“Because when everything falls into place and you get the shot, it’s like catching lightning in a bottle.” So says the man addicted to photography. Tim Mantoani does not consider a day complete if he hasn’t viewed some of it through a lens.

Art, science, work and play all blended together when Mantoani and crew built a football field in the middle of Times Square for his third consecutive EA Sports Madden 12 video game cover.

[Excerpt from Tim Mantoani’s Blog: http://mantoaniblog.com]

“EA Sports trusted us again to create the cover image for Madden 12. This is the third year running we have shot the cover art. There was a big twist to the shoot this year than in the past. In prior years, the subject matter of the cover was top secret and not revealed until months after the shoot, just prior to the game hitting stores. However, this year EA held a voting contest on ESPN allowing, for the first time, the fans to choose the cover athlete. After 12.7 million votes, it came down to Michael Vick and Peyton Hillis as the final two. Since the winner would not be announced until the night prior to the shoot, we had to prep for both athletes, having their complete uniforms in hand. In the end, the Cleveland fans prevailed giving Hillis honors.

To further the fan involvement, unlike our prior shoots that were closed sets, EA chose to shoot the cover in a public venue the day prior to the NFL Draft in New York. Working closely with the NFL, Diversified Production Service and HG Producers, we had a small football field built on Military Island in Times Square where the shoot took place. Beginning at 11:30 PM, the night prior to the shoot, construction began for our 9:00 a.m. shoot, the following day.

Here is a time-lapse of the production , it’s not everyday your photo shoot is projected live on the Jumbo Tron in Times Square!”

No better way for him to share this world that’s so exciting to him than with a few million fans. Pass the popcorn.

Check out Tim’s work on altpick.com.