Gameday Cover: Aaron Murray

Every week, we put out a publication called "Gameday." Its our weekly college football preview special section. My job is to somehow pull off a cover shot every Tuesday or Wednesday.

This particular shoot involved quarterback Aaron Murray inside Georgia's weight room.





I like to show up to my shoots about an hour early, which is this care is always good. I've worked with Murray before and he is habitually early, which is fantastic. It makes up for the hours I've waited for athletes in the past.

Anyways, i went into it with the strobist/small ball concept. I made room in the corner of the weight room and thought about trying to incorporate the mirrors or somehow show off the the area where we were shooting.

I went with all 5 flashes. Two behind at 10 & 2, both gelled red to give a sense of separation from the background. Why red? Two reasons: First, its Georgia's main color. Second, its one of the colors that people's eyes immediately go to. Its eye catching. I put a 3rd red flash aimed at the background to try and show some of the room. To light Murray, i went with two flashes at 4 & 8 with 1/4 Honl grids.

Now i need to get several (or at least 2) photos out of a 5-10 minute shoot. One for the cover, one for the inside. I tried him sitting and standing for the cover, going with a very simple, vanilla pose. (Big time football programs like simple stuff) Afterwards i went wide and tried to show off the area and tried to play with the mirrors. Its just OK but it worked and these two are the photos we went with.