Denver sports photographers | NCAA March Madness

"Demonte Harper #22 of the Morehead State Eagles shoots the game winning three point shot with 5.5 seconds left on the clock against the Louisville Cardinals during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. The Morehead State Eagles defeated the Louisville Cardinals by a score of 62-61."

"Peyton Siva #3 of the Louisville Cardinals handles the ball against Ty Proffitt #13 of the Morehead State Eagles and Lamont Austin #10 during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Terrance Hill #11 of the Morehead State Eagles goes to the hoop against Mike Marra #33 of the Louisville Cardinals during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Terrence Jennings #23 of the Louisville Cardinals dunks the ball late in the against the Morehead State Eagles during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Mike Marra #33 of the Louisville Cardinals fights for control of the ball against Lamont Austin #10 and Sam Goodman #34 of the Morehead State Eagles during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Terrance Hill #11 of the Morehead State Eagles reacts after hitting a three pointer in the second half against the Louisville Cardinals during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Lance Goulbourne #5 of the Vanderbilt Commodores drives the ball against Justin Harper #32 of the Richmond Spiders during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Darrius Garrett #1 of the Richmond Spiders reacts after a play against the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Kevin Anderson #14 of the Richmond Spiders scores a basket late in the second half against Festus Ezeli #3 of the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Marquise Carter #2 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs fights for the ball against Paris Horne #23 of the St. John's Red Storm during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Mike Hart #30 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs blocks the shot of Malik Boothe #3 of the St. John's Red Storm during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Jamar Diggs #5 of the Wofford Terriers defends against Jimmer Fredette #32 of the Brigham Young Cougars during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"(Left) Jimmer Fredette #32 of the Brigham Young Cougars and Brad Loesing #35 of the Wofford Terriers react after a collision during the second round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 17, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. (Right) Noah Hartsock #34 of the Brigham Young Cougars goes to the hoops against Noah Dahlman #42 of the Wofford Terriers."

"Kenneth Faried #35 of the Morehead State Eagles dunks the ball against Justin Harper #32 and Darien Brothers #3 of the Richmond Spiders during the third round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 19, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"(Left) Kenneth Faried #35 of the Morehead State Eagles goes up to contest the shot of Cedrick Lindsay #2 of the Richmond Spiders during the third round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 19, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. (Right) Sam Goodman #34 of the Morehead State Eagles reacts after a play."

"Kelly Olynyk #13 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs blocks the shot of Jimmer Fredette #32 of the Brigham Young Cougars during the third round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 19, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Robert Sacre #00 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs dunks the ball over Kyle Collinsworth #31 of the Brigham Young Cougars during the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 19, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Jimmer Fredette #32 of the Brigham Young Cougars celebrates after a play against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the third round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 19, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

"Jimmer Fredette #32 of the Brigham Young Cougars runs off of the court after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the third round of the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Pepsi Center on March 19, 2011 in Denver, Colorado."

Who doesn't love March madness?

In the two days of the second/third rounds last week at the Pepsi Center I shot six games and captured more than 6,500 images between 4-5 cameras. Thank god Getty sent in an editor.

Even though it was just the early rounds of the tournament, the schedule meant that it was one of the biggest and more pressure packed events that I've ever photographed. Out of the more than 24 photographers/editors that Getty used used to cover the opening rounds at eight different sites, I was only one of four freelancers on the list. There was no questioning that I had to produce.

Thankfully I had both a team and technology on my side. I shot alongside Denver Getty staffer Doug Pensinger and editor Michael Heiman flew in from New York to round out our team. To speed up the workflow, on Wednesday Doug and myself ran more than 700 feet of Cat 5 Ethernet cable from each of our shooting positions on the floor back to the media workroom. This allowed us to use adapters on our Canon 1D Mark IV camera bodies that sent pictures in real time back to Michael's computers in the workroom.

Essentially an image could be captured, edited, captioned, toned and uploaded to the clients around the world in under a minute. Such was probably the case with the game winning shot by Morehead State over Louisville (first image above) as my image was the first on the wire and got some great play online by Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports, among others.

I also set up two remote cameras on the opposite end of my shooting position. One was under the press table on the side of the court, perpendicular with the basket and another was in the corner of the stands. Both cameras were triggered wirelessly using a trigger button that I fired from my seat. This often gave me two angles of the same play/moment in time as apparent in the third image from the bottom above. They also gave me a view of players faces because their backs were to me from where I was shooting.

