A few weeks ago I did a portrait shoot with Desert Ridge High School shortstop Riley Unroe at his school on a 110 degree day. You probably haven’t heard of this kid yet… but you soon will!
Before we get started with the shots lets go over some of Unroe’s recent accolades…
Offered full ride baseball scholarship by University of Southern California, selected for Team USA Baseball, selected to the All USA Today team and a few days prior to the shoot, drafted in the second round by the Tampa Bay Rays.
On to the shoot!
Me and my buddy Kevin Sutton, who was assisting on the shoot, drove out the Desert Ridge High School in east Mesa, AZ about 20 minutes prior to the shoot to scout locations real quick prior to Rileys arrival.
While I didn’t love any of the locations initially, I would have to make it work.
First location would be the dugout.
Canon 1Dx, 70-200mm, 100iso, f4, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
After a few minutes of uninspiring photos in the dugout I took Riley outside of an open fence, at the edge of the schools property, into a desert looking area.
This was more my liking…
Canon 1Dx, 24-70mm, 100iso, f10, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
Canon 1Dx, 24-70mm, 100iso, f9, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
The below shot of Riley hitting the ball was done simply by having him hold his bat out in that position as his father, former major leaguer Tim Unroe, lightly tossed a ball at his bat from over my shoulder. Surprisingly it only took a few tosses for us to nail the shot.
Canon 1Dx, 24-70mm, 100iso, f9, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
We headed back to the varsity baseball field to do a few more shots.
Canon 1Dx, 24-70mm, 100iso, f8, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
Canon 1Dx, 70-200mm, 100iso, f9, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
The last location we would shoot in was behind the nicely painted varsity softball field dugout.
Canon 1Dx, 24-70mm, 100iso, f8, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
Canon 1Dx, 24-70mm, 100iso, f7.1, 1/250th, Manual with Einstein Strobe
After finishing up the shoot in record time due to the 110 degree heat motivating me, Riley and his father said their goodbyes and headed back to the varsity field to do some batting practice.
I decided to go over there and fire off some candid shots of Unroe in action.
Canon 1Dx, 70-200mm, 100iso, f2.8, 1/2500th, Manual
The kid was hitting some big time home runs.
Canon 1Dx, 24-70mm, 100iso, f9, 1/250th, Manual with Flash
That wraps up the shoot. Good times with a cool athlete who was willing to do whatever I asked of him to try and get cool pics.
Good luck in the bigs Riley!
One response to “10 Spot / Riley Unroe Portrait Shoot”
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Nice work, Mark. Those are some sweet portraits and I image good keepers, for when this kid is on top, in the Bigs. I always enjoy reading your narratives too. It’s been a pleasure following your work for the past few years.