I'm a busy guy with a corporate job who agreed to coach my son's flag football team. In the hubbub of the season, I somehow missed the note from the league about team photos, and I never coordinated it for the team. Several of the parents were bummed out, so I told them I'd make it up to them.
While I'd never done sports portraits before, I practiced on my own kid in the driveway. It turns out that butterfly lighting and cranking clarity can make for some cool football portraits. I brought my strobes to the next practice cranked out photos for the boys in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure both the parents and kids were more pleased with these "makeup" photos than the standard sports portraits. All's well that ends well.
Canon 5D3. Two Profoto B1s.
Intense and dynamic shot. I imagine this young man will definitely appreciate his photo more and more as he continues to mature. Did you pose each of the kids different?
It will be interesting to see whether the league reaches out to you about contracting next season's photos based on the parents' feedback.
Robert - thanks so much for the comment! For better or worse, I put them all in the same pose. for a team photo, I put them in a line and added the team logo underneath, but also took a traditional boys-lined-up-on-the-field team photo. The dramatic ones were far more popular!
Awesome shot! And I am sure you are right. I bet these blow the doors off the league ones.
Thank you, Mike!