When photographing Atlanta Falcons football games, Kevin D. Liles (@kevindliles) will take the requisite shots of touchdowns and dramatic tackles, but as a contractor for the team, he has the freedom to also point his lens away from the field. “Everything else is fascinating to me — the fans, the colors, the details, the face paint, the tattoos,” the 36-year-old says. “All the little things add up to tell a much richer story than just the action.” Sure, sometimes he’s 300 feet (90 meters) above the field on a catwalk, capturing quarterback Matt Ryan in the middle of a throw, but other times he’s getting smaller moments, like a detailed picture of defensive end Adrian Clayborn’s dreadlocks. Kevin also covers local and national news, like a recent Hillary Clinton campaign stop, for the New York Times. But no matter what he’s shooting, Kevin’s approach to preparation is the same: “I do my homework. With the players, I try to learn as much about them as I can. Same thing with news assignments. Everything I do, I just try to tell stories.”
Photo by @kevindliles