Hangin with the Lebrons

For the past three summers I have been the staff photographer for Nike Elite Youth Basketball. A special thanks to Kevin Foley & Marc Steigerwalt of Position Sports for keeping me on staff for this! The job includes about 6 weeks of traveling around the country photographing the top high school basketball players in the country. And I mean the best of the best such as…John Wall, Tyreke Evans, Harrison Barnes, Austin Rivers just to name a few… The marquee event is the Lebron James Skills Academy. It’s a combination of skills workouts and games hosted by King James himself. It’s an amazing opportunity for the players because they have the chance to meet the best player in the game (in my opinion). What I love about the event is, James is very candid with the young players and gives them life advice as well as pointers on their game.

My job is to take action photographs and portraits of the players as well as general event coverage. I rely very heavily on Dynalite gear for this job. Specifically 2000Wi packs and bi-tube heads. I set up strobes on the two main courts and have a portrait set up off the court. I would also like to note that this summer I was testing a new pack for Dynalite that has a very-very fast flash duration of 1/24,000th of a second. The importance of this is, the shorter the flash duration, the crisper and sharper your images will be. The current 2000Wi packs have a flash duration of 1/16,000th. I could visibly tell which images were shot with the test packs… they were tack sharp with almost no motion blur.

Back to Lebron…This year things were especially tense because of his whole free agency deal. The camp was literally the same week Lebron was making his announcement. The gym was packed with over 120 media outlets, ESPN was out front going live every 2 hours, helicopters were following Lebron everytime he drove somewhere. It was nuts! The beauty of being the Nike staff photographer is I had total access, I wasn’t bound to the shooting restrictions the press had.

During sessions that were closed to the media I was able to capture some amazing moments that no other photographers had access to. One was a players banquet hosted Lebron. He hangs with the high school guys for dinner then does a Q&A where the players can ask him anything. I feel this is when Lebron is the most genuine. He really accepts his role as mentor and role model and gives the guys’ great advice and insight into life in the NBA and life in the spotlight. Also during a session closed to the media, for the first time ever, Lebron played pick up with the high school players. I was pretty funny to watch the young bucks try and go at Lebron, then get totally embarrassed! During this session, I captured my favorite image of the week…a wide-open dunk by Bron-Bron…His signature dunk. This was just 48 hours before “the announcement” and it just seems like he is so relaxed! The court is his home.

After the dunk Lebron came up to me and said to me with a smile “Did you get that one?” He knew it was a pretty dunk! As did everyone in the gym!

Miller Time!

I had a great opportunity to work for award winning producer Dan Klores shooting the Media & PR photos for his latest documentary Winning Time. Two years ago I had a blast working on another project by Dan called Black Magic, he was kind enough to call me back for this project as well. Winning Time is all about Reggie Miller and how he and the Indiana Pacers denied the New York Knicks any shot at a NBA title during the Patrick Ewing John Starks era. Check it out on ESPN.com.

My assignment was to photograph Reggie Miller…Such an iconic figure and future hall of famer in the sport! I am a big fan was totally psyched about the assignment! The concept was really simple...Reggie with props that referenced one of his most memorable games; the 1995 Eastern Conference Playoffs where he scored 8 points in 8.9 seconds to lead the Pacers to a road win over the Knicks. One of the greatest individual performances in NBA history!!!

ESPN had an idea that Reggie would sit on a huge shot clock, or hold a small shot clock in his hands.. so I went with it. But I also came up with the idea to mock up a newspaper. NYC newspapers are known for it’s bold dramatic headlines and front covers. Reggie’s performance was certainly front page news back in the day. For the mock up I actually found a company online let me make a newspaper cover. I could customize the text and ad my own photo… all for $9.99. I then got usage rights for a photo from the actual 8.9 seconds from the Associated Press and made that the cover photo. It was a nice addition to the shoot and Reggie really loved it!

