In honor of the start of the season of hardwood action, I offer up one of my all-time favorite basketball photos. The Pack was playing Western Carolina in, what was at the time, the most awesome facility to shoot round ball ever : Reynold Coliseum. The lighting in Reynolds rocked, plain and simple. Right after the National Championship in 1983, the university invested in some great lights (for TV, of course) that lit the court up like a sunny summer day. The TARTAN® flooring acted liked a giant reflector, removing overly harsh shadows and adding some great fill light. While the yellowish hue from the floor sucked for color, it made for super black and white. Add to the fact that the awesome light from above dropped off just a few feet from court surface and photographers were treated to a clean, almost pure black background. No faces. No signs. No Clutter. Sweetness.
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This particular image of Chucky Brown and WCU player is by far, my all-time fave. With all the Final Fours, NCCA tournament, ACC tourneys and major games under my belt, this photo still tops them all. It's the peak action that makes it for me: both guys' hands at the exact same distance from the ball, their faces and Chucky's gum. As an Agromeck yearbook photographer, I never really had too many sports images appear in Technician, the student newspaper, because they had their own staff of shooters (this was back when there were separate photos staffs between the two). But that particular non-conference game, the Technician shooter was a rookie without college basketball experience. When the sports editor saw this image, he asked if they could run it and they did - four columns on the front page.
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I will also always remember this photo fondly because of a portfolio review session I had at the Southern Short Course that year. The late, great Washington Post sports photo legend Richard Darcey was kicked back out in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Woodlawn, looking at slides for shooters in search of guidance and wisdom. He takes my sheet of slides and scans quickly over the 20 chromes. His eyes keep coming back to one image in particular. "Let me ask you something," Darcey said to me. "Why do you have so many basketball photos?" (I had something like five). "Because I want to be a sports photographer and I'm trying to show that I can shoot basketb..." and before I could finish, Darcey interrupted "Son, you just need one. This one." he said pointing to the Chucky photo. "This one image tells me you can shoot some action. This is one of the best basketball photos I have ever seen." And with that, I floated away.
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