The Kong Off 3

I traveled to Denver Colorado to photograph the KongOff3. Trip of a lifetime!

I went as an official photographer, but I brought my wife Stephanie with me. She had just watched the King of Kong 4 days before, and was very upset with Walter Day and Billy Mitchell. I explained to her that it was a cleverly edited movie, and did not exactly represent reality. She posted on facebook her feelings and Walter actually responded with a personal invitation to come meet him and Billy and see that the movie is wrong about them.

My goal was to capture people having fun, doing what they love. The players, their supporters, and other persons of interest were all in my sights. Over the course of 3 days I managed to take 600+ photos. Conditions were rough. It was a crowded bar, and I could not use flash as that would be disrespectful to those in the competition. I used my Nikon D7000 and a couple different lenses (17-55mm f2.8, 85mm f1.8)

I had spoken many times with my friend Joel West, but this was the first time to meet him in person. He made sure to introduce us to Walter and Billy. They were both great to meet, talk to, hang out with. They went out of their way to make sure Stephanie understood they were good decent people. Walter had a special poster that was being sent to Nintendo because of the recent passing of their long-time president Hiroshi Yamauchi. Walter had a special spot for Stephanie and me to sign. What a great guy!

Anyway, I can write a book about how much fun we had, all the cool people we met. To commemorate the event, I put together a collage of my favorite photos (frankly there are too many for one poster, but you gotta start somewhere!)

This poster actually version 2.0. The first version was a non-standard size, which made it difficult to frame. The new one has more player photos and is 24x36. Special thanks to Richie Knucklez and Jordan Adler for the opportunity to photograph the event. Also thank you Steve Grunberger for the Marquis graphic.