A collection of my favorite photographs from the past decade. A brief comment on each, if you’re interested, follows beneath the slide show.

ROB BELL, 2001 NATIONAL FINALS RODEO
Bull rider Rob Bell got himself hung up on Real Deal, a bull who was not in the most favorable of moods, at the 2001 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. I’ve covered the NFR every year since 1998 for Sports Illustrated, and this image is my all-time favorite from the event. Captured at the moment Bell lost consciousness, and shot using arena strobes (in other words, single frame, with no motor drive) from an elevated position that I’ve come to like for bull riding, it certainly involved a little bit of luck. But there’s a lot more that went into it than that, which calls to mind Louis Pasteur’s reasoning that “Chance favors the prepared mind.” (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 1V with a Canon 400mm f2.8 lens, Fuji Provia 100 film, Speedotron 2401B strobes with quad-tube heads).

BYRON NELSON, 2006
Photographed as part of a Sports Illustrated portrait series on former United States Ryder Cup Captains, I had the opportunity to photograph golfing legend Byron Nelson at his home in Roanoke, Texas shortly before his death in September 2006. Kind, outgoing, and not to mention patient with me as I photographed him in his garage on a hot late summer afternoon, this was easily my favorite portrait assignment of the decade. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Linhof Master Technika with Schneider-Linhof 240mm f 6.3 lens, Polaroid Type 55 film, Profoto strobes with an Elinchrom Octa-bank).



TIGER WOODS, 2003 WESTERN OPEN
Say what you want about the guy, given the past month’s turn of events–but Tiger is still arguably the greatest golfer to have ever walked the planet. He’s so good that he can tell whether his shot is good, bad, or horrendous in the time it takes his club to get from the point of impact to his follow through. And when it’s horrendous, the pictures can be pretty interesting… (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 1D with a Canon 400mm f2.8 lens, available light).


SMITHSON VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL LOCKER ROOM, 2004
Following a David vs. Goliath-type victory over rival Westlake, the Smithson Valley High School locker room erupted in cheers. Photographed as part of Sports Illustrated’s 50th Anniversary project, the game was played outside of San Antonio and was used to represent Texas’ primary contribution to sports in America–high school football. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 1D with a Canon 14mm f2.8 lens, available light).

THE GREAT TEXAS BIRDING CLASSIC
Bill Baker and Greg Mason team up during the 2008 Great Texas Birding Classic near Galveston, Texas. Photographed on assignment for Texas Highways magazine, I had the chance to spend three days with that year’s winning team, and to be introduced to a “sport” with which I was not familiar–and pleasantly surprised at the passion and camaraderie exhibited in the process. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Leica M6 with a Leitz 21mm f 2.8 lens, Tri-X 400 film, available light).

OPENING TIP-OFF, TENNESSEE AT TEXAS
Rigging a remote camera triggered via radio in the scoreboard hanging over mid-court at the Frank Erwin Special Events Center in Austin yielded a rarely-seen view of the opening tip-off of the Tennessee-Texas basketball game in December of 2005. As this was shot using arena strobes I was a bit apprehensive about getting this as a single frame, but everything only had to work once, and it did. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 1D with a Canon 17-35mm f2.8 lens, Pocketwizard Multi-Max transceivers, Speedotron 2401B strobes with quad-tube heads).


TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, 2007
I really don’t have anything against auto racing, but there are only so many times I can watch people make left turns while zipping past my trackside position at 150+ miles an hour. So as the sun went down over the Texas Motor Speedway during the 2007 Dickies 400, I climbed up to the roof of the grandstand, and for good measure brought my tilt-shift lenses along with me. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 5D with a Canon 90mm f2.8 tilt-shift lens, available light).


ROBERT EARL KEEN, 2008
It took a move from New York to Austin to learn to appreciate the music of this Texas songwriting legend, but I’m glad it worked out that way. And speaking of things working out, his agreeing to make the two-hour trip from his home to New Braunfels and Gruene Hall, Texas’ oldest dance hall, for the portrait shoot allowed me to finally make a picture that I’d had stored in the back of my mind for years. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Linhof Technika III with a Schneider-Linhof 150mm f5.6 lens, Kodak TXP 320 film, Profoto strobe with beauty dish mixed with ambient light).


THE MIKE COOLBAUGH STORY, 2007
By far the hardest series of portraits I’ve ever had to do. Sports Illustrated assigned me to illustrate a feature on the death of Mike Coolbaugh, former major league baseball player and first-base coach of the minor-league Tuslsa Drillers, who was killed by a foul ball hit by Driller’s catcher Tino Sanchez (on the left), leaving behind his pregnant wife, Mandy, and sons Joey, age 5 (left) and Jake, age 3. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II with a 28-70mm f 2.8 lens, Profoto strobes).


DOUG SANDERS, 2004
A flamboyant golfer of the 1960s and 1970s who stood three feet from golfing immortality–or at least a major championship–at the 1970 British Open before missing the putt to win, Sanders still likes to think of himself as a man about town. To others, he’s still stuck back in the glory years of his heyday. While he’s still funny as hell on the set and a rather harmless charmer toward any female crew member in the studio, I’m inclined to believe the latter. This shoot, for Golf Digest, was my third time photographing him; each time he opened up a bit more and the facade began to crack. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Mamiya RZ-67 with a 180mm f3.5 lens, Fuji Provia 100 film, Balcar strobes).


PHIL MICKELSON BLOWS THE U.S. OPEN
“I am such an idiot,” he said, and truer words were never spoken than on that Sunday afternoon in June after Phil Mickelson double-bogeyed the 18th hole at Winged Foot to lose the 2006 U.S. Open. Photographed on assignment for Golf World magazine, I was actually positioned behind Mickelson when he crouched down and ever so briefly held his head in his hands after realizing the enormity of what he’d just done; fortunately I had a remote camera clamped to the grandstand which was able to capture a wide view of the scene. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 1D with a Canon 28-70mm f2.8 lens, Pocketwizard Multi-Max transceivers).


JUSTIN LEONARD, 2005
Assigned to photograph golfer Justin Leonard at home for a Golf World cover story, my assistant and I showed up at his house loaded for bear with cameras, lights, and whatever else we could fit in the truck. After scouting out the house and determining which elaborate setups we’d like to do and where we wanted to do them, I asked Justin if he wouldn’t mind giving me about twenty minutes or so to set things up. No problem, he said, and promptly plopped down on the sofa in the living room, whereupon he began tossing his daughter, Reese, into the air. “Forget the lights,” I told my assistant. I grabbed a camera and we were done in the twenty minutes I thought I’d need to set things up. (Info for the gear-obsessed: Canon EOS 1Ds with a Canon 17-35mm f2.8 lens, available light).