Back at the end of January, I worked with the Sports Information Department at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas to provide team photos for several of their sports teams and their student athletes. Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college with a student body of around 1000 students.
I wanted to state up front this photo shoot was not originally mine. The Client originally hired a professional colleague and a friend of mine. He is a highly respected sports photographer who I have known and worked along side with for over 20 years. Two days before this photo shoot, he was photographing an NBA basketball game in a neighboring state and was informed he was possibly exposed to COVID-19. Doing his due diligence, he took a COVID test and quarantined himself for 10 days. Thankfully he was negative. However, the photo shoot could not be rescheduled so my friend called me.
Over the years, this colleague has brought me on as a second photographer on many of his photo shoot and he also handed over many photo shoots when he was already booked. In turn, I have passed several photo shoots on to him.
So when he called, literally less than 30-hours before the shoot was to start, I was happy to step up and get the job done. He knew my skill set and experience level could easily provide the results Hendrix needed.
The photo shoot was simple and straightforward: provide Hendrix College with new, individual and group photos on white seamless paper or several of their men’s and women’s teams. The client specifically request white seamless paper, with bright, well-lit photos to be used in various website and social media blasts. You can see a few photos that were posted to Twitter! on my Published page. The Client specified most of the photos would be cropped at the waist and they were going to the clipping and design work on their end. Anyone who has shot team photos on seamless paper knows that by the end of the day, the paper is trashed — especially white paper. While I was not too concerned about the paper, I did a little clean-up work in post before handing over the photos.
It was a marathon day. I arrived at 8 a.m. on a Saturday to set up my seamless paper and six-light setup. I was broken down and headed home at 10:30 p.m. Yes, you read that right, it was a 14-hour day. But we got it done.
Below are some of my favorites.
A little BTS of my six-light setup.
I used a Canon 5D Mark III and a 70-200 L-series lens on a tripod for the entire photo shoot. I used Profoto Lighting with medium deep white diffused umbrellas on both of my key lights. Both side lights were Profoto with 1x3 strip boxes with grids. The lights on the background were Alien Bees, with white interior umbrellas with black backing. I proofed photos to the Client in real time to my iPad using CamRanger.
