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

In an in-depth interview on the PhotoShelter Blog, Portland-based photographer Craig Mitchelldyer talks about his work as a news, sports, commercial, and wedding photographer. I’m honored that he mentions my name alongside other photographers whose work he likes: Joe McNally, Vincent Laforet, Dave Black, Robert Seale, Chase Jarvis, and Darren Carroll. Quite a group.

In reading the interview and looking at Craig’s site, it really makes me appreciate great wedding photography. I’ve shot a handful of weddings over the years, but it’s usually a favor-for-a-friend type thing. Most of my energy has gone into my work as a sports and music photographer.

But weddings aren’t all that different from the big events I usually cover. Photographically, I have to deal with changing light and fast-paced action. I have to be a fly on the wall, while still being ready to catch a fleeting moment.

A wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event and there’s no room for error. The wedding cake will be gone by the end of the night and the flowers will die in a few days. But the photos will last forever and might be passed down for generations. For many people, it’s the only physical memory of one of the most important days in their life.

That’s pretty serious.

I have nearly 20 years of experience as a photojournalist covering news, sports, and music tours around the world. I have to nail it every time. I can’t call my editor after the Super Bowl and say that I don’t have “the shot” because my batteries died or I dropped my lens during the game-winning touchdown. The images are all that matter.

So in addition to my other work, I’ve decided to take on wedding clients during the upcoming year. I’ll also be shooting some engagement films using the newest crop of DSLR cameras that capture high definition video. It’s an exciting time to be a photographer.

I’m offering couples a special rate if they’re getting married in the next couple of months. If you or someone you know is getting married, feel free to get in touch at David [at] DavidBergman [dot] net or 212.851.3167.

Recently, I had an assignment from Kerrang Magazine to shoot Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe recording in the studio. Sounds simple enough, right? The catch is that the studio was 280 miles away.

I packed two Nikon D3 bodies, three lenses, four SB-800 strobes, Pocket Wizard and Radiopopper wireless systems, two shoot-through umbrellas, and all of the necessary hardware into my Thinktank Airport Security roller bag.

I also brought my Domke F-400 sling bag with three lightweight stands, one low-profile stand and a large Chimera softbox. I usually have an idea of how I want to light each job in advance, but I bring extra gear in case the situation changes.

After returning the rental car from my shoot with Madina Lake the day before, I flew to Boston and then drove to the studio in Rochester, NH. Thank goodness for GPS, because the studio is pretty far away from civilization. Here’s a quick photo I shot with my iPhone.

When I arrived, I knocked on the door and called the studio number but got no response. After an hour of sitting in the car and emailing back and forth with the publicist in London, it turned out that someone was in the studio and just couldn’t hear the phone or door. He let me in, but Randy wasn’t there yet. I was told he was “on the way.”

Two hours later, Randy finally arrived. Apparently there was some miscommunication along the chain of photographer-magazine-publicist-management-studio-artist. I had hoped to spend at least a couple of hours shooting a portrait and the recording session, but since the last flight out of Boston was rapidly approaching, I had to switch to hurry-up mode.

Randy wasn’t feeling well but agreed to shoot a quick portrait outside. He wore the clothes that he arrived in and looked like rocker/hunter Ted Nugent. It was cold out, so I took him right outside the studio and shot 14 frames in 93 seconds using one wireless strobe with an umbrella. Normally, I’d want to work the session for a bit and shoot at least 100 frames, but it just wasn’t going to happen under the circumstances.

Back in the studio, I was amazed how quickly he was able to get into “screaming” mode as he worked with producer Josh Wilbur. I set up two wireless strobes - one with an umbrella in the front and the other with a blue gel in the back. Halfway through, I took the umbrella off and bounced the front light off the ceiling so it wouldn’t be so directional.

My original plan of casually shooting a few hundred frames during the session went out the window because I had very little time left at this point. I shot 59 frames in 11 minutes and 48 seconds.

After that, I packed up as quickly as I could, drove back to Boston, and flew home. I worked on the photos as soon as I got in and sent seven images to Kerrang before going to bed.

