Buddy Ryan
Head Coach, Arizona Cardinals, Tempe, AZ ~ 2:30 PM on 4.8.1994

Matthew Stockman, the photo editor of Inside Sports Magazine, wanted an environmental portrait of Buddy Ryan in the Arizona desert for their August 1994 Football preview issue and the article "94 Questions for '94".

I scouted the Arizona Cardinals training camp location a few days before the shoot.... the nice desert landscaping would work well. The shoot was scheduled for 2:00 shoot time, but I had an annual report shoot at Sun Health Hospitals from 7:00 AM - 11:00 AM, I know this was going to be difficult to get everything done for both shoots (especially since the Sun Health location was way up in the NW part of Phoenix, in Sun City), but we were able to get all the shots done there.

It was a hot April day in Phoenix, as we arrived at the Cardinals location about 12:00 noon. I was grateful to have two photo assistants for this extensively lit shot... I wanted helmets on the cactus and footballs on the ground surrounding the subject, with a strong warm light coming from behind the main cactus (almost like a camp fire). I had the idea to put the helmets on the cactus, and then one of my photo assistants suggested a chalk board, so we asked if the Cardinals had one?... they did, and brought it out to the set. I think one of the assistant Cardinals coaches drew the play on to the board. I thought it was a great addition to the shot.

We used 11 strobes to light the shot. Set up was about 2.5 hours, and we busted our asses to get this all done, I was asking the Cardinals PR person to push the shoot time back an hour... they agreed to 30 minutes, and believe me, we needed the time to run all the extension cords to the power packs and set up the lighting.

Strobist info / Lighting: (11) Dynalite strobes
Main light: Medium Chimera w/1/4 CTO, camera right.
(2) Background Cactus (left & right): (1 each) Dynalite 2040 heads w/10" reflector, diffusion, 1/4 CTO & cinefoil.
Chalkboard: (1) Dynalite 2040 head w/10" reflector, diffusion, 1/4 CTO & cinefoil.
Behind the main cactus aimed at the ground and spilling onto the bushes: (3) Dynalite 2040 heads w/10" reflector, diffusion, full CTO & cinefoil.
Bushes: (2) Dynalite 2040 heads w/10" reflector, diffusion, 1/4 CTO & cinefoil.
Footballs on ground: (2) Dynalite 2040 heads w/10" reflector, diffusion, 1/4 CTO & cinefoil.

Hasselblad 40mm lens, Exposure: 1/250 sec @ f/16.
Film: Fuji RDP 100, Photoshop: minimal.