I’m about two months late here, but in my defense, these images - the Megan Keller goal and Connor Hellebuyck save - are timeless. Both were captured by the talented Jared C. Tilton via remote cam, and I zoomed with him to talk through how he was able to pull both off.

LJ (ArtButMakeItSports)
To start, I know your work from mostly motorsports; do you consider yourself primarily a motorsports photographer, or…

Jared
I’d say for the first part of my career, 15 years or so, yes, with it being 95% of my work. Within the past 5 years or so I’ve started to explore other sports.

I started my career with an internship at a company that was primarily motorsport-based, and I said, alright, let’s give this a go, despite not necessarily being a fan. I’m very thankful for it, but obviously happy to have the opportunity to shoot other sports now.

LJ
Were you shooting other sports at the Olympics, or just hockey?

Jared
A handful. I shot a bit of figure skating along the way, and did some of the short track racing, which was also in the figure skating venue. But mostly hockey more than anything. It was my first Winter Olympics. I went to Rio in 2016, and then Paris in 2024.

LJ
Did you request the ice sports?

Jared
Talks around robotics had started about a year and a half ago, and my name was thrown into the mix. Once I got that role, that solidified me going to the Olympics and what sports I would be covering. When I was there, I only operated the robotics. I’m constantly raising my hand for different things and wanting to learn. I really gravitate towards the technology side; the world of sending data, how we can view it live, and how quickly we can get it out, etc. That intrigues me.

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LJ
Can you walk me through your setup? (PBS News did this awesome breakdown below that’s a great primer)

Jared
The proprietary robotics program has a joystick and some different buttons, so I swapped in a PlayStation controller out of comfort and muscle memory. The controller in the center operates the center robotic/remote camera above the ice, and then I have two stream decks on each side that operates our other two cameras. So it’s a lot of back and forth of moving what’s firing what, seen via laptop. I had a button that would fire all three at the same time, but you’re typically sitting there watching and waiting for that moment to hit the button. We turn it down to around 15 frames a second instead of the 40 that you can typically shoot at, but you’re still picking your moments.

For the Keller goal, I wouldn’t say I almost forgot to fire, but the move she put on that defender, that deke, almost left me speechless. I was amazed just watching the move, and was like, oh gosh, I hope I hit the right button, because I was so into what she was doing in that moment.

For the Hellebuyck save, at that point, there’d already been one shot put on net, so I was already firing the remote, knowing there was action around the net. And then, at that point, you can either stop because you see that he made the save, or continue to fire. Luckily for that one, I continued, and it just…I wouldn’t say, you know, it’s all luck, but as far as the puck being perfectly between the two sticks like that, I couldn’t hit that again if I tried. It’s how fast that puck is moving, and how fast the action is, the placement ended up being so lucky. But, we put ourselves in that position to make that photo starting months/years in advance; it says a lot about the team’s preparation and just how it all comes together.

LJ
Did you realize that that images were going viral?

Jared
I don’t even open up social media or our website until an hour or so after the game. Luckily we have editors in London that are sitting there, and they’re waiting for these pictures to hit, and they’re amazing, they do everything for us. I mean, all we do is take the photos, they caption them, and they send them out to the world or the places they need to be in a timely manner. I trust the editors fully whenever we’re doing this job, and just hop on social media on the train ride home once I’m all packed up. I was sitting there with my AirPods in for a bit, and start seeing it on all different places.

LJ
Where do those shots rank on your Mount Rushmore of images that you’ve captured?

Jared
Aesthetically, I have other favorite shots that have more color, more motion. But I’d say the importance of it being the Olympics, and the gravity around the save/shot, they’re up there. Top 5 for each one, for sure.

LJ
When I’ll think back 30 years from now, my memory won’t be the actual television feed of the moment, it’ll be your two images.

Jared
That’s cool to hear. They’re going be burned in my head for a while as well. I keep joking with friends that say congrats, or, you know, nice photo, that I think this is going to have some shelf life haha.

Jared’s work can be found across numerous outlets, and on his Instagram. Make sure to give him a follow!

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Also, friendly reminder that if you’re in NYC tomorrow (Saturday), to come to the new Sotheby’s in the old Breuer building to hear my discussion with legendary photographer Nat Butler, at 6pm. It’s free, but RSVP here so they can get a sense of headcount/buy a book if you haven’t already. I’ll be sticking around after my talk signing books, so come say hi!

-LJ

Both the Bills players and fans came through, as the team won 31-17, and Bills Mafia showed up in force. No scene was more emblematic than the shot of two women in their stadium seats roughly TWO HOURS prior to kickoff, captured by photographer Kathryn Riley.

The image quickly went viral on social media - I first saw it when people started tagging me in Bleacher Report’s tweet featuring the image. I decided to pair it with Bernard Cohen’s ‘Zany Balances’ - he has a number of pieces featuring colored dots, and I thought this worked well (though it’s slightly pixelated on desktop).

As I’ve alluded to in the past, I want to use this platform to go more in-depth on the posts I put out on social media. One of those avenues is focusing in on the artists (more to come on that later this week). Another is learning how a particular sports image that I use came together. Two weeks ago I spoke with Photographer Brian Ray about his shot of Caitlin Clark’s buzzer beater, and yesterday I was lucky enough to chat with Kathryn about the unique game and her incredible shot.

