sports photography

Hey everyone! I've finally managed to find time to get the photo gallery up from NSF last week. If you were at the Old Hat Creative / OKC Thunder bash at the Chesapeake Arena last Tuesday and you stopped in for a photo then be sure to go check it out here. Some photos may have been omitted to protect the innocent.

(For the record, Bud Light Lime is probably my very last choice of drink. And in this case it was the last thing available, so there ya go.)

Some of you may have noticed a missed blog on Tuesday. My apologies for that. I spent Tuesday morning preparing for an afternoon shoot with Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook for an upcoming website and media campaign launching soon.

I can't share too many details right now but as soon as it launches I'll be sure to post some behind-the-scenes and give the scoop on how it all went down. And for anyone who might be wondering, Honey Badger DO care. Russell was a pleasure to work with.

Hey everyone! I got a couple of questions regarding the last couple of Behind the Shot posts (here and here). Today I want to address some of the things that were going on in Photoshop, specifically one of the plug-ins I use when editing photos.

One of the things I try to do with most of my pics is to remove the "look" of a digital capture through a variety of techniques and tricks in Photoshop and Lightroom. However, even though I love the look of film I have no desire to go back to mixing developer, stringing up negatives and waiting hours for things to dry or even working in the darkroom to make each individual print.

Thanks very much to everyone that commented on the Behind the Shot with Kevin Durant post last week. I've been really impressed and flattered with the response it's been getting. I had no idea that Kevin Durant guy was such a big deal. ;)

I had a couple of other photos this past year that I was pretty happy with, so today I'd like to focus on a job that was shot for The University of Michigan and their football campaign.

Michigan came to us early in the summer to start discussing their direction for the 2011 football season. It was decided that the tagline for the year was going to be "This Is Michigan" after the instant classic Brady Hoke quote.

Ok, I admit it. I'm a failure as a blogger.

Last week I promised you a Photo Top Ten from 2011 and not only did I fail to deliver but I didn't even blog on Thursday. Honestly I totally forgot I was going to be out of the office for a couple of days and I just didn't get it put together. Fast forward to Tuesday and I still don't have it for you.

The fact is that I was out of town this past weekend to photograph a good friend's wedding and between all of the general craziness that acommpanies that, and traveling back and forth, it didn't get done. So my only promise is to try very hard to get some more photo stuff up in the next couple of days.

In my defense the pictures from the wedding turned out very well.

(The author, checking out his fabulous pictures in the background.)

Hey Old Hat blog readers, I'm back today following a busy Tuesday shooting once again for Thunder Media Day in OKC.

As usual it was fast-paced and high-energy but lots of fun as well. Pictured above is myself and Old Hat's own Brian Hostetler hanging out while Kevin Durant answers some questions for the Thunder's Ron Matthews.

You can check out the Thunder's Behind the Scenes video at this link. Keep an eye out for yours truly starting at the 23 second mark...and ending at the 24 second mark. Yeah that's what I call press coverage baby.

This morning I'll be spending the day in OKC shooting photos for Thunder Media Day.

Thunder Media Day is always a hectic affair where you literally have a time limit with each player. (Try taking photos while a guy with a stopwatch hangs out in the back. Kind of weird.)

Players have 10-15 areas they have to report to for interviews, video shoots, photos, etc. and just a couple of hours to do it in, thus the stopwatch, so you have to work fast.

Despite the furious nature of the whole thing it's fun to see what you can get under pressure. Last year I did 3 setups and managed to shoot some of my favorite pics so far.

Had a bit of free time lately so I decided to go back and look at some of the photos I shot of Old Hat interns, Dane and Jake. Those two will do anything for attention...like sprint in front of a moving train for chrissakes!

Ok, not really. But it was fun to make it seem that way. I posted this on Twitter yesterday and it's made a few rounds among the Old Hat people, but if you don't follow any of us online then it's news to you. Check out the Making-Of Video below.

It was great to see Brian's post yesterday and some of the photos shot during our OU campus excursion. I've got a bunch of my own that I'm hoping to put up sometime soon. Look to my twitter feed where I post the occasional shot or possibly on this blog for any of those.

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.