Los Angeles Senior Photographer Lucy Nicholson reports back from the 2007 NBA Finals

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 dont) 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 photographer 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.

LeBron James at 3200 ISO.  REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

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

 
Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James reacts during their Game 2 loss
to the San Antonio Spurs.   REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

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

San Antonio Spurs Tony Parker (R) celebrates with owner Peter Holt
(C) and Fransico Elson (L) after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in
Game 4.  REUTERS/Hans Deryk

Lucy Nicholson
www.lucynicholson.com