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Daymon Gardner recently shot New Orleans Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis for the cover of Sports Illustrated. Davis is a two-time NBA all star and gold medalist who has coined “the brow” as his nickname (after his famous unibrow).
Daymon had less than an hour with the star to get the money shot. Below, I asked him for some tips and tricks on shooting high-profile athletes like Davis.
How did you get involved with this shoot?
Marguerite Schropp Lucarelli, a photo editor with SI, reached out to me in September to shoot a portrait of New Orleans Pelicans’ forward Ryan Anderson. It was my first time working with the magazine and was a bit of a test run in a sense. The shoot went well and gave Marguerite the confidence to hire me for the Anthony Davis shoot.
How do you approach shoots with high profile people?
I prepare the same as any other, but will research the subject more beforehand since there’s more material on them online. There’s usually limited time with high profiles subjects, but I’ve always found that if you’re polite and show an interest in what they do, they’ll give you more time if needed.
How much time did you get for this shoot?
The shoot location was at a restaurant in the French Quarter called Arnaud’s. My crew and I arrived at noon and we were expecting Anthony to show at 2 p.m. We were told we would have 30 minutes with him, but he didn’t arrive until 3 p.m. and he ended up giving us close to an hour.
Any tips on getting the shots you’re looking for?
Have a plan, and be prepared to abandon that plan. Factors on a shoot can change quickly and you need to be able to adapt. The SI shoot is a great example. Marguerite and I had planned on shooting the portrait in the restaurant bar and the concepts we discussed were all based around that particular environment. I was familiar with the space and planned my lighting accordingly. When my crew and I arrived we learned the bar was off limits and had to use the main dining area instead. The space was beautiful, but was definitely a deviation from what we originally planned.
For more of Daymon’s work, visit daymongardner.com.