Fujifilm X-T4 + XF35mmF/1.4 R: 1/1000s, f/11, ISO160

As one with many interests, it should come as no surprise that fantasy football is one of them. According to Yahoo, I’ve been playing since 2003! Back in those days, I didn’t have friends who fantasy footballed so I joined random leagues. While often they were easier to win with a bit of strategy, they were boring because people were less active, less willing to trade, and would often drop out midseason when they were no longer in contention. Years went by… then I joined the Mystery Men (and women) league. A league of co-workers from my time working at Kate Spade New York of all places.

Mystery Men is a 16-team IOP (individual offensive players) + IDP (individual defensive players) league with custom rules where the champion wins a custom team Jersey, and an engraved placard mounted to the league trophy that one keeps as the reigning champion. Typically, leagues have anywhere from 8 to 16 participants with more participants making the league more challenging. I am especially fond of this league because everyone remains active throughout the season. As a seasoned veteran, I typically do well, but in 2018, I fell to 14 of the 16 teams. This led to a tremendous opportunity in the 2019 season to have the 3rd pick in each round of the draft, and I was able to capitalize on that position and win the league! I definitely feel prouder than I should. Thank you podcasts, cheatsheets, and the like.

Here’s a rare behind-the-scenes photo of the lighting setup I used to get the shot. Also, pardon the ridiculous mess going on in this photo! My idea for the trophy photo was to do a low-key (aka: black background) with a spotlight coming down on it and a second light to highlight my placard on the trophy (because I’m so vain). I knew that song was about me… Anyway, I ran into a few a challenges. The room I shot in had white walls and a white ceiling making it difficult to prevent the light to spill into the background (making the background not black). I used high speed sync to set my shutter speed to 1/1000s to darken the ambient lit areas and photoshopped the black where necessary. The spotlight effect was a bit too acute so that the other placards below the main league logo fade to black with very little detail. I angled the lights as best I could to prevent as much of the spill as I could, and give the matte-silver-colored placards something clean to reflect. Hindsight being 20/20, I would’ve loved an aerosol between the spotlight and the trophy to really showcase the spotlight beam… but that just means I’ll have to win the trophy and do it all over again! 😉

08.28.2020