’s drop again. 

At the end of the day, you should always remember that shooting good photos is not all about photography skill. Much of the work is cultivating and developing a relationship with the photo subjects. You always strive to make a positive, lasting impression that you can build on for the next shoot. 
Preston Mack is a photographer based in Orlando, FL. He has shot photos from the Pace car at Daytona, caught Roger Clemens (while he was still juicing), played paintball with a Bee Gee, rode a roller coaster with Justin Bieber, hit fungo to Cal Ripken Jr, got punched by Sugar Ray Leonard and got a golf lesson from Tom Watson.  (I am currently looking for an NBA superstar to play me one on one....)

(This blog post originally appeared on the Sport Shooter website.
http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/2535) 

Airline pilots video for USA Today

A few weeks ago, USA Today asked me to work on a story about the booming demand for airline pilots. I knew that meant running out to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach and flying. The weather was dreadful, and at 2 hours out, I thought that there was no way we would get up in the air.
After only an hour or so rain delay, we were prepping the plane for take off. My pilot, this young 20 year old Costas Sivyllis, was a very interesting guy. He not only is a student, but also teaches flight to beginner students, and is the editor of the student newspaper.

Reader's Digest Heroes

Dr. Michelle Henderson and her hero, John Ritter


I was fortunate enough to get two great Reader's Digest assignments in back to back months. The first story was about Dr. Michelle Henderson. This 51 year old orthopedic surgeon is a real athlete. She is an accomplished runner, biker, longboard surfer and diver. She tried out kiteboarding as the next adventure. She had met and became fast friends with expert kiteboarder John Ritter. On one fateful day in February, her new friend would save her life.

On a morning ride on the Banana River, Michelle became concerned with the high winds. She had already decided to quit for the day when a gust of wind carried her up into the air. She desperately tried to engage the safety release, but her lines started to get so tangled that she was unable to. Luckily, John who had been following, pounced into action. He caught up to her as she was bring tossed into the air and dragged under water. He was trying to get her cords released, when he lost his board. Not having the leverage, he left Michelle in the water. John left to track down his wife, who was nearby on a jet ski. John came back on the jet ski and performed a miracle save, jumping from the jet ski onto Michele's tangled kite line, dragging it under water and finally collapsing the kite. They counted over 200 turns in her line...

For the photo shoot, I wanted to make a beautiful portrait of the two during sunrise. Sounds simple, but everything on the beach is more complicated...
When you shoot on the water, you always need to be careful of sea spray on both your cameras and your lights. I took my usually assistant Jorge to man the Profoto light and the beauty dish and a new assistant, Jeff,  to just hold the cameras. You need to make sure you bring lots of extra towels and clean water. You need to wipe off the sand and sea spray immediately. All the extra gear you normally take with you you leave in the car. It is too hard to manage all the gear with the constant threat of salt water and sand.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the sun rise, and proceeded to the beach. It helps that her condo was right on Cocoa Beach, so there was no travel time from her place to the water. I tried to underexpose the clouds for the exposure. This exposure would change constantly as the sun rose. It gets brighter and brighter very quickly, so it always helps to shoot RAW. I used the Nikon D3 camera body with a 24-70 2.8 lens. The final exposure for the image they used was 1/250th of a second at F/11, 200ASA,

We tried many different variations with the kite, but in the end it was just too large, it took away from the people.  The photo of the two of them with the boards were enough to convey the idea of kiteboarding without being too dominant. Many times, the photo is really an easy thing to capture. You just have to place the subjects in beautiful light and just wait for the sun to rise!

As always, special thanks to my wonderful agents at Redux Pictures and to the wonderful people at Reader's Digest.

Puppies!!!

Puppies at the Guide Dog Campus

When I was attending the University of Miami, I was studying to be an architect.
In that 5 year track, you were supposed to pick a minor (12 credits) by your junior year. I wanted my minor to be in Motion Pictures. I took one film class and made one epic, 10 minute Super 8 student film. The only reason that I wound up taking Photojournalism as a minor instead was because I was not allowed to minor in film.


So what does that story have to do with anything? I think that if I had been allowed to minor in film, my career path might have been dramatically different...

USA today hired me to do a combo assignment last week. The story was about "puppy hugging" that happens 5 days a week at the Southeastern Guide Dogs campus in Palmetto, Fl. The public is invited in to socialize with the puppies. This training is essential in the development of the dogs. Not all the puppies will become guide dogs, but they all will have their strengths identified and utilized. 

Of course, the initial problem was that I did not own a DSLR that was video capable. I currently own a Nikon D3 and a Nikon D700. Both are great 12 megapixel cameras that are FX (full frame). I really want to wait for the Nikon DSLR that can shoot 1080p video at 24 FPS. Right now, the best Nikon DSLR video is 720p. 

One possible solution was to buy a Canon 5D Mark 2 DSLR which is currently the BEST DSLR video camera made. In addition to being a 21 megapixel full frame camera, it shoots stunning 1080p video. This year's season finale of the Fox Tv show "House" was filmed entirely with this camera. My issue is that I do not own any Canon lenses anymore. I do not want to switch back and forth every time Canon and Nikon leapfrog each other with better technology. 

I settled on using a Nikon D300s for the video assignment. Although it is a DX (1.5 crop) sensor and 720p video, I had used a D300s for my video of the mixed martial arts fighter I did earlier in the year, so I was familiar with it. I bought a Sennheiser MKE shot gun microphone and was ready for the shoot...
It requires a different point of view and mindset to shoot video. With still photography, you really need to think about moments and isolate them. Simple interactions that can show the heart and emotion form the event. With video, that is much harder to do. You need to shoot multiple angles so the editor has a lot of footage to work with. You shoot tight, loose and everything in between. You also need to be thinking about the audio the entire time since it is a vital storytelling component. I was so wrapped up in the video shooting that I almost forgot to shoot still photos! The main difficulty with this shoot was the room. It was a long with tile floor and no a/c. The loud oscillating fan was running continually so the ambient noise was really bad. I do not think there was a way to improve the sound unless the fan was shut off. It was a room full of puppies and people, so that wasn't going to happen! I did shoot the interviews in the main office so we could control the audio and capture some good soundbites. 

After I shot all the images and video files, I shipped them up to USA Today where they did the final editing. It is interesting to see how others view your work and put it together. I had it structured in my mind a little different, but I loved the final product. I want to thank USA Today for hiring a video novice to shoot a professional video! I hope to do many more!