athlete

I recently got a call from a client in Chile asking if I’d like to photograph Alexis Sanchez for the cover of COSAS magazine. Alexis is Chile’s most capped footballer was just transferred from Arsenal to Manchester United. He is also one of his country’s biggest celebrities. COSAS is Chile’s biggest selling lifestyle and celebrity magazine. Obviously, I said yes.

The past few hours of digging up and scanning my old files of MLB baseball star Darren Daulton have only made the pit in my stomach tighter. Sometimes looking through old pictures after someone’s passing is cathartic, but not now.

I'm not usually one to talk about celebrities that I keep in touch with from photo shoots. Some of this comes out of professional courtesy, and another part of it is that I'm a bit of a private person. However, a current project and fun day in the studio has made for some new images and behind the scenes video that I think you will all enjoy. Here's a look at the shenanigans that take place when I share the studio with my photographer friend (who plays football), Larry Fitzgerald.

Guess who was on the sidelines photographing Super Bowl 50 yesterday? Kevin Durant.

The NBA star (and MVP two years ago) was a credentialed photographer at the championship game, shooting for The Players' Tribune. One day earlier he was shooting basketballs against the Golden State Warriors at nearby Oracle Arena in Oakland.

Baseball pitching legend Randy Johnson made an appearance at the NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers this past weekend. After receiving the honor of raising the team's 12 flag as the special celebrity guest, Johnson didn't step into luxury box seats to watch the rest of the game in comfort. Instead, he picked up his DSLR kits, put on a vest, and stepped onto the sidelines to shoot the game as one of the photographers.

World champion sprinter Usain Bolt had a scary encounter with a clumsy cameraman at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing today. After winning the 200m race, Bolt was upended after the cameraman lost control of the Segway he was riding.

Last month, we shared a glimpse into the intense gym workouts of renowned adventure photographer Jimmy Chin, who constantly trains his body for his next extreme shoot when he's between assignments. If you'd like to see what those workouts are for, check out this new 5-minute feature by VICE Sports.

I’ve dreamed about shooting Houston Rockets guard James Harden for a long time. How can you go wrong with that beard? He’s just awesome looking. I wanted to pose him with ZZ Top for the last couple of years -- or at least with Billy Gibbons -- but alas, no one has bitten on that idea yet. (You hear that Texas Monthly? It would be a great cover. Trust me.)

Anyway, the call finally came some weeks ago from Sports Illustrated. Harden had a super tight schedule with the All-Star Break coming up, and the editor asked if we could put together something with the iconic Houston skyline with only 24 hours notice.

For a series of photos titled "Chronophoto," photographer Jean-Yves Lemoigne paid tribute to old strobe photography camera tests with his own series of images that explore the movements of tennis players.

Famous professional athletes have all kinds of post-playing careers. Some stay involved as coaches, others become TV analysts for the sports they love, and a few strike it rich in business as entrepreneurs. For at least two former baseball stars, their interests have led them down a different path: professional photography.

Documentary and portrait photographer Angela Jimenez' series "Racing Age" is not your typical 'photos of old people' photo series. There is no frailty, no struggling with day-to-day tasks or close-ups of wrinkles. The subjects in Racing Age are competitive athletes that could probably out-run, out-jump and out-throw most people half their age.

I have sat staring at the computer monitor for the last hour and words refused to appear on the screen. Even in times of stress I can write out a quick blog, but the current situation with Aaron Hernandez has proved tough.

It is important to me to be respectful of the man that was killed and the ongoing investigation, as well as tell about the photoshoot and the side of Aaron that I met on set. With that said, please read this as a story about a shoot and not the lobbying of an opinion over the current investigation.

Back in 2011 and 2012, Paris-based photographer Max Riché shot a creative series of portraits of athletes (including several Olympians) in the French National Sports Institute. Titled "Becoming an Athlete," the project featured a strobed-style look that shows the athletes progressing from ordinary people to world-class athletes, all within single frames.

Riché has just released the behind-the-scenes video above that shows how he created the photographs.

If you're a superstar athlete looking to swipe a sports photographers DSLR for some impromptu picture taking, here's a pro tip: do it nicely.

Earlier this month, Usain Bolt made headlines for some "spot news photography" at the London Olympics. After winning yet another gold medal, Bolt grabbed a DSLR from a photographer he knew and started snapping some awesome POV photos. Perhaps inspired by Bolt's antics, soccer player Mario Balotelli of Manchester City tried his hand at swiping a photog's camera this past weekend, but was far less successful.

More and more superstar athletes are using instant photo sharing services like Instagram, …