Posts tagged ‘sports’
One on One with Olympian Aly Raisman
A few years ago I started a relationship with US Weekly Magazine when they were running a special issue on Justin Bieber. For those of you who don’t know, I spent about 6 months shadowing him for a book project and subsequently as his tour photographer. I was surprised to find out that US Weekly high-quality special issues called “bookazines” about ten times per year that sell for $9.99.
So the magazine needed some pictures and I was a good source. Since then I’ve shot a few more times for the publication documenting the lives of celebrities. Most recently they sent me to Massachusetts to spend a few days with Olympic gymnastic hopeful Aly Raisman. Since my time with her in June, she’s gone on to qualify and is currently competing (and doing quite well) at the Olympic Games in London.
This shoot was a mix of documentary and portraiture as the magazine wanted to show various aspects of Aly’s life. For instance; she’s 18 years old, lives at home with her parents, was just asked to the prom by a friend, and spends obscene amounts of her time practicing her sport at Brestyan’s Gymnastics.
The day started when I arrived to her home and was first greeted by her two overly-excited dogs who put me through my paces until my newness wore off. She has a big family, two sisters, one brother, a neighbor friend who is apparently a fixture at their household. Also a Boston Bruin loving father and a sweet mother who homemade a wonderful buffet of great food and snacks.
After having her hair and makeup done, Aly gave me a tour of her family’s massive home and grounds. We took portraits in various locations around the home and outside in their vast yard. In her bedroom, she keeps every medal won, credentials, and ID numbers from her various competitions throughout her life. She showed me her prom dress and even her prom date came over for a portrait with Aly.
Interestingly, while I working there was a videographer named Torey Champagne who had been working on a long term documentary on Aly’s bid for the Olympics called Quest For Gold. He was a really cool guy and documented our photo shoot as well as interviewed me. His documentary is currently on Comcast Sports Net…I still haven’t seen it, but if you have…tell me if I made it in!
The next morning I visited her briefly at the gym where she was training with Coach Brestyan. I was simply blown away at how incredibly athletic Aly was. I’ve watch gymnastics on TV whenever the Olympics are on, but until you see the athleticism in person, you have no idea how intense these gymnasts are. When I arrived she was just finishing her bar routine and moving to the balance beam. First of all, that beam is 4″ wide…unbelievable…and she was doing armless flips and twirls with ease. Pretty soon her practice was wound down with a stretching routine that was simply painful to watch.
It’s always a pleasure documenting amazing people. Aly’s the real deal. Go USA!
The New York City Triathlon
As a freelancer, I’m always waiting for the phone to ring because a ringing phone usually means work’s calling. It’s always nice to hear the familiar voice of a photo editor on the other end asking my availability. The only thing that spoils it is when they pre-empt the assignment pitch with “So you’re an early riser, right?” delivered in a tone closely associated with a mischievous grin . I answered with “Oh boy…what’s the assignment and how early?…”
As it turned out, the next morning was the NYC Triathlon and the New York Times wanted one nice photo of the event for the paper. Given triathlons consist of swimming, biking, and running; we figured swimming would be the most visual portion to photograph…especially since it took place in the Hudson River!
So I found out I needed to be to my assignment by 5:50AM as that’s when the swimming portion for the pros was scheduled to begin. Unfortunately when I woke up at 5AM, the weather was rainy, hot, and humidity was at 99% according to the forecast. Yuck. With an oversized umbrella and rain-jacket, I made my way to Riverside Park along the Hudson on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, down to the dock where all the triathletes would soon be exiting the water, and waited. The race had been delayed about 30 minutes. Hurry up and wait. In the rain.
After passing the time under my umbrella, I could finally see the flapping arms and faces of swimmers popping up, down, in, and out of the water. Moments later the pros and elite athletes first approached and stormed out of the choppy, brown Hudson River gasping for air and pulling themselves out or the water, some with the help of lifeguards. Up the ramp and down the dock barefoot they clambered down the bike path where they jumped on their bikes and headed north along the West Side Highway continuing about 24 miles before ending in Central Park with a near 6 mile run. Woah.
It was my first time shooting or even witnessing a triathlon and I was truly amazed at the determination and strength of its competitors. It’s even inspired me to work towards a goal of someday competing in a race like that myself…though we’ll see if that ever happens….
Big congrats to my triathlete/photographer pal Jason DeCrow for completing the course!
Canon vs. Nikon Shootout – Results are in!
A few weeks ago I was approached by Josh Lehrer of Unique Photo asking if I’d be interested in taking part in a Nikon D3S vs. Canon 1D Mark IV shootout with my Nikon-shooting pal, David Bergman. Josh took us to a very dimly-lit sporting venue in Long Island where David and I shot side-by-side at the various ISO settings so he could later create a write-up.
Both cameras proved to be great tools and improvements on their predecessors….Click here to see the results on Josh’s blog post to see the side-by-side comparisons and download the RAW files!
What are your thoughts? Who won? Canon or Nikon?
The shootout banner he made cracks me up!
