Storytelling

A Life magazine writer, Richard Woodley, called me today to ask some questions, and we talked and talked. His books and movies are part of our national collective conscience.

But what fascinated me was listening to him talk about the magazine he wrote for during the decade of the 1960s. It was a different time in print journalism. Globe trotting photographers and writers brought us stories with panache, adventure, and style. Fueled by seemingly endless budgets, a loving and devoted readership and an enthusiasm for getting it perfect, every time. If it needed to be covered, they were there in force.

For those of you too young to remember, Life magazine was once the gold standard among journalistic publications.

I really should have gotten moving and cut the call short, what with needing to pack for a five day road trip to do five portrait shoots -- including one for a magazine cover and two unrelated new video projects. A trip that would require twelve cases of gear to get through the different setups.

We spoke for an hour and it was delightful.

He called to ask about an old friend of ours, the great Bill Epperidge who passed last week.

But we talked about all kinds of things, as one story about Bill spun off into another.

I learned a lot, shared some, and did I mention, just had a great time.

Storytelling, done just right, is a huge treat.

Throwback Thursday: Missy

The most difficult thing I have ever done as a photographer was to follow Missy Koch into the operating room where she was facing the amputation of her leg.

We were friends before the surgery and have stayed that way in the ensuing three decades.

Missy's husband Todd Billingsley has written a book about Missy's life, Run to Win.

Last week, I talked with writer Josh McCauliffe about Missy, stirring up old emotions and remembering old stories.

Throwback Thursday: On the Road with Peter King and John Madden

In November 1990, I flew to Oakland to meet SI writer Peter King for a trip across America with John Madden. A unique experience to say the least, and by unique I mean crazy. I climbed onto the top of a moving truck to shoot the Madden Bus rolling through the desert, changed a flat tire like a NASCAR pit crew in Western Nebraska (although in fairness, they are about 1,000 times faster, it just felt like being on a NASCAR pit crew), talked football through Ohio, and watched Madden put his head in a hippopotamus drinking fountain in a small Pennsylvania town.

Sports Illustrated published the story across a multi-page layout. Now I think, the story would be told not only in the classic great SI style, but also through video and multimedia both on SI.com and on the iPad edition of the magazine.

Last Friday, I was in Oxnard at the Dallas Cowboys Training Camp again with Peter King for the start of another journey. This time I was there to do some video projects with Peter for the launch of his great new SI branded Website mmqb.si.com.

Havana

It's Havana's birthday. She's a dozen years old today.

I remember when I met her so clearly.

She has had an incredible effect on my life.  I see things with a softer edge now that she is in the world.

In Osaka, Japan Alexander Hassenstein, who I met first in Barcelona at the Olympics when he was barely 17, and then again in St Perersburg Russia during the Goodwill  Games, asked me what my new daughter was called.  ....when I told him Havana his  eyes lit up, and he called Germany immediately to speak to Sabine--then carrying their unborn daughter--and he said "I have her name.  It must be Havana."

Two old friends, who behave like children,  crossing paths all over the world, sharing stories about their Havanas.  And an unspoken bond forged through a love of life, people, and images.

More of my images of Havana through the years are on my Website.

Stories for the Super Bowl

Every Super Bowl, I have some form of connection with at least one of the teams in the game.

Early in my career at Sports Illustrated, I covered 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh when he was the starting quarterback in Indianapolis.  One shoot in particular sticks in my memory.  As a coach, Harbaugh is known for being tough to interview.  As a player, at least with me, he was great.  Not only did he give me as much time as I needed, but he took me out for breakfast -- at Cracker Barrel.

Harbaugh reading the paper at home.

Then in October of last year, Laura and I, along with Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Tim Layden, did a story on the four kickers in NFL history who have kicked 63 yard field goals. David Akers of the 49ers is in this elite group.

David not only gave us as much time as we needed, he brought his family in to meet us.  We had so much fun with them, we shot their Christmas card while we were there.

People always ask me who my favorite sports teams are.  My answer: I like people, not teams.  David Akers and Jim Harbaugh are two of those people.  They were gracious and easy to deal with, and so I hope they do well.

