Elite 24 ESPN behind the scenes

Ya know.... it's crazy what you can find on the internet! I was told ESPN was doing a 30 minute special on the Elite 24 to run on ESPN U sometime this fall. At least that is what they told me when they wanted to get footage during my marathon shoot the night before the game. Come to find out they also put a clip together from just the shoot itself! Click HERE to check it out The Elite 24 game at Rucker Park in NYC is a one of kind high school basketball game that features the top 24 players in the country. I not only shot the game, but had the task of shooting all 24 players in their Elite 24 uniform and their high school uniform... and I had three hours to do it! It was a lot of work in a tiny hotel room in NYC... but we got some great photos including two covers. Enjoy!

Brandon Jennings Ad Campaign

I had an amazing opportunity this month to shoot an ad campaign for Under Armour. I have to say it was a dream job! Kris Stone, the director of basketball for UA called me up and said "Kelly, would you like to go to Italy?", I said, "Hell yeah!" As it turns out Under Armour had just signed basketball phenom Brandon Jennings.... the first high school player to skip college and go pro in Europe... He will most likely declare for the NBA draft in April.
The crazy part is, I got the call on a Thursday and by Sunday was on a plane to Italy!!! Since Brandon's stay in Italy will likely be short, UA didn't have time to go into a full scale production for the campaign; Kris and I literally had to get there and make it work! Yes you're hearing me right, I had 48 hours to produce a shoot in Rome, Italy... and I don't speak Italian! My knight in shining armour was Elio Carchidi, a photographer and owner of Studio 154 in Rome. Elio was able to handle all the production in Rome: locations, assistants, equipment rental, vehicles, catering, even a local cell phone! He was great!
We landed in Rome at 7am on Monday morning and began working right away... Location scouting places like the Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, the Arch of Constantine and many of the beautiful, narrow cobble streets of Rome. It was like stepping back in time... the texture and history of Rome was mind blowing! By 7am on Tuesday morning we began shooting at the arena where Brandon has practice. This was no ordinary gymnasium, it was built for the 1960 Olympics and had windows all around the top of the arena. I have to say the available light is very different in Italy. We shot the whole first set Tuesday morning with mostly available light! IT was BEAUTIFUL light! The afternoon was back to Profoto... big sets and lots of outfit changing! One note for photographers, the pocketwizards in Europe are on a different frequency than the ones in the US and they don't work together!
Wednesday was location day around Rome. We started at sunrise at the Arch of Constantine, which is right next to the Coliseum. It was a bit stressful since we didn't have the 15 days necessary to get permits, but my rule of thumb is keep it simple! Trusty 7b's in backpacks and enough assistants to keep them mobile! Every time I got a bit stressed, I would look at my assisant and say "We're in Rome!"
Brandon was great to work with. He and I had worked together earlier this year at the Jordan Brand Classic, but this was much more involved. Brandon was very focused and was well aware that he is the future of Under Armour basketball. He worked very hard to get across the mood or attitude we were trying to achieve in the images. ... but honestly it wasn't that hard! He has a natural swagger and confidence...the camera loves him!

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM

This past weekend, I had the fortune of shooting the Georgia football game for Icon Sports Media. The Dawgs started the year at the top of the AP Coaches poll and are projected to contend for a national championship. Every sports magazine (ESPN, SI, Sporting News) have graced their covers with UGA stud Knowshon Moreno. So I was pretty psyched to get to check this guy out in person.
It didn't take long for me to be impressed! Knowshon broke for 169 yards and 3 touchdowns before Coach Richt retired him to the bench a the top of the forth quarter. I caught plenty of great images of Moreno... but taking the cake is "the hurdle"!!! Knowshown leapt over a poor sap from Central Michigan and into UGA folk lore! #24 is being heralded as greatest Dawg since Herschel Walker, and I'm ready to get on the bandwagon!
I'm also psyched to say ESPN the Magazine picked up the image for the double page Zoom section at the front of the magazine! Georgia Fans get your copy while you can!

