I recently shoot a cover and feature spread for ESPN Gridiron (ESPN Rise high school football special) of the Oaks Christian football team which included the children of Joe Montana (Nick Montana) Will Smith (Trey Smith) and Hockey Legend Wayne Gretzky (Trevor Gretzky) It also had high school super star Malcolm Jones.

The photo editor and I had a lot of back and fourth pre planning for this shoot, we wanted to put the kids in a different “fun” setting outside of the football field. So we decided a BBQ/lake scenerio would be a good call!

I ended up buying 6 fishing pools, 50 hotdogs, floating rings (which we never used)  10×12 feet of sheet metal that we had to piece together on site at the coaches house…in the street and a whole fish, which I assumed would be easy to find living 5 minutes from the ocean…it wasnt.

We started out at the coaches house with the “cover shot” they wanted a simple background with a texture so I pitched a steal door or wall. I spent hours at home depot finding the right look and something that would be “easy” to put up and take down to get to the next location in a decent time. One of my assistants (Chris Williams) and I did a mock set up of the sheet metal wall the night before, we pre-drilled holes and mounted brackets so it would be easier to do on site. We then labeled each with a number so it would go together seamlessly.

2 sides lights with 30 degree grids. 1 front light beauty dish with grid. and a ring flash set on the lowest setting for fill light.
There was also a soft white silk overhead to soften the sun.

Here is a set up shot.

Model: NIKON D700
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
Lens (mm): 32
ISO: 100
Aperture: 16
Shutter: 1/250

For the next shot we used a picnic table in the coaches backyard and a yellow table cloth. While myself and another assistant finished with this set up the other two assistants took the first set-up down. We then had to take all the hotdogs and put them in the buns for the “hot dog eating contest.” I put them all in the oven the night before to give them a “cooked look” although the next morning most were pretty gross looking. This shot didnt turn out exactly how I wanted but was still fun to do and the kids had fun doing it.

Here I am directing the players.

This was lit with a large octobank for the front.

Model: NIKON D700
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
Lens (mm): 24
ISO: 200
Aperture: 7.1
Shutter: 1/250

The next shot was the BBQ shot with the “celebrity sons” Nick Montana, Trevor Gretzky, and Trey Smith. They were great to work with but things got a little crazy once everyone started to poke at the fish which was still partially frozen from the night before and we still needed it for the next shot.

One high side light to the right with a sport reflector on it. Front light is an octobank. The players in the background are lit with another lit with just a plain reflector on it.
Model: NIKON D700
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
Lens (mm): 24
ISO: 200
Aperture: 6.3
Shutter: 1/250

The last shot was the toughest, fitting 8 football players on a dock that is not meant to hold that many people. On top of that, we had props in everyones hands and for some reason (I still dont know how this happened or that it was even possible) but Trey Smith Tangled up not one, but two fishing poles within a five minute span of time. Getting a clean shot was pretty tough because there was a lot of horse play and this was the last shot of the day and we only had about ten minutes in this setting before they had to leave and go to practice.

1 large Octobank front left. Sun back/side light.

Model: NIKON D700
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh
Lens (mm): 29
ISO: 200
Aperture: 6.3
Shutter: 1/250

Here are a few tearsheets from the magazine.