Over the years, I have covered more than 25 Super Bowls. For tomorrow's game I'll be Amsterdam bound to judge the World Press Photo competition, but I will definitely be checking in on the action in NOLA -- as soon as I land.

Joey Abrait

On assignment for Sports Illustrated in Russia, I met a young Lithuanian photographer Joey Abrait. We went for long slow walks around St. Petersburg shooting and talking about images and photojournalism for hours. But mostly, we talked about freedom and the differences of growing up in the American Midwest and in a Soviet occupied Baltic country.

The freedom we were talking about was far from political, but artistic and journalistic.

She is finding hers in her work, both written and photographic. I'm not sure how many languages she speaks, but at least four or five, and I love her words.  She has a new blog and it's going to be fun to follow.

Joey last winter in Stockholm.

One Year

One year ago, I made this image.

It's that point in time yearly when I spend a few minutes thinking about where I've been, what I've seen, and what I've done.

When art director extraordinaire Gen Umei asked me to shoot one of the ads for the international release of the Nikon D4 I was thrilled. The chance to work with Gen is a photographer's dream. Not only he is the best at what he does, he's a cherished friend.

To be one of the first photographers in the world to use the latest of a long line of Nikon imaging machines is another dream. I leapt at the chance.

One of the things Gen wanted me to demonstrate was the high ISO capability of the camera, and the superb autofocus functions.

So, what subject matter to select? It wasn't hard to figure out.

2012 was an Olympic year. I love track and field. Laura is a Florida Gator. And we wanted to do part of the shoot at home in Jacksonville.

How do these things work together?

Christian Taylor. Florida Gator. World Champion and soon to be Olympic Champion was happy to jump for us.

Joel Lamp in an act of superb kindness made Jacksonville University's track and field facilities available.

The natural temptation was to shoot the image in beautiful light. Either late afternoon direct sun, or some filtered artificial light. But that would defeat the purpose. We had to show the jump in low, flat light in order to demonstrate just what this camera could do.

We set up and waited. The sun crept lower, and lower in the sky. When it hit the horizon, we started to shoot.

I was shooting with a Nikkor 600 f4 head on with a D4 set at 12,800 ISO. Laura was slightly to my left side and closer to the pit shooting with a Nikkor 400 f 2.8. Andy Hancock was just to my right and was shooting a little looser with a Nikkor 300 f 2.8. We had our bases covered.

Christian was extremely gracious. I expected him to jump a half a dozen times. He did a dozen and would have kept going if I needed him to.

But 12 leaps was more than enough. We had plenty of options. The camera did it's job. We did ours. And Nikon had their ad.

A few hundred thousand air miles later we were in London fully devoted to covering Track and Field for Sports Illustrated.

We had a remote camera high above the triple jump pit. Laura was firing it with specially configured Pocket Wizards.

Christian Taylor jumped brilliantly claiming the gold with a performance of 17.81m, .19 meters better than his fellow teammate Will Claye who finished with a bronze.

I was at the finish line head-on moat, across the stadium from Christian, but I was watching the video streaming. When he won I couldn't help a small exclamation, and a quick text to Gen at home in Tokyo.

Christian and Florida Gator teammate Will Claye took a lap of honor, and when Christian saw me he came over and put out his hand.

An excellent memory for sure.

Absent Friends

There is an African proverb that goes something like this: "When an old man dies a library burns down."

Tonight, I am remembering two great ones that are no longer with us.

Both had a personal effect on me.  And a profound effect on the world through their work.

Ken Regan.  Brilliant, funny, intense.  Passed away last week after a long battle with cancer.

Gordon Parks. No one else evenly remotely like him.  He would have been 100 this week.

Absent friends.

Clemson at Florida State

I was getting ready to cover # 10 Clemson at # 4 Florida State this weekend. There was a lot of noise. About 85,000 fans screaming, two marching bands playing, and Gary Bogdon, the other SI photographer, talking nonstop… That kind of thing.

