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Please check out the galleries -- there will be more to come and we're excited to go live and share with the new direction we're taking for 2017!
Enjoy!
A Documentary Worth Watching....
Last night after the Thursday night NFL football game I watched a powerful documentary on former NFL player Pat Tillman.
It will be broadcast tonight on the NFL Network at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST.
It is a fantastic documentary that tells the story behind one of the NFL’s most enigmatic players.
Following 911 Pat walked away from a lucrative multi-million dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals in 2002 to enlist in the Army and become a Ranger.
Pat was subsequently killed in 2004 in a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. Controversy swirled around his death because of a military cover-up to hide the fact it was friendly-fire.
I’m very proud and pleased that some photographs that I made, including the one with this email, are included in the documentary.
The photographs were originally made in 1997 on my very first assignment for Sports Illustrated (the pinnacle, at the time, of magazine sports journalism) and Pat gave me this photograph.
Briefly, the story was about how Pat was the Pac 10 Defensive Player of the Year despite being undersized and how well he was doing in his academics. Pat graduated in 3 1/2 years with a GPA of over 3.85 in marketing. The concept was to capture, in one photograph, that aspect of student/athlete.
I proposed an idea to Pat and he shot it down, though very nicely and politely.
“Mr. Gero, I don’t mean to be difficult. But that doesn’t sound like me."
That’s okay Pat, is there something that you do that incorporates that notion of student/athlete?
“Well, sometimes I climb up into the light towers and I just think."
I nearly dropped my cel phone as I envisioned the possible photograph.
The next day at the portrait session Pat climbed into the light tower on top of the press box wearing Rainbow flip flops.
As I was making the photograph I had the distinct sense that this could be a double truck, or a full two-page spread. The vision I had in my head from the day before when he suggested it had now become a reality.
And in the next issue it did run as a full bleed, two page double truck. That was all Pat.
The documentary is wonderful because it shows how he affected people (even when he was a young boy) in such a memorable and heartfelt way.
He defied the odds (he was too small to play in college, the pros), was loyal to the folks who took a chance on him (he turned down a $6 million paycheck from the St. Louis Rams and instead took a salary of the league minimum to stay with the Cardinals because they took a chance on him when they drafted him) — a real throwback.
And became, finally, a true American hero.
I hope you will watch this documentary about Pat if you knew of him, or even if you might never have heard of him. I think you will be impressed with the man he was and the huge sacrifice he made for our country.
I will always be grateful to him for that and also for the kindness he extended to me when he let me photograph him in his own private space and helped me look like a hero to my editors on my first start out of the blocks.
Thank you somehow seems insufficient.
Shape Shifter v2 Backpacks from Think Tank Photo debut!
The great folks at Think Tank Photo just released three new versions of its award-winning Shape Shifter backpack.
These backpacks essential feature is that you can expand them to hold your gear and then contract them when empty, thus decreasing their profile.
They come sized for 15” and 17” laptops. The new Naked Shape Shifter is an entirely new concept in backpack in that you can configure its interior using your existing Think Tank modular components.
This way you can transport your belt system inside the backpack. Don’t forget that with our Think Tank partnership you receive free gear with your orders and free shipping ordering from this link:
https://www.thinktankphoto.com/collections/shape-shifter?rfsn=140905.1cb641
The new Think Tank Shape Shifter v2 backpacks have arrived!
Sony 70-200 f2.8 G Master paired with the Sony a6300 photographing football
In 2014 and 2015 I documented the Tesoro H.S. Football Titans and the have always been very gracious to allow me to come by to photograph, and in this case, to test out this new lens which is sure to please sports photographers, wedding photographers, portrait photographers and photojournalists alike. (You can learn more about the project here: http://shifter.media/print-a-season-with-the-titans-by-paul-gero/ ).
Yesterday was Day One of Tesoro Football's Fall Practice. No pads, but helmets. Thankfully there was a lot of cloud cover which kept the temperature down.
It was also my first opportunity to put the Sony 70-200 f2.8 G Master lens through the paces for action (using the a6300 camera) and it did incredibly well.
All of these images were made at the maximum aperture and using Lock-On Expand AF focus mode (I know, it's a mouth-full) and it tracks focus like a camera far more expensive.
Tracking runners coming AT the lens is vital for me when photographing sports and this lens does that incredibly fast and accurately. Non native FE lenses have frustrated me in the past, and now I have the answer to that frustration. It seems every bit as fast to me as my previous DSLR system did (though I don't have a way to measure that empirically).
I am VERY happy with the quality of the lens (the smoothest zoom mechanism I have used in any zoom by any brand (and my first was in the 80s - yikes!).
Plus manual focus is smooth and instant even while in set to AF modes. That's the first lens in the E mount line up that I noticed that happening.
