How I got the shot: Double Page spread in Sports Illustrated Dec 2011 Noah Flegal 900 spin

This past summer, I had just heard that Noah Flegal  had just landed his first ever 900 and then did it in competition, making him the youngest ever to do so on a wakeboard at 13.  With that feat, I knew this kid needed some exposure as no one down here was covering him.  I scheduled a shoot with his awesome mom and we shot away.  The best part was going to pick him and his posse up at their house early….7 am.  Yeah, they werent real awake yet.  ” Ben, here’s $20, can you stop by McDonalds and pick them up some breakfast, his mom said.”  And so the day began!  My main goal was to somehow cover the 900 along with his impressive aerial arsenal.  Shooting from the tube first with a Canon 1d mark 3, Tokina 10-17 fisheye at 12mm about 5 feet infront of him got a few shots in the bag to start the day.  We then shot the rest from the boat when I was too beat to get pounded on the tube anymore.  Thats when I told the driver…. 14 year old Merrette Fay, who is Noah’s awesome filmer… to keeping doing double ups at the far end, where the sun would be hitting Noah in a front lit array.  I positioned myself to the center of the boat with my Canon Mark 3 with a Canon 70-200 L 2.8 IS set on Manual focus at the center of the end of the rope when he crossed  the middle.  I also set it at 5.6.  This way when I shot the sequence the focus would not change trying to track him and I would also be able to keep him in focus on the far left and right of the frames.  I aimed so that I had the far left of the landing covered and the far right of the take off.  As soon as he hit the takeoff I held the shutter button down and let the motor drive fire away!  After what I remember the third try, he nailed it and we got the shot.  I then took the 15+ shots and layered them in photoshop on top of one another on a 12 x 18 inch 300 dpi blank doc and started the process of erasing what was needed and what wasnt, through transparency, and masking techniques.  His mom, with all her awesome support really pushed all the sponsors on all the shots especially this one in many markets.  This led to his nomination of the SI Kids Sportskid of the year and eventually his win and amazing accomplishment.  Sports Illustrated contacted me about wanting to use the photo in their opening spread on him and the rest was history. 

December 2, 2011 | Categories: Action Sports, athlete, Ben Hicks, Ben Hicks Boca Raton Photographer, Wakeboard | Leave A Comment »