We were lucky enough to get access to some of the best NBL basketball players for season 2008/09. We were commissioned to shoot 8 guys and the brief was totally up to us – something that rarely happens.

The team that was assembled was a hair and make-up artist, 1 lighting genius and who could have forgotten the fantastic assistants. The next was to start scouting out our locations around the city. This was central to all the players given that some of them were staying in the hotel around the corner.

I woke to a fairly mild Sunday morning in Melbourne. Over the last 2 weeks we had prepared our shoot schedule to coincide with players flights and other requirements. That included working with General Managers, Team Managers and the players themselves – not a small a job.

First two players up were a visiting team who had played the night before – I’m not going to mention any names here. However, they never showed up. We called just about…