In the Captain’s House One Last Time

The objective was to capture Mark Messier’s being on hand to see his jersey and number being retired at Madison Square Garden. Messier is one of the client’s “faces”, and the client has exclusive rights to broadcast all of the league’s games, and was on hand to participate in the retirement ceremony, as well as hosting the reception prior to the event.

It was critical to scout the location beforehand. Initially, I was told I would be on the ice, however, having more than one location as a backup was critical.

Minutes before the ceremony, when I was supposed to get my on-ice credential, I was told, that in fact, I could not be on the ice, nor anywhere close to it, as all of the static photographers positions were already filled to capacity. How then, to cover the event - especially when I am currently at ice level? I sprint up thirty flights of stairs, dodging popcorn-toting fans along the way. I got in place with about five minutes to spare.

Immediately following the event, we had to process the images on-site, and send them out to service media needs.

This image happened just for a few seconds, when Messier and his son were looking up. His upwards viewing angle, makes him larger than life looking at his jersey, with all his fans filling the background - something I could have never made from the ice, so, in the end, I was very pleased (as was the client) with this end-result image.