A Refugee

LA Kings cover feature in Fourth Period Magazine. ©2009 Gary Livingston

Here’s a fun little clip from the shoot:

After nine years as a freelance photographer and working with many different clients I have my images on a magazine cover for the first time.

It was well worth the wait considering I got to photograph my home team, the LA Kings. Not just my home team but, really inspirational guys that have faced adversity and doubt for most of their careers with the LA Kings.

This season is different. They found their confidence and have been in a playoff sport all season long. They always learn from their mistakes and come back stronger because of it. They make it easy to be an LA Kings fan for the first time in a decade. They make it even more fun than easy.

It was a the most difficult and stressful shoot of my career and it didn’t go close to what I expected when I first got asked to do it.

But, I learned a lot and have a lot of good things to build on. I can’t wait to shoot them many more times in the seasons to come.

I hope to shoot many more players for The Fourth Period Magazine too. They were a joy to work with and very patient and supportive.

Be sure to pick up the magazine on January 11th! It’s a great article by my new friend, Dennis Berstein.

Support the magazine! They’re new and deserve the readers. It’s a great organization.

More about the magazine can be found on the LA Kings website! Just click the image!

Thank you to Max Cohen, Dennis Berstein, and David Pagnotta for giving me this opportunity.

Thanks to Paul Mocey-Hanton for assisting me too! You can see that stud in the video. =)

Today was exciting seeing training camp take place. My camera broke and is being repaired but, thankfully I have good friends like Paul Mocey-Hanton. He let me take out his D300 so I could get some photos. Be sure to look him up. He’s a great photographer!

It was great seeing potential lines forming. It seemed like the Brown-Moller-Purcell line had a lot of chemistry. The Frolov-Handzus-Simmonds line looked just as energetic and aware of each other’s movement on the ice. I had to leave before I got a look at the group with Smyth-Kopitar-Williams. If those are the three top lines and they mesh as well as what I got a glimpse of then I think the Kings will be in good shape this year.

Ersberg and Zatkoff seemed to be battling hard for a spot on the team. Bernier, the most promising prospect the Kings have in net, didn’t seem ready today. He continuously got caught out of position and allowed his disappointment in himself get the better of him. He showed some great flares of awesomeness. However, they were far and few between. He barely challenged the shooters and it looked as though he was over thinking everything. I hope it is just something he sleeps off. I didn’t get to see Quick either. He was in the last group.

Watching Moller and Purcell was the most fun to me. The two of them were battling hard on the ice and showed a lot of passion. Purcell was hitting the back of the net a lot more often than I remember last year.

Actually, the most fun was watching Greene, Frolov, Moller, Brown, and Purcell show some personality and joy on the ice. They each had some really fun moments joking with each other. Watching Greene react to scoring a goal was well worth going down to Toyota Center today. Haha, I hope I get to see some more outbursts of excitement like that while I’m at games this season.

I’m heading out to the pre-season game tomorrow night against the Coyotes. I’ll be sure to update this post with more thoughts on how the Kings are looking going into the 09-10 season.

Enjoy the photos.

[View with PicLens]

12345►

I'm ready for the playoffs if we make it. ©2009 Gary Livingston

For the first time since 2002 the Kings could be playing in the playoffs.  This is the first time for many of our current players to actually have something to fight for during the final 25 or so games.

It is really exciting to be a fan.  The Kings are currently the youngest team in the NHL.  They have a lot of inexperienced players and no one expected much from any of them in terms of rising to the challenge in this first season of Kings being a truly new team compared to its past versions.  It is a lot of fun to watch young kids develop into true NHL players and come together to represent our city.

The Kings were also the worst team in the NHL last season and not much better the seasons before that.  They have seriously turned all their shortcomings around.  In many areas they were last in the NHL last season they are in the top 10.  It is great to have hope and be able to see the beginning of things to come for this organization and hockey in Los Angeles.  No one expected them to even be a contender for a playoff spot.   Yet, here we are.  Four points behind the 7th and  8th place teams and plenty  of time to disrupt things and take a spot away from one of them.

With the win over the Minnesota Wild tonight there is a lot to be hopeful about.  Keep an eye on the team.  Show your support. The team needs to know they are not just fighting for their pride but, the pride of LA.

I’ll do my best to make it out to some practices as soon as the team gets back from their road trip.

Be sure to jump over to Rich Hammond’s  LA KINGS blog: http://www.insidesocal.com/kings/

He does a wonderful job exposing the players as people and providing something more intimate to cheer for.

Keep www.atdhe.net bookmarked too in case a road game is not televised.  Most games are streamed there =)

The LA Kings spent Sunday after practice participating in a rink tour around Los Angeles County.

The team and key staff members were split up and sent to different rinks.

I went to my local rink, The Iceoplex, to enjoy some time with Patrick O’Sullivan, Peter Harrold, Jack Johnson, Bob Miller, and Jim Fox.

After signing autographs everyone but Bob jumped onto the ice to conduct youth hockey clinics with their fans.

It was great to witness some loyal fans come out to see some up and coming stars and greats alike.

Don’t miss the game on Tuesday against the Anaheim Sucks then again on Thursday home at the Staples center. I think we are finally in a position to put some hurt to them twice in a row.

Go Kings!

I woke up early this morning and headed over to the Toyota Center to catch the LA Kings practicing for their game tomorrow against the Vancouver Canucks.

The goal was to get some more shots to put together a little portfolio when I send this proposal over to AEG about gaining more access to the team. Hopefully, I made out with some shots you enjoy.

Let me know which you like most so I get have a different perspective to think about when I do put this mini portfolio together. Thanks =)

It would appear I need to step it up on adding content here. Good thing this is an exciting week for me. Hopefully, I can use it to transition into being more productive.

I will be going to Vegas on Thursday for Halloween. Friday night should be great fun as I run around in my Animal (from the muppets) costume and attend a Steel Panther concert. Halloween is by far my favorite holiday too. SO EXCITED. I just need to finish making the body portion of my costume so I am ready to rock at the show.

(If you know who took this promo shot tell me. It is on their myspace and I’d like to credit the photographer)

This is Steel Panther if you don’t know. They started out as a metal cover band playing gigs around Hollywood. After a few name changes, great success, and some time writing their own original tunes they became Steel Panther.

I have NOT ONCE held any real respect for a cover band until I saw these guys a few years ago. They put on an amazing show, are incredible musicians, and just get it. They get what they are doing. It is exciting to watch these guys transition from cover band to artists. I’m excited about the release of their upcoming CD and will be sure to keep you informed about it. Conveniently, I play pick up soccer with the drummer these days. I never would have known until someone told me it was him though. haha.

After I get back from Vegas on Saturday I’m immediately heading to the Palladium which has reopened. I am going to be photographing Thrice! I can’t wait for that. Those guys are keeping with this theme of transitions. They started out as this kinda thrashy metal punk band and now I would rank them up there with Dredg in terms of artistic vision. They have been creating some really amazing concept albums and put on an crazy energetic show. I haven’t seen them in about three years now too. It will be a great night for sure!

Sunday will have me waking up at 8am to play some hockey. I have just started to play goalie for a friends’ team at the Tri Valley Roller Hockey League. Playing on this team is another transition move to help me recover from surgery and hopefully get myself ready to play on an ice hockey team. I really need to figure out a way to work that into this blog more too.

I am working on sending a proposal off to AEG. They own the LA Kings and I’m looking to gain some access to be able to photograph the team in more intimate moments like in the locker room. I will be sure to keep an update on that as it progresses. Even if I fail I am sure someone could walk away knowing a bit more of how to go about doing such a thing.