Dick’s Sporting Goods Running Shoot

Panoramic view of runners on the boardwalk in the Palmetto Marsh.

Once again I had the great opportunity to do a campaign with Dick’s Sporting Goods for their upcoming 2013 Running Catalogue and commercial imagery. The assignment was in Charleston, South Carolina for about 4 days where we had the chance to shoot in some very beautiful spots which included the streets of old plantation houses, Palmetto Marsh, and the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Shooting running was similar to shooting golf, looking for the right light is key for making the picture successful.

Beautiful evening for a run at Shem Creek in Charleston, SC.

The weather was all over the place, one moment it would be sunny with some scattered clouds, the next it would be dumping buckets of rain. Luckily we decided to take some pictures in the late afternoon after the 1st day of scouting and ended up with some beautiful running shots with the sun setting in the background over the marsh and some shrimping boats. On the 2nd day we had pumped out most of the shots that we needed at the marsh trails in the morning and the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge before the rain started coming down hard around noon. At one point we sat in the trailer with the crew and all the models trying to wait for the rain to pass.

The crew waits out the rain in our production trailer. Thankfully we had good company and good food!

The highlights of the shoot for me were watching the sun come up over the Palmetto Marsh (and squeezing in our shots before the rain came!) and closing down the streets of downtown Charleston for our marathon shot. Here’s a funny video my assistant Brandon Magnus took of me directing traffic:

We also had one free shoot day when we decided to shoot youth soccer to fill in some content for the Dicks library. It’s always a nice change of pace when you go from shooting refined professional athletes-slash-models to young kids who just want to play sport. We couldn’t hope to direct or even contain the little monsters, so for the most part we set up game situations and had them run through it while I shot, which worked perfectly.

General view of marathon with street closure in the streets of downtown Charleston.

This was another fantastic experience and pleasure to work with Dick’s Sporting Goods team, and I look forward to our next shoot together! Big thanks to Scott Lenz, Peter Ahi, Kim McEniry, Barry Berenson, Pat Hugg, Zach Schefer, Brandon Magnus and most of all to local photographer John Smoak who made this great shoot come together and did everything from scouting, to permits, to holding a reflector…

My First Image in National Geographic Magazine

Since I was a child and my parents had a subscription to National Geographic Magazine, escaping to remote locations, excavating ruins and experiencing exotic animals was always just a page flip away. For me NGM has always been the gold standard for not only nature and conservation but also great photography. David Dubilet’s surreal underwater scenes, Steve McCurry’s Afghan girl, Chris Johns Camel’s crossing the Sahara, Paul Nicklin’s Emperor Penguins, and the list of amazing photography in the magazines 125 year history goes on and on. I am honored to have one of my favorite images, the underwater view of the mass swim start from the 2011 Kona Ironman World Champs that won World Press Photo in 2012, published as a double page spread in the March edition of National Geographic Magazine’s Visions of Earth section. It’s always been a dream of mine to be published in the magazine and can’t thank NGM enough for deeming my photograph worthy to be in the same pages as the greats. Pick up your copy of National Geographic today or go to their website here and order your own custom print of my image!

LONDON CALLING – Olympic Preview

BEIJING- AUGUST 8: The Olympic Rings are seen during the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games on August 8, 2008 at the National Stadium in Beijing, China.  (Photo by Donald Miralle)

After a five hour delay in Vancouver, 10 hours in a cramped coach seat, 1 sleeping pill, and a couple beers I landed in London a bit jetlagged and under the weather but happy to be on the otherside of the pond. After collecting my 5 camera cases filled with remotes, underwater gear, long lens, bodies, powerbars, and other essential items, I settled in the luxury flat in Westend of London (reminscent of Austin Power’s apartment) setup by my longtime friend David Leah, CEO of Mexsport.

My longtime firend David Leah and I give it the thumbs-up in the MPC…

After a solid six hours of sleep, I headed over to the MPC via tube and bus for my first experience of London public transport. I have to admit it was a pretty smooth but long hour and 15 minute experience, and it will be very different with tons of gear and early starting times. After getting checking into the Photographer help desk and receiving my camera vest, swinging by USOC and picking up my Opening Ceremonies ticket,  I attended the Photographer Briefing by Head Photo Chief Bob Martin. Bob is a legendary sports photographer who worked for Allsport Photography back in the day (my first employer) and has been a Sports Illustrated staff photographer for years. He and his crew did a fantastic job making this Olympics as “photo friendly” as possible, and my hopes that I will come away from this game with some great iconic images are very high.

Off to attend the Canon and Nikon Parties, and then a get a little more rest, before the fireworks go off tomorrow night!!!

Head Photo Chief Bob Martin speaks to the Olympic Photographers about the do’s and don’t of the London Olympics in the Photo Meeting.

Lance Armstrong Cover

I had the great experience of getting to hang out and shoot Lance Armstrong at his home and the Livestrong Foundation in Austin, Texas for this month’s cover of LAVA Magazine in newstands now. One of the more enjoyable shoots I’ve had in a while and Lance was gracious with his time, letting us shoot him over the course of two days, and he was a pleasure to be around. He even let me go for an accidental swim in his fountain and tweeted Liz Kreutz’s photos to his 3.5 million followers (see picture below). He is obviously an inspirational person because of his 7 Tour De France wins but more importantly for his efforts in the fight against cancer with the Livestrong Foundation. Here’s some outtakes, some behind the scenes by Liz, the cover, and the story layout with great text by Jay Prasuhn…enjoy!

Some Outtakes….

Behind the scenes….

The story layout and cover…