Inspiring Images: Rich Clarkson’s “The Drive”

Inspiring Image

Now that football season is over it is time to focus on basketball. Early on I learned that in addition to my camera at my eye level seated at court side that it looks great to have a camera at the floor level as well. One of the early pioneers of the camera on the floor was Rich Clarkson. He photographed Kansas basketball starting in the 50’s. His early images of Wilt Chamberlain brought him national attention from Sports Illustrated. He first started photographing games with a remote set up under the basketball in the middle of the floor. One such remote can be seen here. It is not like the remote that I have today that allows me to fire my camera from a reasonable distance. It was a wire connected to the camera. The pictures from the floor really give the players a heroic look. Today a floor camera is a standard item for a big game, but in the 50’s it took a pioneer to perfect it.

Here are a couple of great videos that chronicle Rich’s storied career.