Kaiden On The Court

We had the opportunity to photograph THE-one-and-only Kaiden Owen of Union High School's Varsity Basketball team.  He is a senior this year and his mom really wanted to get some nice photos of her son, so she called us.

We went to the high school, Kaiden looking snappy in a nice long-sleeved button up shirt.  We were planning to find a few places to take some nice portraits, but then we discovered the school was unlocked and the gym was available.  This changed the game plan a bit for us.  Sure, we'd get those memorable portraits by the brick wall, but the gym was a magnetic opportunity.  Photographing Kaiden would seem incomplete if we didn't indulge and get a few action shots showing off his athletic prowess.  So, that's just what we did.

Kaiden is 6'6".
We asked him if he could palm a ball.
"Yeah."
"Can you dunk it?" my husband asked.
"Yeah."
Perfect! We both thought.  Then we commenced to run him through dunking drills and all other kinds of shenanigans as we shot rapid-fire with both our cameras.

Yes, and he did all this in his nice clothes, which to me actually tells a more rounded story of him in the final photos.  His refined qualities of being courteous and amiable are coupled with his athletic abilities and power to lead.  Because of who he is, he is a strong force for good, and from what I have observed of him, he is a fine example of an older brother.  (Yes, Kaiden, if you're reading this, you can use me as a job reference any day.)

So, as you probably know, the photo shoot is only a fraction of the work that goes into our final images.  A lot of photographers call the edited sports photos "enhanced," but I cringe at that term because it sounds like plastic surgery or steroids or that I somehow changed the client in the photo to fit an imagined criteria of an athlete.  So, when I say I enhanced these photos, it just means I took them beyond the normal editing for exposure or color correction and using different tools I was able to add some of the details that make these more epic.  Yes, it takes more time, but it's cool.  'Nuff said.

For us, this was a lot of fun, much more fun than the more formal posing.  Capturing someone in their element, relaxed, and just having a ball (pun intended), makes for a memorable a photo session.

If we had all day with Kaiden, we would've had him do some of his track and field events for us, too.  I bet he licks the clouds on the high jump.   

We wish Kaiden the best with his upcoming big events in his life.  He was wonderful to photograph, being patient and pleasant the entire time, (and this ended up being about 2 hours long because we basically did 3 photo shoots in 1 longer session including sports shots, senior pictures, and pre-missionary pictures. 2 more blog posts to come).  That's quite a workout for your smile muscles!

P.S. Don't you love his class ring?

Now, these last two images are repeats of images you've seen above, just slight changes to color and blur and I happen to like both pairs of the images equally, so you get to see them, too.

Need a photographer?  We'd love to photograph for you whether you've got puppies, people, places, or persimmons.  If it's a part of your life, we can photograph it.  Whatever it be, give us a call, text, or find us on Facebook at Christensen Life Photography @CLifePhotos and schedule a photo shoot.