During the 15+ hour day, I took three Hertz shuttles and two Delta flights. I also spent four and a half hours driving and four hours sitting around waiting.

I only shot 73 frames in 13 minutes and 21 seconds, but I think I got what I needed. Kerrang published the outdoor portrait with the caption “Forest Grump.”

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.

On Tuesday, I shot Madina Lake while they were working on their new album “Attics to Eden” in a recording studio in New Jersey.

It’s always a challenge to make a natural looking “in studio” shot because bands rarely record multiple instruments at the same time. Each of the parts are recorded at different times so we have to set up a shot of the guys surrounded by recording equipment to show they’re in the studio.

After getting that out of the way, I moved them into the large studio, where there’s a foosball table. I thought it would be a fun prop for a photo, but I had no idea that these guys are very competitive foosballers. I just let them go at it while I shot away.

At the end, I posed them for a more formal portrait. I would have liked to get my camera lower into the table so the wooden foosball men were more prominent, but I couldn’t fit the D3 and 14-24 in between the posts without taking apart the table. I didn’t think the studio manager would be too happy about that, so I made the best of it.

The goal of a shoot like this is to get a few different “looks” in a short amount of time. The guys were a pleasure to work with and everything went smoothly — as long as I didn’t try to take them away from the foosball table.

A few months ago, Radar Magazine published Eric Spitznagel’s piece about the Barenaked Ladies rock cruise, which includes a voluntary group nude photo. The story starts like this: “Getting naked with hundreds of people you’ve never met might sound like a good idea. But it turns out to be kind of awkward and uncomfortable. Especially when it’s 10 a.m. and you’re stone-cold sober on the deck of a cruise ship somewhere in the Atlantic.”

As the band’s tour photographer, I’ve had the honor of shooting the infamous photos. I’ve previously posted them on my blog here and here (warning: not safe for work).

I had no idea that Radar had a writer on the ship last February, but was pleasantly surprised when the magazine contacted me to license photos for the story. They wanted to run the naked photo as the opener across two pages.

After talking with the band, we decided that it wouldn’t be appropriate to run it bigger than the size offered to the fans on the ship - about 7X9 inches (an 8X10 photo with a white border).

Radar ran the “before” photo as the opening spread and used the smaller naked photo inside.

Spitznagel recently republished his story, in a slightly different form, on his blog and you can read it here.

Unfortunately, Radar went out of business last week, citing current economic conditions. I’m sorry to see them go as it was a fun read. Maybe they would have lasted another issue or two if we had let them publish the naked photo much bigger.

By the way, the next BNL cruise leaves on February 1st out of Miami. I’m not sure if there are any cabins left, but you can go to the Ships and Dip site to find out. Maybe I’ll photograph you naked!

In between football games, I spent a week in Miami Beach at Best Buy’s “convergence summit.” It’s a retreat for some of the company’s top employees and I was brought in by Blue Pixel, a group of digital photography experts. They organized some fun events including a video commercial production contest, green screen karaoke, and technology presentations by photographers like me.

I’ve worked Best Buy events in the past and they are a lot of fun. It’s a nice change of pace from my usual shooting schedule and is always in a great locale.

Most of the time I was either speaking with small groups or helping teams with their video projects.

We did have some time to relax, though. One night there were about 50 of us hanging out on the beach around midnight. It was dark. The beach was lit only by moonlight. I took some photos of home theater supervisor Stephanie Radtke near the water, but it needed a little punch. I asked Blue Pixel president Alex Stevens to hold my small flashlight.

It gave just enough pop to light up her portrait.

I shot the photo with the D3 and 14-24 at 6400 ASA, 1/15 sec, and F/2.8.

At the end of the week, we were treated to a private concert by Ludacris. There were a lot of cell phone cameras, but I had the only “real” camera in the room.

It’s a good thing that the light was so good in the Jackie Gleason Theater. Otherwise, I would have had to pull out my flashlight.