Just over a week ago I awoke to the bombshell news that Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Manny Ramirez had been suspended 50 games for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. With this potentially being the biggest sports breaking news event of the year I quickly got out of bed and began going through a harddrive containing my 2009 archive of images from Spring Training as well as a few regular season games to ensure I had all my best stuff edited, captioned and online for editors to purchase.

I knew I had some pretty solid images of Manny that I hoped would lead to some big sales but of course with Manny being one of the biggest stars in the game nearly every photographer shoots the hell out of him so I knew there would be some tough competition for sales.

As a sports photographer my number one goal without a doubt is to get a Sports Illustrated cover. I have been fortunate enough to accomplish most of my other goals as a photographer and setting lofty (and sometimes unrealistic) goals is what drives me to work as hard as I do.

With that said as soon as I heard the news of his suspension I started looking through the Manny pics on AP, Getty and Sports Illustrated to see what photos would make good covers. 

After checking out their photos I went through my archive from the year (2 spring training games and 2 regular season games) to see what pics I had that could potentially work for a cover or a doubletruck. Here were my contenders.

This first group is from his first spring training game after signing with the Dodgers in the middle of March.

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 400iso, f4, 1/800th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 400iso, f4, 1/800th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 400iso, f4, 1/800th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 400iso, f4, 1/800th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 400iso, f4, 1/800th

A lot of those shots are pretty similar but one thing I have learned over the years is that it is always smart to try and capture as many different facial expressions you can of players because you never know in which context an editor will be running a story of the person. Sure that means going overboard when shooting photos and being left with countless extra photos to wade through while editing but sometimes the reward is worth the extra effort.

Usually during Spring Training the teams don’t wear the same uniforms they would be wearing during the actual season so that typically gives the photos a shorter lifespan of usability since a magazine typically won’t run a shot thats an obvious spring training uniform during a story in the regular season or post season so you need to be mindful of that. Current photos typically will run over notably older photos. Thankfully the Dodgers are one of the few teams who wear the same uniforms in Spring Training as they do during the season.

Here are some more of the Spring Training images.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 250iso, f4, 1/2000th

Nikon D700, 400mm, 250iso, f4, 1/2500th

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 400iso, f3.2, 1/500th

Nikon D700, 80-200mm, 400iso, f4, 1/1000th

As well as numerous head shots and batting shots I always make sure to shoot other feature shots of players interacting with fans and signing autographs. 

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1250iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

The below two photos are a great example of how differently you can shoot the same thing. As Manny was signing autographs for fans I stood behind him and held the camera high over my head to produce a different view from the boring and half assed angle of simply standing alongside. Its a good photo to illustrate the popularity of Manny with the fans.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1250iso, f6.3, 1/2000th

After shooting that angle I got on the ground and basically crawled beneath Manny and the fans leaning over the wall and shot straight up for a cool looking angle.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1250iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

Below, Manny gives me the death stare from the dugout.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 800iso, f5, 1/1000th

Fast forward a few weeks later during the regular season when the Dodgers came to Phoenix to take on the Diamondbacks during the regular season. I had a great time running all over the stadium shooting as many different angles as possible along with playing with some of the cool light that Chase Field can sometimes supply.

Nikon D700, 400mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/500th

Nikon D3, 400mm with 2x convertor, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 3200iso, f2.8, 1/1000th

Nikon D3, 400mm with 2x convertor, 640iso, f5.6, 1/1000th

Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 2000iso, f2.8, 1/500th

Nikon D300, 70-200mm, 400iso, f7.1, 1/1250th

Nikon D3, 400mm with 2x convertor, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1000th

Nikon D3, 400mm with 2x convertor, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1600th

Nikon D3, 400mm with 2x convertor, 500iso, f6.3, 1/1250th

The below three shots are from the same at bat where I was going crazy shooting because the awesome light on Manny with the shaded grandstands in the background made for very clean and interesting shots. That light is a stock photographers dream.

Nikon D3, 400mm, 500iso, f5, 1/1250th

Nikon D3, 400mm, 500iso, f5, 1/1250th

Nikon D3, 400mm, 500iso, f5, 1/1250th

Nikon D3, 400mm, 400iso, f2.8, 1/1600th

So that wraps up the four games I shot of Manny Ramirez so far in 2009. It will be some time before he is off the suspension and back on the field where it remains to be seen how the fans/media will embrace him. 

So a few days after the story broke a friend IMed me on Ichat and informed me that I scored the jackpot and had one of my photos as the cover of Sports Illustrated. I literally screamed from my ass groove on the couch and had a smile a mile wide across my face. Here is how the cover looked.

I was thinking the shot of Manny with his head down had the best shot of making it but the picture they choose works great for the story and goes along with what I mentioned earlier about it being important to capture several different facial expressions that may work for different type stories.

Here are some web clippings of images used that I have noticed in the wake of the failed drug test.

Obviously since Manny Ramirez is such a big name I definitely shoot tons of photos of him but the fact of the matter is I try and shoot just as many photos of the no named players as I do of the stars because you never really know who is going to do what down the road to be in the news. 

That wraps up this blog, I gotta go find a new goal to work towards now!