I had the pleasure of photographing the basketball players at Faison Recreation last month. This was my ninth year of working the Faison Recreation department and it was by far the largest group of athletes that I have photographed for a sport! There were so many players that the photo sessions had to be spread out between two days. I took 127 individual basketball portraits and 26 team portraits.

In the past, I have photographed the players at the recreation center in Faison, but this year we moved the portrait sessions to a local church. This gave us more room to work with and wouldn't overcrowd the recreation center during the games. I would like to thank the Faison Methodist Church for allowing us to use their facilities!

I always want to go above and beyond what I've done the previous year when it comes to the look of my portraits. I thought it would be great to have a reflection in the portraits, so I purchased two black polycarbonate sheets for the flooring in the image. The flooring was difficult to keep clean! I had to use a Swiffer mop to constantly clean the floor between each portrait! The sheets were also difficult to transport because they wouldn't fit in my SUV. I ended up borrow my neighbor's long bed truck to move them.

I purchased a basket weave type background to add texture to the images. This background really has a sporty feel to it. In addition, I used three lights to separate the players from the background and really make basketball players stand out! 

I want to thank the director of Faison Recreation, Matthew Scott, for coordinating the timing of all these portraits. He has really built up the programs and services for all the sports offered at Faison Recreation.