Working an event this big was definitely a learning experience but, for the most part, went off without a hitch. In addition to Doug and Michael, I have to thank my buddy John Leyba from the Denver Post and Sports Illustrated's Robert Beck & Jeff Bottari for keeping the mood light and the never ending supply of candy flowing. Hopefully I'll get to experience the pressure and thrill again next year when the women's Final Four comes to Denver.

-JCE

Denver Sports Photographer

Denver sports photographers | DU Gymnastics

"Denver seniors Taylor Sanford, center, and Annamari Maaranen, left, sing backstage with teammate Kaitlin Moorhead before being introduced prior to a dual meet against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011. As a tradition, seniors dress up with props for the final home meet of their careers."

"Denver senior Amanda Johanson sings the National Anthem prior to her final home meet as a Pioneer in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."

"Denver senior Annamari Maaranen is congratulated by head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart after she scored a 9.850 on the uneven bars during a dual meet against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."

"Denver's Taylor Stanford (right) celebrates her exhibition uneven bar routine with fellow senior Kristina Coccia during a dual meet against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."

"Denver senior Kristina Coccia is framed by teammates during her balance beam routine against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."

Saturday night marked the beginning of the end for senior gymnasts Amanda, Annamari, Kristina and Taylor.

I photographed the group for the first time along with now retired gymnast turned team manager Dani Kirchoff as freshman back in 2007 on top of a parking structure with their new team. I photographed them again as sophomores. Since then we've spent many Sunday mornings at Whole Foods recapping the weekend over pizza and iced tea or via iChat at the wee hours of the morning from opposite sides of the country.

I really enjoy what I do but photographing friends means even more so I was really happy to get an assignment to shoot the final home meet of their careers.

Unlike Magness arena where I shot a DU meet back in January, Hamilton gymnasium is a challenge (read: nearly impossible) to shoot in because of the bad light, yellow seats and busy backgrounds. Thankfully DU already has plenty of action for the year and asked me to focus on more feature and team related images.

As a tribute to the seniors, my friends I wanted to share a few of my favorites of them from the meet. I really loved the first image in color but keeping everything in black & white made for a more cohesive set of images.

Congrats on four fantastic years girls and good luck at regionals!

-JCE

Denver sports photographer

Denver editorial photographers | David Lucy

"David Lucy, 74, takes a break between runs at Loveland Ski Area where he still skis on a regular basis in Georgetown, Colo., Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010. Lucy, a University of Denver graduate, was the first African-American competitive skier in the country."

After some small talk near the top of the lift David turned to me and asked, "where are we headed?" I pointed off in the general direction of the next lift and the next thing I knew he was gone. If I'm still skiing like David when I'm 74 I think I'll consider my life a success.

Myself and super-assistant Nathan Armes found a few nice locations within 100 yards of each other and David gave us plenty of time to make a few images. Transporting and using lighting gear on the mountain can be a challenge so having two locations close to each other was a huge help.

David reminded me a lot of my dad and tons of great, similar stories that made this project a lot of fun. When I drove up to his immaculate home in Erie to shoot a pair of his old skis and awards his wife questioned whether we were going to do any photos or just chat all afternoon. I was able to get what I needed for my client, University of Denver Magazine, and then we continued talking, mostly about his early '70s cherry red Ferrari that was in the garage.

I work hard to connect with people on assignment and talking about cars, skiing and life with David really did the trick.

-JCE

Denver editorial photographer

Denver editorial photographers | Dana Cain

"Dana Cain is surrounded by just some of the sizable pop-culture art collection at her home in Littleton, Monday, Oct. 11, 2010. Cain, who graduated from the University of Denver in 1981, is the founder of the Denver Modernism Show and has hosted more than 150 events in the Denver area since 1983."

Sometimes you walk into a location and wonder how you're going to make a picture with plain white walls as far as the eyes can see. This was clearly not one of those cases.

I photographed Dana back in October for University of Denver Magazine and the story finally ran in the latest issue that came out this week.

There was a lot to work with at her home, almost too much. It took me a few minutes to take in her massive collection of pop-culture art and in a sense it was difficult to determine what would be a great backdrop while not overpowering Dana. After all, the story was about her and her achievements, not the art. I knew that I wanted to work her green AstroTurf carpet in there somehow because really, how often do you come across that?

As a fellow creative, Dana was a pleasure to chat and work with. We actually spent so much time talking during the end of the shoot that she nearly forgot about an appointment that evening.

Dana even loved a few of the images so much that they will be making an appearance on her website soon.

-JCE

Denver editorial photographer