Nike Global Challenge

While the 2008 Olympics kicked off in Beijing, Nike had their own mini Olympics in Portland, hosting the Nike Global Challenge. The international prep basketball tournament had teams from Serbia, Canada, Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Senegal and 3 USA teams (with the top 30 players in the USA). As the Nike photographer it was my job to shoot the games and portraits with some of the top players. I have photographed most of the USA players over the last 2 years, but it's a whole new level when they put on a USA uniform. It was great to see the sense of pride these guys had for their country! Especially Thierno Ibrahima Niang of Senegal!

The competition was very spirited with each teams national pride on the line. Serbia proved they were here to contend for the title by defeating a USA team 3 on the first night. Senegal, a country with very little basketball history played with a lot of heart. My favorite action shot is of Avery Bradley dunking over 6'11" Uros Lukovic of Serbia... An in your face dunk that sparked a bench clearing fight! (click on photographs to view larger)
But in the end the championship game was between USA Team 1 & USA Team 2. Rosco Smith closed the door on USA Team 1 with a fast break for a wide open dunk! Show Time! USA Team 2 wins the Nike Global Challenge.

Hardwood

Each year Rise Magazine puts out a special basketball issue called Hardwood. Editor Tatiana Zic hired me to shoot portraits of 15 different players for the issue. In order to get all of the players she requested, I went to the Nike Peach Jam in South Carolina and went bananas! There was very little room to work with at the venue since all the courts/locker rooms were being used. The only space available was a racquetball court, which work out great! The floor even looked like a basketball court, so I opted to run my backdrop to the floor instead of a full sweep. It worked out nicely and created a different look than I had done before... I then scrambled around like crazy (with the help of my assistant Jen) getting guys to the set in between their games. It was a little nutty but these are a few of my favorites!
You can click on the images to view them larger.
Equipment: Canon Mark IIN, Black backdrop, 4 Dynalite heads total: 2 edge lights with 30 degree grids, a Mola 22" beauty dish with a 50 degree grid for the key light and 1 medium softbox for fill.

Run's House

It's so much fun to see a project in it's finished layout. I shoot several book covers a year for Gotham Publishing and hitting the shelf this week is a book titled Take Back Your Family by Rev. Run (of Run DMC) and his wife Justine Simmons.
I am a huge Run DMC fan, so this project was especially cool! The shoot was back in February at the Simmons home in New Jersey. Yes...we went to their home, the one you see on the MTV show Run's House. I have worked with a number of celebrities, but this assignment was to photograph Rev and his whole family!!! A Celebrity Family! Yikes...!!! A hip-hop legend, teenagers, a baby and young business tycoons! Talk about pressure!
I was working on the project with Creative Director Ray Lundgren. I have worked with Ray for 3 years now and he always does an amazing job on the book cover design. Also with me were 3 trusty assistants and a digital tech. We had approximately 6 hours to get the shoot done, from set up to breakdown. Justine, Vanessa & Angela went through hair and make-up while we got the lighting in place in the living room. We re-arranged the furniture and moved a lot of furniture out to make room for the lights.
The best thing on this job was the digital set up. When we got the family in place we were able to get immediate feedback and tweak things right away. Rev was very much part of the process, he had ideas of how the set up should be... and so did I... We were able to test a couple of groupings and come up with one that we all agreed on. Once we got the grouping set, it was bombs away! Rev is an amazing personality and really kept the shoot lite and lots of fun!
I can't say enough about the family, they were wonderful, polite and very genuine!
Check out Rev's website to learn more about the book: http://revrun.uber.com/

Soccer in the City

I recently had a shoot for Rise Magazine with several of the star players of the Martin Luther King High School boys soccer team. This team has won 10 New York City championships in 12 years!! A pretty amazing feat! The kicker is, the school is smack in the middle of Manhattan and has NO field! They practice and play their games at various parks around Manhattan.
My first thought was to try and do the shoot at one of the parks, but if you have any experience shooting in NYC you know it's a real hassle getting a permit to shoot in a public park, so I went to the school and scouted for any interesting locations around the school.... Well my scout took about 10 seconds. As soon as I saw the view outside of the school, I knew we had to shoot it there! The school was surrounded by skyscrapers, plus I really thought it would drive home the fact that this team had no field of their own.
Equipment: Canon Mark III, 16-35mm lens, F/16, 1/200 a sec, 3 Dynalite strobe heads, 2 with grids, 1 with a Mola 22" beauty dish.