How 3 Great NBA Bubble Photos Happened

The NBA bubble is a strange new experience for everyone inside it, and photographers are no exception. Nathaniel Butler started shooting NBA games 36 years ago, and his job has taken him from Basketball Without Borders in Africa to China for last October’s infamous preseason series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets. But the bubble is unlike anything he’s ever seen—a detached, isolating environment full of precautionary measures and unique opportunities. “We’re tested everyday and [the players are] tested everyday but currently they don’t want us interacting too closely,” he says.

Photographers are not allowed into places where they’d normally go to find the best pictures—locker rooms, on the court, and training rooms. And instead of sitting along the court baseline as they’re accustomed to, photographers are positioned off to the side—still court level but in the corner at an angle that’s less intimate than usual. They’re also able to utilize four or five remote cameras that can be operated with a trigger and are strategically placed behind the backboard, on the stanchion, and on rails around the arena.

“It’s almost more like a theatrical production,” Butler said. “The courts look great. They’re lit great. It’s different for us because we’re not in close proximity to the players like we typically are at an NBA arena, so it’s different lenses, different equipment, which to be honest is fun to me, getting to try new things.” In that spirit of innovation, Butler and his fellow photographers are still getting great shots despite the difficulties: Here’s the story behind three of them.

Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors Game 3: OG Anunoby Catches Kyle Lowry’s Pinpoint Lob by Nathaniel Butler

Butler says he only got this shot because of that corner court positioning. With 0.5 seconds left in the game, he was in the same corner as Anunoby when he caught the pass that won the Raptors the game. It was the most memorable basketball play of the bubble so far, immortalized from an angle that allowed Butler to capture not only the clock and score, but also some celebratory reaction shots that will go down in Raptors history.

Had the game taken place at TD Garden or Scotiabank Arena, Butler would’ve likely been standing in an area labeled “low basket,” along the baseline between 8-10 feet from the hoop. “I would’ve been in a different spot and you never know,” he said. “The referee could have blocked it. I could’ve been blocked in my typical position by Jaylen Brown’s back as he was leaping.” Instead, he’s standing in a place dozens of fans would normally be jumping up and down. “I have to be honest, the positioning is a little bit of luck,” he said.

During the timeout, Butler swapped a 28-300 millimeter lens on his camera, just in case something miraculous occurred and he needed to shoot from multiple depths. It paid off with a gorgeous wide shot and jubilant facial expressions: “After [Anunoby’s] shot it also enabled me to get the great reaction from Toronto: Marc Gasol with his hands up. Kyle running over to give him a hug, Fred VanVleet with his hands up. That whole sequence of events opened up nicely.”

Montrezl Harrell With His Sixth Man of the Year Award by Andrew D. Bernstein

For this portrait, the Clippers forward walked into a small meeting room holding sneakers with Breonna written on one and Taylor on the other. He put the shoes on and Bernstein snapped a full-length photograph of him holding the trophy. Then, unprompted, Harrell placed his award on the ground, and bookended them with his sneakers. “I said ‘wow that’s a great picture. I’ll take that of course.’ It was obvious that he did it because he wanted a picture of it,” Bernstein said. “Trez is kind of a man of few words, so his actions kind of spoke to what he wanted.”

After that, everyone in the room thought the shoot was over, but Bernstein wanted to take it one step further and have Harrell pose behind the shoes and the trophy. “I’m really happy I did it because quite honestly in those situations you don’t have [the player] for that much time, people are trying to whisk him out of the room, and for you to say ‘wait, I have one more idea,’ that’s not usually how it goes.”

Jae Crowder Catches a Fish, by Terek Pierce

The bubble is a great environment for catching players off-the-cuff—Butler cited LeBron James riding a personalized bike and Jimmy Butler selling coffee to other players as photos he’d love to have gotten. In the meantime, we do have this photo of an ecstatic Jae Crowder holding aloft a fish he just caught, taken by Miami Heat manager of digital content Terek Pierce.

Pierce normally doesn’t take many photos, but due to restrictions on the number of employees teams can bring to the bubble, he’s become a one-man content team intent on documenting every moment, on and off the court. “It’s one thing to shoot a dunk, but I’m always looking at the bench to see what they’re doing. I’m always looking at interactions between the guys, kinda seeing how bonds are built,” he told me. “A lot of it is just any candid moments that happen.”

One such photo came during a team dinner that was at a restaurant near the water. Several Heat coaches like to fish, and one had a line out when Jae Crowder walked over. “Jae put the line out, pulled it in and had a fish,” Pierce said. “I took a photo of it. It was great.”

Photographs have the power to freeze time in moments that call for reflection and understanding. Right now is such a moment. A few days ago, Pierce was walking into an arena when a videographer stopped him to chat about cameras. “He was like, ‘I was actually one of the videographers on The Last Dance’. He said this is very similar in the sense that all the stuff that we’re shooting, in 25 years people are going to be like ‘oh my god.’ In the moment you don’t really think about it. But the fact that my stuff will be part of that is pretty cool.”

Originally Appeared on GQ