ACG Super Heros Hot HOT!

No really, it was the hottest shoot I have ever been part of. It was July and we were in the middle of a heat-wave in Amsterdam. The studio I rented out had no air-conditioning. Either way it would have been impossible to keep cool as it was huge. We shot 10 NIKE ACG sponsored team rider athletes in a super hero concept. This was for the ACG winter apparel collection. Imagine wearing hot winter outfits in 35 degree Celsius weather. It may have been 40C+ degrees in the studio. Then imagine a make-up artist pulling out her hair trying to keep the sweat from running down the faces of the athletes during the shoot. Also picture me barefoot in shorts and no shirt jumping around the studio trying like hell to get my shots. On second though scratch that last image..

I still had my shoes on at this point.

ACG team rider: Max Galfre

Sweating athlete and ACG team rider: Jaime Pauigdengoles

ACG team rider: Dan Wakeham

These action sports heros have way too much fun. If you are good enough to get sponsored and make a living in action sports, I recommend you drop everything and just do it. We shot for three days and got some cool photos. Nike asked me to bring a skateboard to the shoot which I did. We were going to use it for a few shots not related to the Super Hero concept. It took these dudes all of 30 minutes to break my board jumping off trash-bins.

SHOOTING THE BRAZILIANS

I went on a number of shoots with Nike during their Jogabonito campaign. I was there mostly to shoot stills during the commercial campaign for TV ads that were being shot. We were lucky enough to spend some quality time with the Brazilian team. These guys are under so much pressure to perform and have so many people coming at them, you wonder how they can get loose enough to play the game they love. The shoot was high pressure, but also loose and fun. The key with top footballers under pressure is to give them a ball. It's pretty much that simple. Once they have a ball, the play factor comes in. Once the play factor is in you have a shot at getting some real moments to photograph.

Ronaldinho

This all sounds easier than it really is. A shoot like this goes way beyond me and my power to control a moment. I am just a cog on the wheel. I need to make sure I get my shots during the brief time I have with them. That is what the client pays me for. The players have so much going on they are not going to wait for me to get it right. In situations like this you really only get one shot. There is no time to be nervous.

Robinho: Art direction and design by Pierre Jeannau.

Ronaldo

Ronaldinho at play. Art direction and design by Pierre Jeannau.

This design from a wallpaper that is downloadable from the Nike site.

Shooting Zlatan

Every once in a while you get really lucky on your photo shoots. Having a chance to get one on one with Zlatan was one of these moment.

On set with film maker Mark Hoffman

This one was part of a profile story Apple did on the shoot. I was there to shoot the stills.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic dropping by to say hi to Ronaldinho during the JOGABONITO commercial.

We had a little down time during the shoot . Zlatan knew that Ronaldinho was shooting a commercial spot for the same campaign near by. Zlatan asked me to come with him to take a picture of him meeting the 'champion' as he referred to Ronaldinho. It's was good fun to tag along.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

We had an early morning shoot on the pitch in Barcelona. I got lucky with the right light and the right background coming together for this one. There were a lot of people on the set and I had no say in getting Zlatan into position. I was focused on getting the shots when the opportunity came. I'm not sure how Nike used this shot. It is one of my favs.

Fernando Torres

I was part of a team who went around to profile key Nike football athletes during the Jogabonito campaign leading up to the world cup 2006. Don't need to tell you, this was amazing fun. Nike sorted access to the players and I had decent freedom to get the shots I wanted to get. Fernando is a super mellow and nice guy. We shot him when he was still at Atlético Madrid. He was already a great player, but really just getting started and still a little camera shy. The thing that blew me away while shooting him was how much power he could generate when kicking the ball from an almost stand still position. We were shooting him in the center of the main pitch at Atlético and I was booming balls at the goal with ease.

This one below was actually shot with my point and shoot while I was changing the battery on my SLR.

Fernando Torres getting his game face on. Shot with a small point and shoot.

Design by Moritz von Graevenitz

This photo was not used for the Jogabonito campaign. The design is part of a series of design tests that Mortiz made with the Liverpool logo. I just really like what he did with the image. I shot this one in bright daylight on the Atlético stadium field with my Canon 1D MKII and a 70-200mm 2.8L