golf Archives - Marco Garcia Photography

Turn on a dime.

So after my two weeks golf week hell, I had a week off to recover, pay the bills, and storm the football field for the NFL’s Pro Bowl. We don’t get to cover sports much in Hawaii on the national level. Hawaii doesn’t have any professional teams nor is there much national interest in college or high school sports unless they win big. Yet with two major PGA Tour golf tournaments and the Pro Bowl…all within the span of three weeks in January…I’m sported out!

Sport photography is a tough business. Your career is based on capturing that winning moment. Photographer (and mentor if you ask me) Nathaniel Welch once told me about sports photographers. “Your livelihood depends on whether or not the athlete or team you are following makes the big play and wins,” or something like that. If that team or athlete fails, you fail. If you have to depend on someone else to make a living, it isn’t a good career.

I once wanted to be a sports photographer back in the day of film and manual focus cameras. It was in college and the University of Texas had top notch athletic programs and athletes. I spent much of my college days at football fields, basketball courts, and swimming pools.

UT vs Houston BB — UT vs Houston men’s basketball 1991-1992

Luckily I avoided that career path but do wish I had dabbled in the professional sports photo world a bit in my younger days. I would have been special times to have gone to a Super Bowl, a World Cup or an Olympics yet I don’t regret the path I have taken. Although I heard Nathaniel’s words much later in life, I clearly understood them years before.

But back to the Pro Bowl, the NFL event that brings the best of the best players who currently are not playing in the following week’s Super Bowl. Not too far back, the Pro Bowl used to be held after the Super Bowl but the Pro Bowl began to lose relevance and the NFL had to update and remake the event to keep people interested. For too many years, the Pro Bowl was a powder puff game where teams played hard the first quarter and cruised the rest of the time. I recall many times hearing boos and catcalls from fans as QB’s would take knees to run down the clock or tacklers would gently grab a runningback so as to avoid injuries. The last two years have changed quite a bit as players are actually out there to win. There’s still some powder puffiness going on but this last game proved to be a nail biter.

With minutes left in the game, Team Sanders scored only to have Team Rice quickly score soon after and take the lead with a two-point conversion. Team Sanders then drove midway down the field only to have Philadelphia Eagles QB Nick Foles sacked by Dallas Cowboys DT Jason Hatcher forcing TS into an impossible 67-yard field goal. With virtually no time left on the clock, the kick went wide but New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie caught the kick and ran towards the opposite end zone. The media and the side line had rushed the field as we thought the game had ended but clock had not completely zeroed out. Cromartie ran down field in hopes of making a touch down and headed straight towards me. I aimed my camera and fired thinking he’s stop but he kept coming. I didn’t have time to move and wondered if my cameras would break on impact.

Cromartie looked forward then back and rushed towards me only to turn on a dime to avoid running me over. He clipped the lens of my second camera on my shoulder which rocked back and forth after he shot by. Most of you who know me know I’m not a small guy but Cromartie would have knocking the hell out of me. It would have made a funny top ten plays of the day on Sports Center but it would have been an expensive trip to Canon repair…if not the doctor as well.

If you are not on the field and only watch it on television, its really hard to understand the athleticism of these men. I’ve seen 300 lb plus linemen move like ballet dancers and watched wide receivers make impossible catches…and this is only the powder puff Pro Bowl! My current and recent experience photographing football is the University of Hawaii and many of the players if not most will never see the professional side of the sport. There is no comparison. The Pro Bowl brings the best of the best to the field. I can only imagine if it had been a stumbling local college kid and what might have happened. Thanks Antonio for not breaking my back or bank.

*Note–The 2o14 Pro Bowl teams were drafted from both the NFC and AFC and teammates had the possibility of playing each other. The teams were headed by Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders.

Live by the club, die by the iron.

2014 started with a bang, rather a swish of a golf club. Hawaii is golf central in January. Everyone from Barack to Vijay come to the Islands to hit our beautiful links. My first two weeks of the year are filled with the smell of grass, the pain of walking 18 holes plus an additional 18 holes, and the sound of…well…nothing as pro golfers are too sensitive to the sound of the camera shutter or the sound of anything else. An NBA player or Premiere League footballer can be screamed at during a free throw/kick…but a golfer? Well, silence is the only way to oppose this noble and elite sport.

My week spent at the Kapalua course for the Tour of Champions in Maui was hell. The hilly greens could easily be a ski resort and hiking is the only way to really describe covering the action on this course. The outstanding views of Molokai are touchable from many of the holes and all considering the current weather pattern on the mainland (Jan 2014) there is no better place to be…just don’t ask my knees, thighs or calves the next day. What a pain! Hoisting 400mm f2.8 up hill is no fun.

My next assignment is the relatively flat Waialae Country Club course for the Sony Open staring Wednesday. Its warmer, not as scenic but there are no hills. However, there are many more golfers to cover and be sensitive about ensuring an errant camera shutter disrupt their concentration.

