I just got back from shooting NBA and NHL in Phoenix. Fox Sports is redoing all of its national broadcast opens for its professional sports teams. I had the privilege and pleasure- along with fellow shooter Jeff Bollman- of shooting the Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Coyotes. We shot with Canon 7D cameras with a nice collection of lenses and accoutrements.

Friend and fellow shooter Jeff Bollman unpacking our gear on top of a parking garage with downtown Phoenix in the background.

San Carlos hotel downtown. The rooms were tiny but comfortable. Great location for us.

This lens is a freak show: the fastest SLR lens ever made (tied with the Leica 50mm f/1.0 Noctilux). It is a by-product of the cold war between Canon and Nikon. It is a heavy and well-built lens known for having very soft focus with a wide-open aperture, giving subjects a dream-like quality. Of course, it is INCREDIBLY sensitive in low-light and I ended up using it a lot in bars. This lens is no longer in production and good copies are rare. It cost $2500 new and now fetches upwards of $5000 on eBay.

Our producer Dustin Stern suited up in Coyotes gear. We weren’t given access to the locker room on game day so we went in the day before and shot tight shots of Dustin getting suited up- hands going into gloves, skates getting laced up, etc.

Shooting a time-lapse on Camelback Mountain.

Shooting a Suns game court-side. Being this close to the action is a little unreal. I was so focused on my work, I often didn’t notice that, literally, I could stick out my foot and trip Amar’e Stoudemire if I wanted to. At one point, I dragged my tripod out onto the court to grab some shots and I noticed all the other photogs looking at me like I was crazy. For obvious reasons, looking back on it, tripods are a big no-no on the floor, in case a player dives for the ball. Security was really cool, though, and my Fox Sports credentials got me whatever I wanted. They told me to go ahead and grab the shots I wanted then bail on the tripod. I was having a ton of fun, running up and down the sidelines. Here is a photo I snapped of one of the Suns players hitting a shot. I’m not sure who it is but I’m pretty sure it’s not Steve Nash.

Me court-side. They gave us big orange “PHOTO” stickers that we had to wear on our backs. I chose to wrap mine around my arm, like Rambo would have done.

Me and Jeff Bollman inside the Cotton Club, the VIP room inside Majerle’s bar, the go-to spot after NBA games. We shot some stuff in there with fans we dragged in from the main room.

Media-management in the hotel room.

Shooting the Coyotes game from the catwalk, high up in the stadium. Again, my Fox Sports credentials got me anywhere. We are were asked to be careful not to drop anything onto the ice. Apparently, it’s ok to drop things onto the crowd.

Shooting time-lapse on the freeway with the 7D and a car-mount. We programmed a 2-second shutter which gives really nice streaks. The intervalometer is limited to 99 exposures so we had to keep pulling over every few miles so I could jump out and reset it. Here, we are approaching the 10 freeway which runs the entire width of the country: Phoenix to the left, LA to the right.

Lens kit, including: Canon 50mm f/1.0L, Canon tilt-shift, Canon EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Sigma 1200-300mm f/2.8, Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8, Canon 24mm f/1.4L, and Canon 85mm f/1.2L.