p.1 #1 · Particle Degeneration Basketball Player Portrait
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Kinda funny this one didn't make that long list of sports portraits I posted a week or two ago. This is the artistic direction I like to go, I don't mean with particle degeneration, but just getting creative and doing whatever to make a regular image be transformed into a work of art.
So this woman books a session for her 14 year old son for me to get edgy creative sports portraits of him. He comes along, doing this for his mom, and completely disinterested. Just wants to get the shots, get it over with, and go back to whatever he was doing. Except they forgot to bring a basketball. So stepdad is on his way with a ball.
That gives me time to talk to Cooper, ask him about players he admires, and then talk about some concepts I have in mind. I already know what I want to do. The kid is tall, 6-4 as a freshman, so I know he likes the idea of taking flight and dunking. We tells me his favorite player is LeBron, and then we talk about LeBron's dunks and we come up with a look he likes.
I've shown him what I've done with other athletes, and now, by the time the ball arrives, Cooper is all in. He's excited about this. He's going to do anything I ask of him, and he'll do it 20 times if we need to. Which we do, as he's not really accustomed to dunking the ball. But we work on it, fine-tunes his leap and body, tweak a few things, and finally we nail it.
I'm including the original image, another dunk shot that we considered for the final image, and another portrait I got of him. The portrait of him holding the ball is unposed. It's something I do all the time. I just tell them I'm trying to figure out the lighting and settings and just need to get some test shots before we're ready to start, and I just ask them to stand there. Without saying it, I'm telling them to ignore me, and then I end up with a shot like that one, just a boy looking down at his ball.
3. Another strong contender for the Particle Degeneration shot. You can see his expression here. When he first did these, he was going up looking almost bored. I showed him pics of LeBron and Kobe and everyone as they went up for dunks, the expressions they had. I told him I wanted to see him angry, like he was intending to break the glass backboard with this dunk. http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51741473471_ae7cfe19a4_b.jpg
p.1 #3 · Particle Degeneration Basketball Player Portrait
Ron, I really like the Particle Degeneration final image but curious as to why u didn’t choose the 3rd images? Seems like u got the angry look in that image.
As always top notch work. 👍🏻
p.1 #4 · Particle Degeneration Basketball Player Portrait
"Particle degeneration"? Thought I had tuned into "Young Sheldon"! This brought the creativity out in you Ron!
Very creative, very unique and most well done!
Dan
p.1 #8 · Particle Degeneration Basketball Player Portrait
keepclicking wrote:
Ron, I really like the Particle Degeneration final image but curious as to why u didn’t choose the 3rd images? Seems like u got the angry look in that image.
As always top notch work. 👍🏻
I let him choose. I showed him both pics, and he chose that one. We liked how his feet are going backwards, reminded him of a LeBron slam, whereas the other one is fhe more traditional look. Thanks so much!
p.1 #9 · Particle Degeneration Basketball Player Portrait
Danpbphoto wrote:
"Particle degeneration"? Thought I had tuned into "Young Sheldon"! This brought the creativity out in you Ron!
Very creative, very unique and most well done!
Dan
If Sheldon was a photographer, he'd actually probably be behind the scenes doing creative edits like this.
p.1 #10 · Particle Degeneration Basketball Player Portrait
saaketham wrote:
I am sure he and his mom loved it.
Excellent result and it's great to hear how you turned an unwilling participant into a willing model.
Yeah, it's kind of fun to figure out a way to connect with your teen subjects. Thanks!
p.1 #11 · Particle Degeneration Basketball Player Portrait
RustyBug wrote:
And folks think all you do is push a button to take a pic. If they only knew how important the "people" portion is ... well, the good ones DO KNOW.
Dig the backstory.
Truly, Rusty. I think the experience is as important as the final product. I really enjoy getting to know most of these teens, there are a few that have iron walls up.
Some photogs just don't have the personality to provide the experience, but they may still deliver amazing images.
? 
Thought I had tuned into "Young Sheldon"! This brought the creativity out in you Ron!
