Kids playing streetball or millionaires performing in a highly choreographed show? Sport or showbiz? Welcome to the NBA All-Star weekend slam dunk contest.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

One of the most satisfying moves to watch in basketball, and one of the easiest to photograph is the dunk, as the player soars above the rim and jams the ball through the net.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

The contest pits some of the most athletic NBA players against each other as they compete to execute the flashiest, most difficult, or original dunk.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

We’re only given one floor photo position next to the basket, so the challenge is to capture the winning dunk from the best angle. Previous winners have leapt over other players, twisted 360 degrees in the air, extended the height of the basket with a forklift, and jumped over tables.

I mounted a camera with a 400mm lens in the catwalk in the roof of the arena, which I triggered with a Pocket Wizard radio transmitter, to give an overview of all the dunks. I positioned another remote camera on the floor to the side of the court with a wide-angle lens. I was sitting on the baseline to the right of the basket, Gary Hershorn was up in the stands with a 400mm lens and Danny Moloshok was shooting the action from the far end of the court.

Washington Wizards’ JaVale McGee dunked three basketballs in one leap.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

Oklahoma City Thunder’s Serge Ibaka snatched a stuffed animal from the rim with his teeth.

Photo by Danny Moloshok/REUTERS

Los Angeles Clippers Blake Griffin performed a 360 degree corkscrew dunk, and then hung on the rim with his forearm dangling through the net.

Photos by Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

With only one dunk remaining, the stadium went silent in anticipation. A gospel choir walked out onto the floor and began to sing ‘I Believe I Can Fly.’ An NBA official told us all to remove our remote cameras from the floor as a car drove onto the court.

I hastily repositioned my wide-angle remote camera to my left underneath the basket, made a quick, rough focus, and sat down. Seconds later, Griffin ran towards the car, leapt over the hood, fielded a pass from teammate Baron Davis poking out of the sunroof, and lunged at the hoop. Shooting at 1/1000 second, I squeezed off a frame of him sailing over the car, and then swinging on the rim in the aftermath of the basket as the ball shot through his legs. The novelty of his move and its swift execution sealing victory before the ball hit the floor and the crowd roared its approval.

Photo by Gary Hershorn/REUTERS

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

REUTERS PHOTOGRAPHERS BLOG

Growing up in England with 4 tv channels, I didn’t get to watch much basketball.

The first game I ever saw was during the 2001 NBA Finals when I worked as a runner for Agence France-Presse in Los Angeles, taking disks from the photographers and keeping the editors happy with beer.

Allen Iverson was darting all over the court for the Philadelphia 76ers. I was mesmerized by his energy and acrobatics and quickly became hooked on the game. With its breakneck pace and emphasis on rhythm over rules, it was instantly more attractive to me than reading through ‘The Complete Idiots Guide to Baseball’ and ‘American Football for Dummies.’

I’ve photographed every subsequent NBA Finals as basketball trickles its way across the Atlantic.

There are now three British players in the NBA – Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, and Ugonna Onyekwe, all on the Chicago Bulls – as well as a smattering of talented players at U.S. colleges and Spanish clubs. They add up to potentially the first-ever remotely competitive British basketball team at the London 2012 Olympics. Former NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman even played last year for my hometown Brighton in the British Basketball League.

First stop for the 2007 NBA Finals is San Antonio, Texas. First challenge is to carry most of my camera equipment onto the plane as hand luggage.

Fortunately U.S. airlines don’t yet weigh hand luggage, so I walk past the boarding gate pretending my bags don’t weigh more than I do and then find a guy to lift them into the overhead bin.

Straight to the arena to set up remote cameras…

These finals orbit around Cleveland Cavaliers player LeBron James. The U.S. media are crowning him King James and hailing him as the next Michael Jordan. If Cleveland wins (or even if they don’t) the Reuters photo report will be heavily weighted with pictures of LeBron, so shooting multiple angles of him in action with remote cameras makes for a varied edit.

On an overhead catwalk I mount a 400mm lens which I will trigger when players jump for a rebound via a button attached to one of my hand-held cameras.

Dallas-based Reuters freelancer Jessica Rinaldi (top) holds a focus card.

Photographer Mike Blake set up an overhead remote during the recent NHL playoffs with a Canon 5D camera and a USB cable attached to a computer running the Reuters Paneikon editing software. I decided to try the same thing so that the editors could have a live feed instead of having to wait until the late-night end of the game. We used Paneikon for the first time at an NBA Finals with Gary Hershorn, Peter Jones, and Mike Blake editing from New York, Toronto and San Diego respectively, and everything ran really smoothly.

The Canon 5D, 400mm lens and pc computer set up with a Sprint card & Paneikon.

The story of Game 1 was how the Spurs’ Tim Duncan dominated LeBron James and the overhead camera came through with a good illustration of his aggressive defense.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James (L) is fouled by San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan as he goes up to shoot. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

The NBA only allows one camera behind the glass for the finals (in addition to the NBA & Sports Illustrated cameras), so Reuters, AP, Getty, EPA, and AFP take turns to set it up and we pool the images. We shoot Game 2, which produced a photo of finals MVP Tony Parker.

Lucy setting up the camera behind the glass.

San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker goes up to score during Game 2. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

I was shooting with the new Canon Mark III cameras for the first time and they were pretty impressive in low light. This is a crop of a third of the full frame of LeBron James sitting in a dark corner waiting to be interviewed, which I shot at 3200 ISO.

This finals was one of the dullest, most unemotional I’ve seen. It ended abruptly in Cleveland as the Spurs won four straight games with a defensive lockdown on LeBron James’ magic.

The only spark came from Tony Parker, the diminutive point guard from France, who energized Game 4 as he became the first European player to earn the NBA Finals most valuable player award.

San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker of France kisses the NBA Championship trophy as he holds the MVP trophy in the locker room defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

www.PDNPulse.com/2007/06/shooting-hoops.html