One of the most important things about this business is the relationships you form with photo editors and creative directors. I’m especially grateful for Ray Lundgren a creative director for Gotham Publishing. He works on several dozen book covers a year and is kind enough to keep hire me several assignments a year.
This year one of those opportunities was a shoot with Craig Robinson, the head basketball coach for Oregon State and the brother of Michelle Obama. Because of Craig’s hectic schedule, I went to Oregon. I was faced with a couple of obstacles…finding gear and assistants. I contacted Clutch Camera, a newer rental company in Portland. They recommended several rock star assistants who really came through for me.
The shoot consisted of an environmental portrait of Craig and a portrait on white. The tough part was schlepping the gear around the old, but charming arena at Oregon State. Because of several sports practicing, we only had access to the basketball court for 3 hours, so we shot the environmental portrait on the court then we opted to do the white set in the foyer of the arena, it was barely large enough to build our set.
Craig was really wonderful… and I mean that! He was soooo nice! We talked basketball and politics and how crazy life had been since his brother in law became President. He talked about playing pick-up with his daughter on the Whitehouse court with Barack and his daughter. The basketball legacy is continuing with the young ladies in the family!! Craig's daughter Leslie is a rising top recruit in the state of Oregon. Craig was very gracious and stayed as long as we needed to get the shoot done. His book A Game of Character, is about life lessons Craig has learned through basketball and politics.