The shoot was out in LA… I used 5th and Sunset, a great full service studio that is used to having celebrity/high profile shoots. I also had two great assistants and a digital tech from Assistthis.net

We had about 2 hours with Reggie and I have to say, it was one of the smoothest shoots I’ve ever been on! HE was fantastic! He brought a lot of personality to the shoot and really had fun with it. Not to mention, he had flawless skin and look amazing! I enjoyed it tremendously and look forward to seeing Reggie down the road!

Craig Robinson…The First Brother-in-Law

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.

ADDY for Under Armour!

So good things happen in pairs! The same day the Slam double cover hit the stands... I got word that the Under Armour "When in Rome" print & web campaign I shot with Brandon Jennings was awarded a Gold Addy & a Mosaic award! This is really big, considering over 60,000 people enter the Addy's! For those of you who don't know, the ADDY Awards are the world's largest and arguably toughest advertising competition. It is the highest honor in the ad world to cop an ADDY!!! I give HUGE HUGE props to the creative department at Under Armour. They took everything we shot in Rome with Brandon and created a DOPE campaign! When I saw the final cuts for the print ads, I was speechless! It is one of the best projects I have ever been a part of! The hard work and the hustle has paid off!
Here's a link to the site! http://wheninrome.underarmour.com/#/home

Slam Double Cover!!!!

The minute this joint hit the stands I felt like a proud parent of twins! Having a double cover for Slam Magazine is amazing! Ben & Melissa did it up right! The shoot actually went down months ago and I've had to contain my excitement for all this time!
I flew to Barcelona in December for the lone opportunity when Ricky Rubio and Brandon Jennings would be in the same city at the same time.
I rented a studio in Barcelona, had two great local assistants. The shoot was very relaxed and quite trouble free. Ricky showed up first to the studio with his parents. What a good looking guy! and very polite! His parents were wonderful! About an hour later, Brandon arrived. IT was the first time the two players had officially met...You could tell there was a mutual respect for each other. When they got on set together it was like I was photographing Allen Iverson & Steve Nash together! It just felt like a historic moment! Two phenomenal players with their whole lives ahead of them! This was a once in a lifetime kind of photoshoot!
Here is some behind the scenes footage from the shoot!
http://slamonline.com/online/media/slam-tv/2009/04/video-more-ricky-and-brandon/
http://slamonline.com/online/media/slam-tv/2009/04/rrbj/
http://slamonline.com/online/the-magazine/toc/2009/04/slam-128-on-sale-now/#comments

As if that wasn't enough... Slam called me a week later and said they wanted to do a double cover... this time they sent me to Florida to catch John Wall & Lance Stephenson together. The two are the top high school players this year and both are just a year away from the NBA Draft! It was an overdose of basketball! Two amazing shoots in a week!

Dime Magazine

In case you missed it...The January issue of Dime Magazine was full of Brandon Jennings! The cover and full spread inside are all outtakes I shot for the "When in Rome" ad campaign Under Armour. Props to Dime for recognizing how historic a move Brandon has made!

SET Magazine Cover Shoot

On Monday I had the pleasure of shooting the Washington Wizards Gilbert Arenas for the cover of the 4th issue of SET Magazine. Everything went down at his home in northern Virginia. We had a great concept to shoot some environmental portraits outside of his house & with his cars. But the day took an unexpected turn when his coach was fired!! So the whole crew was in limbo just chilling at his house for about 6 hours while Gilbert was in team meetings and media interviews. A special thanks to Gilbert's fiance Laura who entertained us all day! The G-man finally got home about 8:30 in the evening!!! Despite the stress of the day, Gilbert was a great subject. We had him decked out in several great suits... as well as a bare chested tattoo look for the ladies! The issue hits the shelf in about a month!

Under Armour Website

It's very rewarding to see the end product of a photoshoot. Case and point, the Under Armour website dedicated to Brandon Jennings which just launched this week. The creative team and UA did an amazing job on the site, I'm so proud of it! All of the photos are from the marathon shoot in Italy about 8 weeks ago...plus a few personal photos from Brandon. The site allows fans to follow Mr. Young Money while he is in Rome, Italy playing for Vitrus Roma. Enjoy the site! Underarmour.com/wheninrome

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!