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Near death experiences are normal for deer on the highway, people eating lead-based paints and Paris Hilton’s acting career.

For me, they are not common… usually.

Today, a very large and very powerful high school sophomore attempted to show me  what it’s like when the lights go out and the music stops.

For the above portrait, I wanted to shoot East’s Trevon Hinker throwing  a jam down as I had seen him do a few times this season. Unlike his in-game dunks, I didn’t want him to actually touch the rim. I was standing on a very shaky 8-foot ladder holding onto the backboard with my sort-of-free-non-shooting hand, which was actually not free and very involved in the process of shooting this photo — way too close to the hoop for him to come barreling in all King James style.

So… to do this, I asked Hinker to jump in the paint as if he were dunking, but not towards the hoop to avoid a collision — a collision likely to result in minor injury (him) and major death (me).

But I guess a teenage boy in front of the girls’ basketball team loves to show how clumsy guys can be — a good life lesson for the girls and guy present.

On the first take, Hinker gravitated full force from just in front of the free throw line, sailed through the air like a button off of a fat man’s shirt and pummeled my ladder as I weakly clung to it while firing my camera. Laughter erupted and I probably spoke profanely/wet my pants. The sequence can be seen below.

Luckily, I was only shooting Hinker who hit my ladder low and not girls’ star Jazmyn Webster whose vertical has to be measured by NASA — she most certainly would have jumped high enough to put and end to my life as I know it.

Thanks for looking.

The takeoff…

The moment I realized I may very well live my final moments surrounded by high school age kids in gym shorts…

A view of the floor from the backboard after partially losing my ladder. I still like to believe that I would have back flipped from the ladder, vaulted off the wall and landed like the Dark Knight on the floor had I not been holding on like a frightened child.

The world may never know.

Some days are good.

To quote Ice Cube, which I think I’ve done in the past (of course I have, I’m as hood as grillz and the University of Miami), “Today didn’t even have to use my A.K. …  Gotta say it was a good day.”

I arrived at Central to shoot prep of the week Dillon Karajanis, set up my lights, he came in with a dummy model (some guy named Lee or Gus?), I shot 10 frames or so and let them go.

Them fools was lucky I didn’t get too gangsta. Guess I gotta say, today was a good day.

This was a simple in and out shoot. The only real difference in the 10 frames was the positioning of the lights behind D.K. For the first few frames, I mounted them behind him and then I moved them to his sides. I liked the look from behind, so that’s what we ran in the paper.

I really have nothing to add to the shoot, other than it ranks as my fastest of the decade. I know, lame, but the photo is pretty cool and Karajanis is a good wrestler. In addition, I don’t think he cheated on his wife amidst great success, so that’s a plus, I suppose.

Below is the alternate from the shoot.

Let me preface this entry by saying that anyone who doesn’t give thanks to and/or think about the original Matrix on a daily basis is a fool. Period. There is no excuse for not doing so. It is your mind’s right for giving you the ability to do things like, well, live and breathe.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen the aforementioned film, go out, buy — not rent — buy it and watch it seven or eight times… I’ll wait… good. Great film, huh?

Now you know the scene when you think Neo is about to smoke one of those suited fools on top of the building only to find out that the guy has the kind of agility and quickness that make Barry Sanders and Fred Astaire look like Barry Manilow and Fred Flinstone as he dodges bullets? If not, here is a picture:

Well, that’s just dandy and drool inducing. And since this is precisely the scene that kept me on the couch in my parents’ basement for the better part of a decade eating Rasin Bran and living out my prime, I decided to pay homage to it with a Prep Athlete of the week photo.

My subject, Kyle “Did he just do that?” Grott. His ability to make opposing defensive backs look like my dad on ice skates was good enough reason for me to want to make him look Matrixesque.

The above photo is the final version. To read more on how the shot was made and how my assistant’s foot speed  played a crucial role, read on by clicking “continue reading” below.

Thanks for looking.

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This is the third time I’ve had the chance to shoot Morgan Hartigan.

And for the third time, I struggled.

Luckily, she’s not only a good swimmer, but a patient individual, too.

The above image was among the final frames of the afternoon shoot. Morgan was home sick from school and I was on assignment sick of work. The timing for us to meet could not have come at a better time. As the kids say, it was sick.

At first, I had the idea to mimic a shot by photo chief little Mike Smith. His shot was of a spider web covered in dew. In each droplet was an image of a flower from the background. Pretty cool shot, so I thought it might be cool to experiment with that technique on a swimmer.

Not very cool execution on my part.

I got the light right, but I couldn’t get the water to form the correctly. I guess watching the Little Mermaid beforehand would have been a wise decision — you know, the scene when Ursula gets wicked crazy with the ocean.

Since my initial attempts to be awesome failed (story of my life), I moved on to a few techniques I knew might work. Do you like how I confidently knew, but there was still a doubtful might? Me too.

Morgan laughed a lot at my lame jokes and attempts to make her feel less uncomfortable. I think it was laughter intended at me, but I will interpret it as laughter with me.

In all, it was OK, but I would like to have nailed the water shot. In all likelihood, there will be another chance to shoot a swimmer in the future. Probably just none that will humor my lack of humor with compensatory laughter.

For more photos of the Morgan Hartigan shoot, click “continue reading” below.

Thanks for looking.

Editor’s note: AAron wasn’t really sick of work, it just sounded more clever written as such.

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This is the original take from PAW Austin Breckenridge. Due to spacial constraint and an editing decision, it ran as seen below — size and crop. Above is the original, which is not a bad photo — just not the right photo for circumstance.

Austin is a good kid with a lot of athletic talent. Last season, he became the first Central sophomore in years to win a state wrestling title. This past week, he replaced starting running back Michael Davis — who was ejected — during the Indians’ game against Green River.  He took control and ran for 120-plus yards with two touchdowns.

During yesterday’s shoot, we ran into another snag besides editing; the city was affected by a power outage. Thus, we didn’t have any variation in the shoot. I could’ve used my Speed Lights, but I didn’t bring them.

It’s likely Breckenridge hasn’t seen his last “spread” in the paper. Next time, he should get his due respect in both size and crop.

Also, the below image’s tone is flat for some reason related to Photoshop. I cropped it from the above image and saved it. The tone flattened.