Mr. Obama, above, started my year on the first at Mid Pacific Country Club. The club is one of the few Mr. Obama can play at where the public can actually catch a glimpse of him. Most of the courses he now plays in Hawaii are secluded and difficult to get to but Mid Pac’s 18th hole sits on a public street across from a popular hiking trail. Obama, hat askew, hit off the fairway onto the green and made a long putt that would make any golfer proud. All considering he’s played about 12 rounds of golf during his 15 day Hawaiian vacation, he should be able to make all his putts!

A wide view of the 18th

Every year I am hired to photograph the Sony Open. I’ve made a bit of a name for myself shooting golf as I’ve done it for a few years and I learned from some of the very best shooters. Stan showed me how to sit on the first tee and get great, clean tee shots, Chris showed me how to position myself for anticipation, Sammy showed me how to walk up and down the course, and Grayson showed me how to hustle. I mean hustle. So I know my golf or at least pretend to.

Do I like shooting golf? Eh… Its tough shooting round after round of golf for days on end and when we had more than one tournament here, it was super hard to get motivated to follow these super sensitive” golfers for hours on end. By the end of any tournament, the last thing I want to do is be out in the sun, see grass, or anything to do with little white dimpled golf balls. I usually stay sick for a few days after as all the sun, pollen, pesticides, and the weight of my cameras breaks me down.

Yet, I get a shot like this and it all feels worth it all. Its not the best but it sure makes me feel I can really see the world happening around me. Sure, its just a sports shot, and not a great one at that, but to know I walked up and down a course for four days in the rain, sun, and humidity carrying three cameras, a heavy 400mm lens while slathered in sunblock…and get a shot like this…makes me feel like I’ve come along way from time time I first walked into a club house. Thank you, you men of golf, who taught me how to see golf…and thank you Steve Grayson…not a golf tourney goes by here in Hawaii without your memory recalled in laughter, professionalism, and fear.

Did anyone ever hear the chimp story between him and Sammy? HA!

If many of you don’t or didn’t know Steve Grayson, he was a great GREAT man who knew his photography. He once said he was one of the only photographers who was able to walk through South Central LA during the OJ riots with camera and taking pictures. I mean, look at him! Would you mess with that man?!?

Grayson sent me this shot of him and the hotties of the golf world. I bet those women were more happy to be seen with him that him with them.

In January 2008, Grayson passed away. Its been three years now and we still talk about that man of men, a giant among us who crawl through the grass to get that shot. We will always remember your bad plaid shorts.

The beach, a sand wedge, and a mutt.

A last minute call came in from Golf Digest/World Magazine for a last minute job to shoot an ex LPGA golfer for their “Where are they Now?” section. The job, which came via my agent, Wonderful Machine, needed to be done quickly over the weekend with a super fast turnaround. Of course, this type of job is just down my alley. I love the pressure, the over-the-phone art direction, the uncertainty, and the challenge to make an image as quick as possible.

So after a few hurried txt msg, a few emails, and a phone call, I got in touch with my subject, Lori Castillo, and set an 8 AM call time on Kahala Beach this past Saturday. I begged my number one assistant, Jamm, or Jacques, as his real name is much more interesting than his nickname, to wake up early and come with me. The lure of fast cash and a dim sum breakfast got him on my team.

So come Saturday morning, Jacques and I drove out to Kahala, quickly scouted the beach and found the right place and parking to make the job happen. Lori showed up and, with lights and cameras in hand, we walked out to the spot where we’d shoot her in a couple of set ups. I talked with Lori for a bit while Jacques set up a beauty dish on a Profoto 7B pack. Lori, who was a great sport, brought along a sand wedge as a prop as we were standing on the beach. She took a few whacks at the sand for a few shots but it proved to be a better prop than an action tool.

As usual Jacques showed me up by being more interesting and talkative than me which was a great as he broke the ice with Lori as she was a bit nervous about the whole picture thing and I have a hard time talking when I’m thinking about f-stops and light ratios. She and Jacques had the conversation going which allowed me to get her laughing and smiling naturally making a for a great portrait. There is nothing better than having a good first assistant.

Our photo shoot, which lasted under an hour, did have its problems (as if you can call standing on a sunny Hawaiian beach a problem.) As the beaches are public, beach goers walk up and down while swimmers and surfers splash around the surf. At times I had to shift Lori into a different positions to avoid a walker on the shore or a swimmer in the water. Its tough to get that clean background.

And out of nowhere, we had had an uninvited guest walk onto our set. A little wet dog decided he wanted to be part of shot and saunter over to where Lori was standing and preened for the camera. The dog, a mix of some terrier and God knows what else, sat at my feet staring at Lori as I took pictures of her but the little mutt decided he rather be part of the picture plopped down right in the middle of the set. The dog, whose calm energy was so apparent, felt we were part of his pack and real never had much to do with us other than show he would be the one to have his picture taken. Now talk about being upstaged! The owner came and apologized for her dog’s obvious boorish manner but none of us cared. We all scratched and tugged on the salty little mutt and it was more than obvious he enjoyed the attention from the three strangers that we were.

The dog, with his wiry hair and under bite, really stole the show. He was the best little thing. Too bad we couldn’t pack him up and take him with us.