Behind the scenes of Sports Illustrated’s Boston Marathon cover shoot, complete with Gigapan

 

 

Last week, Sports Illustrated released an issue celebrating the 118th Boston Marathon and commemorating the victims of last year's bombing at the event. For the cover, 3,000 runners, emergency personnel, and Bostonians in general gathered at the finish line for a shoot with photographer Gregory Heisler. It's quite the scene stretching down Boylston street for about a block.

SI has released a behind-the-scenes video of how this shoot came together. Heisler addressed the crowd from atop a bucket truck using a megaphone. If ever you're photgraphing an enormous mass of people, you could learn a thing or two from his jovial approach. New mayor Marty Walsh is interviewed briefly, excited to have so many people be 'paht of the covah' and proud to see the city showing strength. The coolest part is that SI also made a Gigapan of the cover. Check out that resolving power! You can make out individual faces about two-thirds of the way back through the crowd.

I'm a born-and-raised Bostonian, and currently live a short walk from the marathon route, in a neighborhood close to where most of the events of the chase and stand-off with the suspects went down. I've got to say, it was a nice touch by SI to organize this cover shoot, and give folks an opportunity to symbolically reclaim the finish line. Good work.

(Via DPReview)