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LJ (ArtButMakeItSports)

Do you primarily work Bills games?

Kathryn Riley

I’m part of the NFL Focus team, there are 12 of us spread out around the country. So I'm based in the Boston area; I work some Pats games, Eagles, Jets, Giants, Bills - anything in the Northeast is usually in my wheelhouse. And I do a lot of golf and tennis, and got my start in baseball.

LJ

So being based in Massachusetts, did you have trouble because the game was originally scheduled for the weekend and had to get moved?

Kathryn

I was definitely a little stressed going into it. The NWS was calling it impossible travel, which isn’t fun for a seven hour drive. So I decided I wasn’t going to leave until one o'clock on Saturday - I'd stay in Syracuse and then just head over to the stadium the next morning. And I was watching the Weather Channel when the lady said, ‘Just in, the Bills game has been postponed to Monday.’ I ended up leaving anyways and going snowboarding in Vermont; I made the most of it because most of my weekends this time of year are taken up by football. Monday morning I left at 5:30am and drove straight to Orchard Park. There was some light traffic around the stadium, but overall not too bad. I was definitely worried though and figured I would give myself a big buffer in case it was still terrible out.

LJ

I assume being in Boston, you've shot in the snow, but anything that intense or that big of a blizzard before?

Kathryn

I actually had my first snow game ever last weekend, so back-to-back. I've had snow in pregame and post-game, and games where it’s been 20 below with wind chill, but never a pure snow game.

LJ

Did you have to do anything special with your equipment because of how cold it was?

Kathryn

I've had a lot of success, knock on wood, with my batteries. I shoot Nikon and a lot of my colleagues rag on me for that because they're all Canon and Sony shooters - all three are great, it's just what I happen to shoot with. For whatever reason, Nikon batteries in the cold are rock solid, which is usually a really big issue. You have to have more batteries on hand and replace them more often. But that wasn't the case for me, luckily. My 400 had to warm up though; it was being really wonky for the first 20 minutes or so but finally settled down. It's also really old so that probably played a part.

LJ

So the shot, can you take me through how it all came together?

Kathryn

I finally got my equipment ready, credentialed, past security, all of that around 2pm. And then the Bills meeting room is really tight. So it just took a lot longer than normal to get my stuff organized and gear up. At that point I needed to get outside - I'm in 5,000 layers and it was getting super hot, so I just headed out.

At that point, my intention was for more snow features. I thought maybe someone shoveling, but I also tried to think what could be different about this game, what could I capture that’s unique. I would say not every assignment is like that, but when you have an editor or a client who says just go out and do whatever you want to do, it makes it a lot of fun and tends to lead to the best photos. I love feature hunting, where it's not necessarily game action. It could be interesting fans or a player having a quiet moment to themselves pregame on the sideline or in the tunnel - the in between moments that lend a layer to telling the entire story of the day.

At the time I was looking at this kid who had insane face paint on and a buffalo head hat. And I'm like, oh, I wish you could just come closer. I was trying to wave him down, but it didn't work. I look to my left and I see these two ladies just sitting - I was field level, and they were around three-quarters of the way up in the lower-bowl. Since it was so early, the stadium was relatively empty and they really stood out. Why anyone would show up that early to sit in the snow in that type of weather is beyond me, but there they were. The sun was kind of on point too. I took the shot, did the crop (more on that below), and sent it in, and I told myself, this is neat. And then next thing I know, a little before kickoff, someone texted me and was like, your photo is everywhere. It was, which is crazy.

LJ

That blind dedication ties into the essence of Bills Mafia, which I think is why it resonated with people. Plus, the way you were able to frame it with the lighting was so perfect. In looking through your Instagram, you’re big on monochromatic shots, and this definitely fit your style.

Kathryn

Yeah, I just find light and shadow super interesting, and football, especially in the snow, lends itself to that. You can really make things pop, and I got lucky with the crop to keep this shot clean because I was really close to having to cut off the top of the woman’s beanie, which I didn't want to do. And I also didn't want the random guy's elbow in the very top left corner just kind of hanging in there

LJ

What was the camera and the lens that you were using for the shot?

Kathryn

So, that was on a Nikon Z9 with a 135-18. Like a Nikon 135-18.

LJ

And finally, where can people follow your work?

Kathryn

So I know it’s X, but it's Twitter forever in my heart. It's @K__H__R on both Twitter and Instagram. And then I have a really outdated website, but no one needs to look at that right now. And thank you for this, it was really cool. I mean, your account to me is so fascinating. I was like, I've made it. I can retire!

LJ

Thanks for the time, congrats on such an incredible shot, and please don’t retire, as I know myself and everyone else are looking forward to seeing your future work!

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(Editor’s note: also shoutout to Jane Burns for coming up with the name of this series - The Shot Behind the Shot)

The moment immediately went viral, partly because the broadcast game clock was slightly off (something that’s addressed in the interview) so there was some confusion online, but mostly because of how cold-blooded the shot was, including the incredibly satisfying thump of the swish.

