Yesterday I had the sad experience of making my only venture outside my dwelling be to watch the Orlando Magic lose their first playoff game to the Boston Celtics. Ughh and it was sooo close! They dug themselves a 20 point hole and then just couldn't quite make the comeback and lost by four. UGGGHHHH still maddening!!!
The Magic's star player is Dwight Howard, a physical freak who has muscle that previously were reserved only for action figures. Back in 2005 I got the chance to interview and photograph Dwight for Listen Magazine. At that time I think he had just turned 19 and I was 20. He turned out to be just a genuinely nice guy, one of the few professional athletes I've ever met where I left thinking they would be fun to be friends with regardless of their fame.
For the piece I went to a game in Orlando and interviewed Howard and shot game photos. The next day I went to a practice and did the portraits. For the portraits I had my mom assist me. As you can see from her picture she was out of her mind excited to do it. Although, when I introduced her to Dwight he called her Mom and that won her over. She doesn't know a thing about him otherwise I don't think, but if we're watching him on TV she always points out, "He called me Mom!"
I did the portraits in about 5 minutes with my mom holding up white foam core as the backdrop. Natural light and a basketball from my school's old P.E. closet. I ended up really liking the bottom one and at the time think it was one of the best pictures that had been taken of him for publication. Since then he has blown up nationally as a sports star and tons of great pictures have been taken. But, I can always say I knew him when...well when he was only the size of a truck...now he's more like a semi.
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