Miami Sweet

Winter shoot in Miami for ESPN magazine....my favorite sentence....I shot the day in the life of a football game for ESPN back in the fall at a houston texans game (see blog 3 posts down), and i was asked to do the same thing, but this time it was a Heat game in miami..again the concept was to do a whole issue of the magazine all about a miami heat game, with about 30 photogs, writers, and editors scrambling to cover every aspect of a pro basketball game and all that it is and entails...again my assignment was to set up a white backdrop and photograph people...whereas at the football game i was photographing all of the people that "work" at a football game, from the hotdog seller to the quarterback, at the Heat game they wanted see the "fashion" that the fans wear to pro basketball game...from the extreme, to the tacky, to the trendy...another very cool gig...again it was one of those really great dream jobs..so much fun hanging with fans (who were usually drinking and in a good mood) and shooting them in their "look"...writers and editors were scouring the stands and skyboxes looking for people that had a look and would convince them to come backstage for a 5 minute shoot...the hardest part was hearing all of the action and cheering but not being able to see the game..it was a nail biter that came down to the last shot, which the heat won..i did see the last 2 minutes standing courtside, which was really awesome..i shoot alot of athlete portraits for different magazines, and i tell people it always amazes me, whether its a football player, basketball, tennis, baseball, golfer, etc., at how GOOD pro athletes are at what they do..really blows me away at the level and intensity of their skill and talent...basketball is no exception..to see it live down courtside is like watching the most intense testosterone fueled aggressive battle, but with the perfection and delicate nuance of the NYC ballet...i never take it for granted when watching pro athletes...anyway, the shoot was great, the layout was great, very happy overall with the way it came out..after the shoot, instead of going back to nyc i headed to key west for 2 days with my brother to fish and dive..he came to the hotel to spend the night after the game before we left in the morning, so i told the front desk (very fancy snobby hotel with bentleys and ferraris in the driveway) to give my brother rob welch a key when he arrived, knowing full well my brother would be arriving in his beat up diesel pickup truck (he's a commercial fisherman) full of fishing gear and god knows what else....its always fun to force the issue with people and keep them in check. Lest they start to believe their own press..ROb said they seemed a little "annoyed" by him..oh well..had a great time in the keys, caught a bunch of lobster, caught some barracuda, snapper, and jacks..tooled around on the jetskis, etc....but mostly just hung on the dock of my bro's friends house and sat in a chair, drank beers with him, and watched water while listening to the jimmy buffet statio on pandora on the iphone...