Earlier I wrote that one of the elements that makes visually lacrosse compelling to photograph is the equipment. The lacrosse stick is obviously the first piece of equipment to comes to fans minds. When it came to stringing, I think I came in with the assumption to most lacrosse players strung their own sticks. Back when I was in college, I worked for the company that owns Great Atlantic Lacrosse as a call center customer rep. Brian Mehm, who’s brother Kevin was playing at UNC at the time, worked there also and I remember him working in the corner stringing sticks. People who did not know how to string sticks would order them from Great Atlantic.
I assumed though that these were younger players who had not learned how to string sticks yet. I’ve learned though that even at the college level, most players still don’t string their own sticks. Instead, there are a select (and highly in demand) few who have the expertise and experience to be a stick stringer. So these players often find their time spent stringing sticks for their teammates, trying to get them as close as possible to the specs that their teammate wants. On Carolina’s team, those players are Gavin Petracca (Pops), Michael J. Burns (Jersey Mike) and Kevin Federico (K-Fed). 
I thought that getting photos of a player stringing a stick would make for darn interesting photography. A few weeks ago I got up with Pops at his place and got some nice stuff of him stringing a stick for Jack Ryan. Tonight I headed a few doors down from Pops’ pad to “the duplex” to get some photos of Jersey Mike in action who was stringing a stick for Joe Howard. I learned a few tricks that Mike uses to mold the mesh to just the right shape.
While trying to get some photos of Jersey Mike, competing for my attention was Callie, Kerry McCormick’s new puppy who like to be the center of attention. (He also like to sleep in my jacket for some reason). Hope you enjoy these two preview photos from my days with Pops and Jersey Mike. I’m of course, holding on my best photos for later. Gotta give you something to look forward to! Hopefully photos of K-Fed to come sometime soon.