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It was a welcome surprise to Virginia Beach photographer Andar Sawyers when he was contacted through his website by the NFL to work on a shoot for their ticket exchange campaign. The assignment was to photograph the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, Ron Rivera. From there, the relationship took off to result in multiple high-profile photo shoots with NFL athletes Luke Kuechly and Greg Olson.
For the first shoot, Andar worked alongside a video team as they shot a commercial to run during games. He was tasked not only to take portraits of the coach, but to capture moments of surprise when the unexpecting fans got to meet him. The portraits proved to be more difficult as Andar had to remain vigilant to find his moments in between the excitement of the situation and the filming video crew.
Because of the success of the first shoot, Andar was asked to return a few weeks later on an assignment for the NFL Shop. Again he found himself working alongside a video production team, with the subject being Panther’s linebacker, Luke Kuechly. Before the shoot, Andar met with creatives from the agency to discuss what they were looking for in the images, so he could have a clear vision of what needed to happen.
We had two setups and I had roughly five minutes per set with Luke. This meant I had to shoot fast and know exactly when we got the shot we were looking for.
The third shoot took place the following weekend, when Andar was asked to photograph the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars, coaching legend Greg Olson, for the NFL Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. Andar was used to working next to the video crew and had learned to be assertive to get the shots that the creative team requested. However, this shoot required slightly different content. Aside from capturing Greg interacting with and playing alongside kids, Andar was also tasked to come in after the video crew and recreate scenes for stills.
I am always grateful for new clients and new projects. I enjoy photographing athletes and movement so I was very happy to work with the NFL, and I look forward to future projects with them!
To see more of Andar’s photography, check out andarsawyers.com
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