They announced FSU's starters over Doak Campbell Stadiums’ loudspeakers.   One name was really familiar. Longer snapper Dax Dellenbach.

I just started to grin.  I know that kid.  Not well, but for a very long time.  That's part of the problem of covering sports on an international level, I never seem to have enough time to get to really know some of the people I would like to know as well as I would like to know them.

Dax's dad, Jeff Dellenbach is one of my favorite football players of all time.  Jeff had a long NFL career.  He was a center for the Dolphins, Packers, Patriots and Eagles.

I photographed Dax and his brothers, his mother and of course his dad a bunch of times.  Mary Dellenbach would bring the kids to the Dolphin's practices when the kids were tiny.

The first time I remember photographing Jeff while he wasn’t playing was on the practice field after Coach Shula had called an end to the day’s work.  I photographed a tiny Dellenbach using his giant fathers’ helmet as a cradle.

And in 1995, George Washington, one of my editors at SI, called with a great assignment.  A photo act on really big guys.  GW and I brainstormed how to really show just how large and graceful these guys are.

One of the lead images in that essay was of the Dellenbach family.  The 6'7", 300 plus pound Jeff wearing a pair of his boxers.  Mary and the three youngsters wearing another, identical pair.

At the end of the game, I went to talk to Dax.  As soon as I started to explain why I was stopping him, a big smile spread across his face and he extended a giant paw.

He remembered and just laughed.

I asked him to please give my best to his parents.  He told me that they were there in the stands, and would be meeting him outside the stadium later and said I should stop by.

But of course, I had to go transmit the images of Dax and his FSU teammates to New York.

Never enough time.

Kind Friends

We always rely on the kindness of our friends, and they always come through. For the Olympics, they came from Portugal, Britain, India, Germany, South Africa, France, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Belgium, Japan, Australia, and China with good will and amazing resources.

Laura and I are very well equipped both gear and experience wise to deal with pretty much any situation, but at an event as intense as the Olympic Games, there is always room for more help.

Just a few examples.

Our cameras on the roof, Nikon D4s, needed to be powered with AC units since we left them on continuously for days.

When we went to install them, we realized, much to our chagrin, that there were no units to be found. Like cards, card readers and power leads, these disappeared quickly when left unattended.

I sent a mayday email to several of the NPS folks. Bill Pekela, NPS USA, answered quickly and managed to track some down, and they were available for us at Fixation, the camera store inside the Main Press Center, by the next morning. Peter Brodin, NPS Nordics, sent an email an hour later. No problem he said. He found some in Stockholm and had them delivered to my hotel room in London by 11 p.m. Amazing. Between the two fixes, we had power for all our high angle cameras.

Nikon and Canon were in place at the Main Press Center loaning massive amounts of equipment and doing fast repairs. Their generosity and commitment were extremely impressive. The folks at Nikon made our lives so much easier with their fast responses and kindness -- after three weeks in the dust and dirt of the Olympics and the streets of London, my gear left London as clean as clean can be.

Pocket Wizard also sent a team to London to work with photographers. Lorenzo Gasperini and Patrick Clow were a huge help. They loaned gear, helped program units, gave mini seminars and pretty much made sure everyone was up and running. The new software allowed my wizards to work from the bottom of the Olympic Stadium and across the breadth of the facility.

Bob Martin, Director of Photographic Operations at the Olympics, my longtime friend and a former staff photographer at SI, had things sorted out. He did an incredible job making sure things were as absolutely good as they could possibly be for all of us. The entire photo corps owes him a huge thanks, it was a herculean effort.

The Photo Marshalls at the Olympic stadium have my enduring respect and friendship. Craig Dutton, a terrific shooter in his own right, climbed to the top of the stadium with us, at least daily, sometimes twice a day. He made a tough part of the job fun. Venue photo manager Tony Waymouth provided calm leadership. He made sure everything worked smoothly, not an easy task with so many photographers each with their individual needs and considerations. He did it with a smile and great patience.

Last but not least, Raquel Cavaco Nunes stepped away from her law practice to run the infield -- a tough job that she did with grace and ease.

Our kind friends really made London successful.