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With the NBA lockout looming over the last couple of weeks it got me thinking about one of our local clients, the Oklahoma City Thunder. We appreciate the opportunity we've had to work with them, as we do with all of our clients, and wish the NBA a swift resolution to their labor talks.

As a fan it's easy to take for granted the fact that professional athletes will be out there doing their thing every year, but history has proved that you can't always count on it. Hopefully things get straightened out between the players and owners sooner rather than later, but in the meantime I've created a short timelapse of a poster I put together to keep hope alive.

The poster features OKC players James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Nothing fancy design-wise since I wanted to showcase the photos more than anything.

I took these pictures during OKC's media day in 2010. I've been wanting a forum to show them for a long time. I tried to pitch them for Thunder Magazine articles, marketing materials and anything else I could think of. (Heads on sticks anyone?) They're definitely not to everyone's taste. They're not the most flattering in terms of lighting, lense choice or anything else. In fact they ended up never getting used during the 2010-11 season.

I like them because they show a view of these professional athletes that you don't get to see very often. It's very up close and personal and a bit jarring really. I look at them as more of a caricature than a photo that's representative of how these guys actually look.

In the digital age photography has become a medium that can be manipulated in any way the photographer sees fit to do so. A photograph is not always a literal representation of reality. It can run the gamut from brutal honesty to airbrushed un-reality, like almost all the images you see everyday of celebrities on magazine covers.

Wikipedia says the following about caricatures: A caricature can refer to a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment.

To me caricatures are interesting precisely because they exaggerate and distort. Case in point, this illustration from the March GQ a few months back that shows the Thunder as a team of boy scouts. Playing off of the national perception of Oklahoma City and it's team as being exremely straight-laced and morally upright, it makes a greater impact than a simple team photo and invites the viewer to entertain new comparisons.

Illustration by Jacob Weinstein

The pictures I took of these athletes were an attempt at caricature through photograpy. They were shot at a relatively wide angle, between 24 and 40 mm, and from very close. I would estimate I was no more than a few inches away from each player's nose when the pictures were shot. The combination of those two things makes for a very distorted view, emphasizing the nose, mouth and eyes.

It was a challenge to fit them into a very busy schedule that particular day. They were shot at the end of each player's session, only once I knew I had all of the normal, flattering shots the Thunder needed for the season's marketing. I made only 2-5 frames of each player with this particular setup, less than a minute of the total time spent with each one.

Despite the fact that no one else really liked them, I still feel like these shots were a success for me as a photographer. They represent my goal of always trying to see things differently through my lens and to push the boundaries of what's safe and accepted.

You may be thinking to yourself that these pictures aren't daring at all or even particularly good, in which case I applaud your forward-thinking and proggressive attitude. (Or you're probably this guy. Who I readily acknowledge as the inspiration for this idea.)  At the very least I hope you think about pushing the envelope in your own day to day activities.

Check out a timelapse of the photo edit below: