Thank you Hank Aaron for your graciousness. It was a pleasure to have photographed you.
Posts Tagged ‘Sports Hero’
I finally found a moment to watch the Diana Nyad Ted talk about her amazing over 100 mile swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Fl. She is incredible and a wonderful source of inspiration. Even after four previous attempts to make the 53 hour swim, where she encountered sharks, venomous jellyfish, rough currents and exhaustion to point of near death, Nyad found drive and determination to do it again. Some of the greatest swimmers in the world have tried since 1950. Diana was the first to do it. When she got to the shore of Key West, her first words were, “Never, ever give up”.
I wanted to share a few of my photos taken of Diana Nyad when she was training for her fourth attempt in 2011. Enjoy.
Diana Nyad prepares for a training session in Key West, Florida. This was from her fourth attempt to cross the 100 mile channel.
Her second words were, “You can chase your dreams at any age; you’re never too old”
Nyad is the only person to have swam from Cuba to Florida without a protective cage. The swim took nearly 53 hours.
The third thing she said on the beach was, “It looks like the most solitary endeavor in the world, and in many ways, of course it is, and in other ways, it’s a team, and if you think I’m badass, you want to meet Bonnie. Bonnie is Nyad’s long time coach.
Bonnies hands over a feeding tube Nyad while she was training for her fourth attempt. During the swim Nyad could not touch the boat or the swim would be ruled invalid.
Diana Nyad portrait taken for Readers Digest magazine.
She never gave up. Let’s all take a page from Diana’s book. A new year is here and a new chance to get one step or stroke closer to achieving your goal.
Here is a video me and Chuck Fadely shot for The Reader’s digest in 2011 when Diana was preparing for her fourth attempt.
Photographed by Jeffery Salter for Sports Illustrated Magazine
It was a hot day in Miami. We set up at 7 am. in a pool at the St. Regis. My four photo assistants donned swimming shorts. You won’t believe how hard it is to keep a 3/4 inch Plexiglass table from floating away with one of the world’s top soccer players on it. Light was harsh, harsh and harsher. The pressure was on. Sports Illustrated’s Director of Photography, Brad Smith wanted an Iconic photograph. Here’s my try.
Mario was cool. A bit jetlagged from just arriving in Miami from Milan the day before. He wanted to do the photo shoot and go to the Mall. He’s a great athlete, who plays classical piano and met with the Pope, but still only 23.
In the deep in end…photo by Brad Smith/SI
Here are a few shoot details, a plexiglass table needs plenty of sandbags on the legs otherwise it will definitely try to float away….. This photo was taken with a Phase One IQ260 digital back (which is wi-fi enabled on a Phase One DF+ camera body) and Profoto lighting – all available from Capture Integration. The wifi enabled Brad to review images on an iPad as I shot. As I mentioned earlier we started setting up at 7 a.m. when the light was just amazingly beautiful…however as these things go…we didn’t start shooting until close to noon. The light was extremely contrasty. However, I was able to capture detail by having a digital camera back which has a dynamic range of 13 stops and flash syncs at an incredible 1/1600 sec. The Phase One camera fitted with a 80 mm Schneider-Kreuznach Leaf shutter Lens that allows you to sync your strobes up to 1/1600, with that I toned down the back ground a bit and lit Mario with a Profoto 5ft giant silver umbrella fitted with a Profoto flash head powered by a 7B battery. Not rocket science, but their was no way in heck that I was going to put anything that needed to be plugged near the pool. Just saying…..
I’ve got to thank my “A” team, Alexander Larson, Redmund Flores, Ray Wadia, Olivia Senghor (groomer), Kristina Kitchen (prop stylist and plexiglass table wrangler) and Leonard Watson for all their hard work. I hope they enjoyed swimming in a swanky pool with Super Mario!
Photographer: Jeffery Salter | Picture Editor: Marguerite Schropp | Art Director: Chris Hercik
I wish I could say we spent hours analyzing slam dunks but all I can say is 48 hours before this photo was taken I was just leaving the Museum of Modern Art in NYC after trying to see the Bill Brandt photography exhibition when Marguerite called and asked. “Where are you?”. My next call was to Delta Airlines to book a 6:30 am flight back to Miami. My second call was to Capture Integration in Atlanta….that’s where my camera was at.
The shoot location was the Grand ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel. It took about six hours to unload the production truck, navigate basement labyrinth under the hotel to make it into the ballroom and set up. My team built a set for a head to toe photograph intending to show LeBron James casually leaning back against a flat nonchalantly holding the 2013 NBA Championship trophy. When LeBron arrived for my scheduled seven minute shoot he was dressed extremely casually….so it was close-up time.
Here is a short BTS of my seven minutes with the King.
LeBron James cover shoot for Sports Illustrated by Jeffery Salter
My hats off to the Capture Integration in Atlanta who flew down to provide digital capture for the shoot. It was amazing when Dave Gallagher brought along two brand new Phase One IQ260 digital backs with DF+ cameras. The LeBron shoot was taken with the “King” of Medium Format Digital cameras and is the first editorial cover shoot done with the camera.
Bob Motley a Congressional Medal of Honor winner and the last living umpire from Negro Leagues Baseball.
Why do I photograph? This is the reason. A chance to meet someone who made history. An American Hero. An Icon. A loving Husband. A true role model. It was and still is an honor and privilege to have been allowed to poke my nose and camera into Bob Motley’s life.
My father served in the U. S. Army for 20 years and saw action in the Korean War and Vietnam War. My stepfather had over 300 parachute jumps in the Vietnam War. When HAO commissioned me to do this assignment I began to pack my bags as the art director Jimmy Gonzales spoke to go to Kansas City. That’s where Bob Motley lives.
Bob volunteered to serve during World War II. During fighting in Okinawa, Bob and his fellow Marines were sent out from the water onto the beach in waves. “The first and second waves got wiped out completely. I was in the third wave. We lost half of our troops. We set up the beachhead and dug our foxholes” When he thought all was clear, he put his foot up and was shot in it. “If I had put my head up, I would have been shot in the head.”
While recovering in the hospital, he got bored staying in Bed. He wandered outside, found a softball game that needed an umpire – and found his life’s passion. (see footnote #1)
The last living umpire from Negro Leagues Baseball, Bob 89, made the call for many of baseball’s all-time greats: Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays and more.
After photographing Bob at home with Pearline, his wife of 61 years, we decided to drive over the Kansas City Royals Stadium to photograph Bob in action. But first we had to get to the stadium. Bob rolled Pearline out to their mini-van, gently loaded her into it and said, “meet you at the stadium.” I felt rather strange letting an 89 year old and 79 year old drive themselves to a photography shoot for me……but needless to say. They beat me and my crew to the stadium. By the time I arrived, Bob was dressed in his crisp black umpire outfit standing in the middle of Kansas City Royals stadium. He had rolled Pearline to Royals dugout where she kept dry from the light rain shower. A loving husband.
[Footnote 1. from article written by Andrea Gollin who provided text for the story “Leading from Battlefield to Baseball Field” published in Humana Active Outlook Magazine]