Bradley Beal for FNV Ad Campaign

In September 2018, a day or two before the Washington Wizards’ media day, I was contacted about photographing Bradley Beal for an interesting campaign promoting healthy eating for FNV and Partnership for a Healthier America.  Taking a look at their website and seeing stars like Jessica Alba, Rob Gronkowski, and Nick Jonas who had participated in previous campaigns, I jumped on the opportunity.  Luckily, with the short notice and timing of everything, it all worked out and I headed out to media day.

When I arrived at the practice facility in DC where media day was being held, there were photo studio spaces set up all around the basketball court with one spot remaining where I was to set up.  So if you’re not familiar with how media day typically goes, it’s basically a step and repeat process.  Players dressed in their uniforms go from one setup to another for news outlets to photograph them so they have various images to use throughout the season in their publication.  For the campaign, Beal needed to be wearing regular street clothes, which meant I wasn’t going to photograph him until the entire day was finished.  So I set everything up with Toni Sandys and Jonathan Newton of the Washington Post both lending a hand with raising my 9ft white seamless (big thanks to them both!).  Once I finished setting up everything, I got my lights dialed in and waited until Beal was finished and changed out of his uniform.

After the long day, it was finally my chance to photograph Beal.  I was not sure how much time I would have with him or what mood he would be in after such a long day.  Fortunately, he was up to the task, and I think I got around 15 minutes with him, which was plenty of time to get what we needed.  By the time we finished shooting, the gym was almost empty with only a few other photographers packing up the rest of their gear.

A few months later in January 2019, the photos of Beal were released in Giant grocery stores in the DMV area and were also placed on the sides of metro buses.  In all, it was a fun project, and it’s always great to see your work out in stores and rolling down the streets of your neighborhood.