After the moment happened, we were treated to an iconic photo captured by Brian Ray, Director of Photography University of Iowa Athletics, which I then turned into this meme.

I wrote briefly about my process on Twitter, but when figuring out what to pair a sports image with, I spend time thinking through what makes it unique. In this case, it’s the perfect reflection on the court. There are a handful of artists who came to mind for the reflection - Peter Doig, Claude Monet - but I also knew I had photographed a piece by Winslow Homer from his 2022 exhibition at the Met. A decent amount of his work incorporates bodies of water, and I knew with this particular painting there was a color palette that matched. Sure enough, after a handful of different positioning/cropping attempts, I managed to get the yellow and green of the jerseys, the size discrepancy of the players, the orange of the hoop, and most importantly, the reflection on the water.

As for the photo, I wanted to get some more context on how it was captured, and I was lucky enough to spend some time speaking with Brian about his process.

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LJ (ArtButMakeItSports)

Here with Brian Ray, Director of Photography University of Iowa Athletics, and I’m excited to chat about the Caitlin Clark buzzer beater on Tuesday vs. Michigan State, and the process that went into your photo(s) of the moment that ended up going viral.

Brian Ray

Thanks for having me. At Iowa, we're pretty blessed that we have two full-time staff photographers and a full-time photo intern. So we're able to bracket a lot of events. For some background, I'm the primary photographer for our women's basketball team. My assistant director, Stephen Mally, is the primary photographer for the men's team. And then I also travel with the football team. I had been gone at the bowl game and just flew in that day for the Michigan State game. Stephen was serving as the primary photographer, which gives the secondary photographer, in this case me, pretty much unlimited creative license, because the primary person is tasked with capturing the game. So Stephen’s responsibility is to have all the action, all the moments, etc, from the front side under the hoop. And the secondary person is free to roam, free to create, free to do whatever we want. I spent most of the game shooting in the reverse position, at the opposite end of the court, because we know that Caitlin, when she makes a three, she turns and celebrates going back down the court. So we've been pretty lucky over time to have captured numerous celebration photos.

As the game progressed, sometime during a time out in the third quarter, I was sitting and noticed that since the edges of our court are black, there was the reflection. And then I spent most of the second half shooting with the camera basically on the floor, practicing, trying to figure out how the reflection worked and how to best capture it with different angles and whatnot.

LJ

Can you take us through the exact moment the final play went down?

Brian

So when the time came, it just lined up perfectly. Caitlin was directly between the hoop and shot clock, and I was on the opposite side of the floor, and everything that I had been practicing and visualized just came together. And then it helped that as she celebrated and she turned and she basically ran right to me. So all that prior planning ended up working out in my favor.

LJ

Were you lying down on the floor with the camera, above it? How did the shot work logistically?

Brian

So I'm using a Canon R3, 70-200 2.8 for the lens. The camera is laying on its side in the vertical position, directly on the floor, with the LCD screen flipped out. So I can look down and I'm basically shooting off the screen, and I'm not even necessarily looking down the court. I'm looking straight down at the screen following the action that way. That’s how I was able to get that nice reflection - because the lens of the camera is basically right at floor level picking up that black paint creating a reflection.

LJ

In this case, did you get a handful of different shots and then pinpointed the one that had the shot clock at the right time?

Brian

So there's a sequence of 189 images from the time right before the shot goes up. It starts with about 00.2 on the clock. She jumps, you can see her release, then the ball starts to come down and I follow her as she is celebrating, and then she runs down the court right to me. So there's a whole sequence that the department has since turned into a little video (below).

this was a screen recording, so apologies if the resolution is low

The funny thing about the shot is, I didn't, at the time, within all the chaos of everything happening, realize how close she was to not getting it off. I had no idea that it was quite as tight as it was. And then the controversy that kind of blew up in the social media world because the Peacock clock on the broadcast was off compared to the actual shot clock; I had no understanding of any of that. The way we handle games is we're moving photos live, utilizing either hard lines at various points in our court, or we're using the stadium Wi-Fi. So as the game finishes, their celebration on the court, I'm going back to the locker room to keep shooting, basically just transmitting images from the back of the camera as quickly as possible. I had no idea what was really in there. And our social media team takes it from there and posts. And then the post that I created that you used was later in the evening after I got home and had some time to put things together.

LJ

Brian, this was awesome. I really appreciate you breaking everything down. If people want to follow you/your team’s work, where can they see it?

Brian

They can see all of our work @TheIowaHawkeyes and @IowaWBB for our women's basketball account. My personal tag is @HawkeyeBRay on Twitter and then my assistant director is @StephenMally

LJ

Thanks again for the time, and congratulations on such an incredible shot.

Brian

Thanks for having me, I appreciate it. It's always fun to talk to people about our work. I love your site - I don't know how you do it, comparing all of these images to art from history, but it is very fun to see. So I was personally very excited to see my work on your feed.

LJ

I was excited to feature you and hopefully again in the future, as I'm sure Caitlin and the team are going to have some pretty memorable moments as the rest of the season unfolds!

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