Seven years running we’ve photographed the New York Mets at Spring Training in Port St. Lucie for SportsNet NY, the official television home of the New York Mets.  We are the last stop on “Photo Day”…the players go through the other press photographers up on the field first then come down to our make-shift locker room studio, music and all.  This year art direction was for a more moody, atmospheric look which we needed to create in camera (vs. post) given the large number of final images.  Thanks to SNY’s Julie for a wonderful team effort!  These photos are used by SNY and the Mets for creative montages and commercials, the Jumbotron, and more.

Matt Harvey is back this season and looking great.  We really enjoy this bunch of guys having photographed many of them for years now, from Matt Harvey to Captain David Wright, Curtis Granderson, Daniel Murphy, Travis D’Arnaud, Dillon Gee, Bobby Parnell, Bartolo Colón, and Jon Niese…lots of optimism in the air…let’s go Mets in 2015!!  Click here for more NY Mets photos.

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The NY Mets wrapped up the 2014 season yesterday, so let’s look back to the beginning…back in February 2014 we made our 6th annual trip to Port St. Lucie, Florida to photograph portraits of the NY Mets players for SportsNet NY (SNY) and the NY Mets.  It’s been so nice to see the players year after year…boyish, fun personalities are great to photograph!

Always a pleasure working with Julie, our terrific client at SNY.  Julie and we sought to liven things up a bit this session to get more emotion, and we even got team captain David Wright to do a few push-ups!   Below are some pics and here’s to a winning season for the Mets in 2015!  To see our past years’ NY Mets portrait shoots, click here.

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For six seasons we’ve photographed the New York Mets at Spring Training for SNY, the television home for the Mets and “and all things New York sports”.  This year we wanted to elicit more fun from the players…so here are some of those playful shots–next week we’ll blog the more official portraits.  SNY uses these photos for player ID in montages, batter up, and on the Jumbotron at Citifield.  Thanks Julie for another super shoot!  See more fun shots here!

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It’s been a great opening week for the team at Citi Field (and Santana’s back on the mound!) and we can now show you the portraits we took in March in Port St. Lucie FL at Spring Training.  As always it’s great working with our client at SportsNet NY (SNY) and The Mets which use the photos during game broadcasts for player intros, etc.  This is our fourth year shooting the team at Spring Training, where we set up a studio in the visiting team’s locker room and shoot all the players at 7am on “Picture Day� in 90 minutes.

Our assignment is to capture a different side of the players from straight sports photography–this year SNY’s art director asked for a split-face shot for their on-screen use.  Click here to see photos of David Wright, Johan Santana, Ike Davis, Manny Acosta, Daniel Murphy, R.A. Dickey, Mike Pelfrey, Ruben Tejada, Miguel Batista, former ’86 Met and 3rd base coach Tim Teufel…and others. To see photos from our shoots from 2011, 2010 and 2009, click here!  Take a look and root for them in their 50th season!!

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Happy Opening Day!  Wonderful to be working with the New York Mets again for the third year…and this time in color!  The images are shot early morning on Photo Day during Spring Training in Port St. Lucie.  We’re the last stop on the players’ photo tour of all the media outlets and have a studio set up in the visiting team’s locker room.  The players are warm, friendly, and fun to shoot!  It’s a fast shoot with 1-2 minutes per player.  The first shot was at 7:45 am and the last at 9:30, so an hour and 15 minutes to shoot 60 players…definitely an adrenaline rush!  This year we went for a more serious set of photos but I can’t help snapping when the players crack a smile!  SportsNet NY integrates these images into their television video clips among other uses by them and the Mets.

Thanks again to Julie, the SNY producer, who’s been a great on- and off-set partner in creating these images and took a chance on us three years ago as non-sports photographers!

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Given this winter it was especially nice to be back in Port St. Lucie, Florida last week for our 3rd annual photo shoot with the New York Mets at Spring Training for our client SNY (SportsNet NY), the “Online Home of All Things NY Sports.� It’s a really enjoyable assignment and we thought we’d give some insight into how we shoot it.

These aren’t sports shots or even outdoor photos; instead, what we’re going for is intimate studio photos of the players, some straight on and others with pitching or batting action.  Last Wednesday we set up a studio in the visitor’s locker room at Digital Domain Park using our Profoto lights with a softbox and umbrella and a pop-up black background.   Mike and I flew with all the equipment…I have a big suitcase I check for stands and non-breakable gear, the two Profoto monolight heads go in a Tenba backpack, and we couldn’t live with out our Thinktank Airport International roller bag for bringing all our cameras on the plane.  The bags always get hand-checked, but I’ve never had a problem.  After the set-up and lighting tests, we met with SNY’s Supervising Producer to strategize the shoot and then had our own meeting by the pool : }.

On Thursday–aka Photo Day, we arrive onsite about 6:30am.  After the baseball card shots and other promo shots are taken upstairs on the field, the Mets players make the rounds into our locker room “studio� starting at 730am…we’re the last stop on the photo circuit.  We shot the 54 players with the Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens.  It’s a very fast shoot, 1-3 minutes with each player and the shoot was over by 9:30am  The Mets players are great to work with–loose and natural in front of the camera.

We can’t post the 2011 photos until Opening Day in April, but here shots of David Wright and Angel Pagan from our shoot in 2010.  Check back on our blog and Facebook page on April 1 for the 2011 photos of the Mets.  We’ll also send out announcements on Twitter.