David Bergman — ALL ACCESS — sports, concert, and music photographer

I’ve been shooting football for Sports Illustrated every weekend since the season started and wanted to share some of my favorite images so far.

This was just a few days ago during warm-ups before the Dallas Cowboys - New York Giants game in New Jersey. Terrell Owens gave me a quick glance that kind of scared me a bit. SI gets the raw images un-toned, but I took the liberty of toning it up to post here.

I was in Pittsburgh last week to cover the Giants - Steelers game. Running back Derrick Ward had a nice hurdle over a Steelers defender. This was published in the magazine.

At the end of the Penn State - Ohio State game in Columbus, Nittany Lions running back Stephfon Green jumped into the small crowd of Penn State fans in the corner of the stadium.

I love the guys on the left dressed as PSU players. I’ve photographed them in Happy Valley, but didn’t know they travel to the road games as well. The “381″ is a reference to the number of victories Joe Paterno has in his career, the most ever by a division one football coach. He’s 81, after all, and in his 59th season with Penn State (43rd as head coach).

I think that’s my shadow just under Green’s left leg.

This Bills game was the first time in recent memory that I had good weather in Buffalo. It was cool and clear - a perfect day for football. But something always has to go wrong there. Three helium advertising balloons hit some power lines in the parking lot just before the game and knocked out all of the power to the stadium. There was no jumbotron, no announcements over the public address system, and coaches had to send players in with the play call just like in the old days.

During this field goal attempt, you can see the big screen is out but the lights were just starting to come back on.

Finally, I really like this cheerleader shot from the Ball State - Western Kentucky game. We have to shoot cheerleaders at every game (really!) because SI posts a gallery on the site each week.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

When I went freelance in 2001, I decided that I was going to focus on two specialties - sports and music. I sometimes live in two different worlds and one has little to do with the other.

Last week was one of those weeks.

It started with a trip to Washington, DC to make portraits of USA women’s soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo. I had planned to photograph her outdoors in the goal under beautiful blue skies. Mother Nature didn’t cooperate so we were forced to shoot in a hotel ballroom. We had some fun playing around with the curtains that were already there.

The next day I photographed USA vs. Canada at RFK Stadium. Hope didn’t have much to do because the USA won 6-0 and Canada didn’t have any shots on goal.

During the week, it was mostly music. I shot both Filter and Serj Tankian in concert, did a portrait of Torche in Philadelphia, and covered the New Kids on the Block’s first performance together in 15 years.

Somewhere in there I also did a cover shoot for Folio Magazine with three executives from The Atlantic Monthly.

The week ended with me shooting Lorena Ochoa during three days of LPGA women’s golf in New Jersey.

Looking back, it was definitely an odd week. There have been some periods of time when either one of my specialties dominated, but last week it was about 50/50. I’m fortunate that I have some variety but still get to shoot the types of jobs that I really enjoy.

For the past few years, I’ve covered the NFL draft on assignment for Sports Illustrated.

Since the event itself doesn’t present too many interesting photo opportunities, I always try to find a unique angle. In the past, I’ve photographed it from above, backstage, and even on the stage itself.

The fans that attend the draft are some of the most passionate you will find, so this year I set up a portrait booth on the street outside of Radio City Music Hall and made photos of as many of them as I could.