MJ and Don...Game Face On!

We both came to play. Our shoot date had arrived following nearly two weeks of meetings and planning. Now we had ourselves a photo session...it was playtime.   Michael was a great sport, with the fact the workload tripled from the initial plan of only two shots. A second ad agency also representing Coke, arrived a day previous to our shoot that needed shots of Michael. I’m good on the fly, and we already new that was true of Michael. Needless to say we had an audience of close to 40 people who wanted to be witnesses.

Michael and I both had some great shots.  Placing the camera close to the ground helped get Michael’s arms at angles that worked with the “wave” that Coke was using as a design element. Michael was to vary the height of his arms, along with the amount his body and head were turned.  Shot after shot was changed ever so slightly, and each one was totally perfect...Michael Jordan at his best.  A larger than life moment happened about half way through our slam-dunk event. One of my strobe lights decided, on it’s own accord, to not flash. Time held still when Michael stopped and gave me a ‘look’.  My next two or three test flashes of course worked perfectly, so we resumed shooting.  The very next shot that Michael took (the ball must have slipped a bit) and he missed the slam. So I stopped the shoot and gave Michael a look similar to the one he gave me the shot earlier.  A second later, Michael, the studio full of people and I broke into laughter...the kind of laughter you saw him share with Scottie Pippen, on the sidelines when the Bulls were up by 35 points in the last quarter of a game.

Our studio strobes were set to a fast flash duration to freeze Michael in mid-air because he was flying at full speed. I also rigged the backboard and rim a foot lower than in an actual game for safety and ease of operation. When Michael was drinking from the can, we added a number a low power, bare bulb strobes that reflected great off of his sprayed down body.

Soon thereafter, we shot the very next Bulls game for the background crowd. Challenge...even though the people were to be soft focus, they still needed to have their heads turned towards where Michael was to be placed in our layout, which was over the free throw area. Well, the crowd was always looking at the opposite end of the court because that’s where all the players were! When our free throw area was clear of players, I had about a second to shoot the crowd before the players filled the area once more.

We finished our shootings with everyone a winner. The Bulls came away the victor of their game. MJ and Don came to play (have fun) and we both won. DL makes people happy.