I was recently asked by the Sports Brothers to shoot the red carpet event for the Reid & Fiorentino Call of the Game Dinner. Eric Reid and Tony Fiorentino are the Miami Heat TV announcers and every year they have the Call of the Game Dinner which honors the work of the people “behind the scenes” who make a difference in the community. Some of the honorees this year include Miami legendary QB Dan Marino, renown artist Romero Britto and Jeff Fogel who suffers from ALS but still coaches his girl’s basketball team.
The Reid & Fiorentino Call of the Game Dinner was held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL. As soon as I made my way into the venue I went and received my media credentials from PR man extraordinaire Elliott Stares who has been the PR person for this event for the past few years. Once I had my credentials I made my way down to the red carpet to find a prime spot to photograph the guests and celebrities.
I had set up right next to the photographer hired for the event to be the main photographer on the red carpet and I thought I was in a great spot to get some really great photos. Of course things go awry sometimes at these events and the Call of the Game Dinner red carpet was no different.
The biggest challenge in shooting red carpet events is having the photo being completely blown out due to too much flash. The main photographer had two 7 foot parabolic umbrellas with Elinchrom strobes inside which was throwing a lot of light out. I had to time when I pressed my shutter basically right after the main photographer fired his flashes to avoid overexposed photos.
Once people started to stream in, a plethora of news crews, entertainment reports and sports reports had their videos cameras set up on tripods right next to me and I got muscled out by the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino PR team who had priority over me so I had to join the mosh pit of other photographer vying for position.
Where it all went crazy was when some of the bigger names like Dan Marino, Don Shula etc. started to make their appearance. There was no longer a line on the red carpet as every news media had their microphones right next to the step and repeat banner which made it impossible for anyone to get photos. I cannot tell you how many arms, video cameras or microphones made their way into my photos.
Basically after that it was just a free for all as the red carpet was inundated with media. I left once all the guests streamed into the ballroom for the banquet. It’s always an experience any time I shoot an event like this and it’s always fun.
