From the Team Photographer: Plexiglass Photo Shoot

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Ever Since joining the Sharks two years ago, I've looked into different ways of photographing hockey and showcasing our athletes.
There was one specific photo that I had been thinking about for a while - to create a photo from below the ice as if looking up at a Sharks player inside SAP Center.

I had a general idea of how to make this concept come to life with a large piece of plexiglass. The first time I saw it was from my old mentor Donald Miralle, who shot Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals back in the day.
A few other photographers have done this before with plexiglass, but almost all of them were outside with the sky as the background or a blacked-out background.
I hadn't seen it done with a hockey player and I wanted to use the inside of SAP Center as my backdrop.
It is really hard to find or create a truly original image that hasn't been done before, but what you can do is see what other people have created and make a version that is your own. Be inspired but different.
I wish I could say it is super easy to come up with an idea and execute it, but in reality, there are a lot of hoops to jump through.
Not only was there the cost of the plexiglass which was a little over $4,000, but I had to:
Besides getting everything approved and getting a TON of help from my co-workers, I still had a lot of planning to do.
I'm pretty comfortable when it comes to lighting portraits and usually, when I try something new, I set it all up and test it out beforehand. This wasn't exactly possible in this case for multiple reasons, so I had to sketch out some examples of what we needed to build and how we would light it.
The plan was for a four-light setup. One key light, two massive reflectors with grids down the ice to help separate the player from the background and one constant light on the player to help my camera so it could focus.
Then we had to figure out how to build the stage to put the plexiglass on. Fortunately, our building guys have built many stages before since we have concerts and other live events come to SAP Center regularly.
I provided the dimensions of the plexiglass to them (9 feet x 6.5 feet and 1.5 inches thick) and they built a stage that had a hole for us to fit the plexiglass in - almost like a glass-bottom boat.
Even though I would be shooting through the glass, I would see any and all reflections from below. In order to avoid this, I needed to blackout everything around me including myself, so we created a box with black drapes, and I dressed in black as well.
Here is what it looked like from above and below:

Then came the final part, actually taking the photos!
To me, this is usually the easiest part (and the fastest). I had been planning this for months, and the stage/lights were set up early in the morning over a four-hour period.
The shoot itself lasted no more than 20 minutes with all three players. And honestly, 20 minutes is a lot of time. I've been on shoots before where you have an athlete for less than one minute, so I took advantage of every minute I had.
I had some games photos and a mood board ready to show the players so they could recreate goal celebrations and reactions that they had during actual games. This way they knew what I was looking for from them and helped give them an idea of how to pose.
Since I was down below the stage in a "black box," I had to use a walkie talkie in order to direct the players above and the control room to change the video board graphics. This proved to be a bit difficult with the walkie talkies sometimes going in and out, or the sounds not being as clear as I would have liked, but we were able to make it work!
Another thing - plexiglass can be pretty fragile, so it got scratched quickly and constantly needed to be wiped from smudges. By the time we got to shooting the third and final player the plexi was all scratched and beat up, which we expected since the guys were wearing skates.
Also, for the entire shoot I was laying directly on the ice so by the time it was over I was freezing, But it didn't matter because I was stoked about the images that I saw from the back of the camera.

Here are a few more behind-the-scenes images from the shoot:

Here are a few of the final results:

(Shot with 24-70mm lens. Shutter speed 1/100, f11, ISO 1000)
Overall, I was pretty happy with how the images turned out. It was one of the most fun yet challenging photoshoots that I had worked on. It's funny how those shoots are often the most rewarding.
I have a great time shooting Sharks games during the season, but it can get easy to just go through the motions when you have so many games. It can feel really repetitive.
Sometimes you need to push the envelope and try something new to help get the creative juices flowing again. It can really make you feel refreshed.
It's so important to press the "refresh button" from time-to-time. You'll be surprised at what you come up with.
I hope you enjoyed getting to see what it takes for an idea to transform into a photo. A big shout out to my team here at the Sharks for making this shoot possible and supporting my creativity. I wouldn't have been able to do this without them!