While the lens is in the same size and weight category as the DSLR competitors it pairs very nicely with the tiny a6300 (I was using it on a Benro video monopod which is what I normally use for shooting at Tesoro. I would recommend, though, supporting it via a strap that mounts to the tripod collar if not using it on a monopod). I have not yet tried it with action on the a7R II (but have for portraits and it works well -- and Eye AF is right on the money even at f2.8).
If you've been "waiting to see" about mirrorless in general or Sony in particular, or waiting to see if they would come out with f2.8 glass and you need or want that aperture...this lens delivers on all fronts.
It's world class.
A Tesoro player listens to head coach Matt Poston in the school's weight room just after 7:30 AM on Monday. 155mm, 1600 ISO, 1/60th at f2.8.
A Tesoro player helps set up the field on Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 200mm, 250 ISO, 1/500th at f2.8.
Tesoro players set up the field on Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 144 mm, 250 ISO, 1/500th at f2.8.
Tesoro players listen to their coach as they prepare to move the blocking sled during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 122mm, 250 ISO, 1/500th at f2.8.
Tesoro players run during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 181mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
Tesoro highly recruited wide receiver Shane Coleman runs during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 200mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
Tesoro players run during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 200mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
Tesoro assistant coach Al Nichols smiles during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 200mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
Tesoro players run during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 200mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
Tesoro QB Chase Petersen warms up during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. Petersen, a transfer to the school, hopes to replace Devon Modster at QB who graduated and now plays for UCLA. 200mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
A Tesoro player does agility drills during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 200mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
A Tesoro player talks with a teammate during a water break at Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 200mm, 400 ISO, 1/1600th at f2.8.
Tesoro Offensive Coordinator Preston King looks a bit like an orchestra conductor as he sends in signals from the side during Day One of Fall Camp at the school on Monday. 143mm, 400 ISO, 1/1000th at f2.8.
All images photographed with the a6300 and 70-200 f2.8 G Master lens. Captured in RAW + jpeg and edited using Photo Mechanic, and then processed in Adobe Lightroom CS using Totally Rad's Replichrome presets.
Reflections on Willie (Po' Monkey) Seaberry and flashing back to a Mississippi Delta Wedding
Willie Seaberry (right), aka Po' Monkey, celebrates with guests at Kate (background) and John's wedding in June 2006.
The sad news came to me via a Facebook posting from a friend.
Willie Seaberry, AKA Po’ Monkey and owner of Po’ Monkey’s juke joint, from Merigold, MS had passed away last Thursday.
I only met him once — while photographing Kate and John’s Mississippi Delta wedding in June of 2006 — but I will never forget him or that wedding.
During the ceremony Willie was wearing a red suit.
He was personable, funny, charming — a true character.
He changed his clothes on the day of the wedding on the hour. His granddaughter was an attendant at the wedding and he had friends him and the joint during throughout the day.
When I met him a few hours before the wedding, he was wearing a blue t-shirt, for the wedding he wore a bright red suit, later a white suit, later still a grey suit to eventually wearing a t shirt at the end of the night with a straw hat!
Willie, wearing a t-shirt with his name emblazoned on it, greets me outside his juke joint, before the wedding.
He was no “stand in the background” host by any means. He witnessed the wedding, and then partied with the family and guests because he was like family.
Kate, the bride (left), with Seaberry's granddaughter, an attendant in the wedding (inside the juke joint prior to the start).
He and his juke joint were famous for their blues and for the hospitality he bestowed upon his guests.
Willie with John and Kate, the groom and bride and family members following the ceremony.
Photo greats including Annie Leibovitz and William Albert Allard photographed Willie and the juke joint when they did stories on the blues scene in the Mississippi Delta.
As far as I know, Kate and John’s wedding was the only wedding that was ever held at Po’ Monkeys (but I could be wrong).
Willie's friends outside the world-famous juke joint in Merigold, MS on Kate and John's wedding day.
It was a wonderful day — cool and clear — not a drop of humidity in the air. The wedding was held in the open by a stand of trees, the reception held under a marquee pitched on the grass.
The reception marquee stands in a field next to Po' Monkey's juke joint (background) for John & Kate's wedding.
Guests were bussed to the location because it was in the middle of a cotton field accessible from a dirt road.
Live music under the tent helped make the party even more fun.
Willie sits with the groom's Dad as the party goes on under the marquee.
What an event — the memories of which I will never forget. Thanks Willie Seaberry for making that possible.
Willie Seaberry, aka Po’ Monkey, rest in peace.
John Martin, the groom, who knew Willie well, wrote a fantastic tribute that appeared here:
The moon rises above Po' Monkey's juke joint during the night of Kate and John's Mississippi Delta Wedding.