Steve Bonini shoots Major League Baseball

Steve just finished a really cool job shooting Major League Baseball players in Las Vegas for Nike.

Matt Holiday of the Saint Louis Cardinals. (above and below)

"I thought it would be a really good idea to bring in a coach to assist me in getting the players fired up, so I hired a great guy who played in the majors for 13 years.  We had each player for about 45 minutes to an hour, so it was important to get right to business."

"We had a quick pow wow with the players where I told them what I wanted to achieve, then after that, I'd have a quick talk with the coach.  Pretty much, he spoke to them in 'baseball talk' and then they started pretend playing.  You really know you're shooting a pro when they get right into character.  Doesn't matter if it's bottom of the ninth with bases loaded, or against a seamless in studio.  Impressive, and the shots show it!"

Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays. (above)

Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants, 2010 World Series winners. (above and below)

And a few production stills:

You can't even tell these were shot on white seamless in the final images.

(left to right) Steve Bonini, Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, and Creative Director, Jeff Dooley, looking over the images of Troy on a tethered iPad.