How Seattle Seahawks Photographer Rod Mar Captured Super Bowl LX

4 weeks ago 23

A hand holds up a shiny football trophy amid flying confetti in a stadium.

Earlier this month, the Seattle Seahawks bested the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. It is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and the Seahawks’ team photographer, Rod Mar, was there to capture all the action, and ultimately, the Seahawks’ elation.

Admittedly, as a lifelong Patriots fan, I don’t love how Super Bowl LX turned out. But there’s no question that Mar did a phenomenal job capturing the story of the game. As the official team photographer for the Seahawks for 16 seasons, Mar has seen many highs, his fair share of lows, and countless players come and go. There are no guarantees in professional sports, and most teams go a very long time before ever lifting the Lombardi trophy. While the Seahawks have won twice, 12 NFL franchises have never won a Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is a huge moment for every player, every coach, an entire franchise’s wide-ranging staff, and, of course, the fans. However, Mar, who has over 25 years of professional photography experience, treated the Big Game like any other game, a mindset he tells PetaPixel helps him do his best work. The moment can’t feel too big.

A man lies on a football field near the sideline, smiling with his hand on his cheek, next to a person in a large bird mascot costume. Two professional cameras rest on the ground in front of him. "SEATTLE" is visible on a wall behind them.

Serendipitous Beginnings

“I think I have the Forrest Gump of careers,” Mar tells PetaPixel with a smile. “I just end up in the right place.”

Back in college, Mar says that, like a lot of kids, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He was learning how to be a teacher, but things weren’t quite clicking. That said, Mar considers himself a natural teacher, and he does, in fact, lecture at colleges across the U.S. and Canada.

“A friend of our family was a sports photographer for the University of Washington, and they were like, ‘Why don’t you come to a game with us and see if you like it?’ It was a division II basketball game and I think I shot four rolls of film,” Mar recalls.

A Seattle Seahawks player jumps to catch a football while being closely defended by a player in a white and black uniform during an NFL game, with fans watching in the background.

“I think I got one picture that was decent, probably of a player in the warmup lay-up line,” the photographer admits. “But then we go to the darkroom and develop the film and make the print. It was just like in the movies where I see the print develop and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is really cool. This looks incredible. This is so fun.'”

‘I think I have the Forrest Gump of careers. I just end up in the right place.’

Just like that, Mar had been bitten by the photo bug.

“School kind of went by the wayside.”

At this point, Mar was a college senior and was now doing photography for the school paper. He was a self-described photography addict.

“That’s all I wanted to do.”

A Seattle Seahawks football player jumps energetically near a large “12” sign, with smoke and fans filling the stadium on a sunny day. The scene is vibrant, with team colors and excitement in the air.

At the University of Washington, where Mar went to school, students could drop classes until the very final day of regular classes. However, because one of Mar’s professors was leaving on sabbatical, the final exam was scheduled for the last day of classes.

“I slept through the final,” Mar says. “So I go running across campus and I bust open the door to my counselor’s office and she gives me the look, like, ‘Rod, you’re here again. What now?'”

Mar explained that he had missed the final exam and needed to drop the class to avoid a disastrous grade. Mar’s counselor said she would help him drop the class on the condition that he take a sports-writing internship for an NFL fan magazine: Inside the Seahawks, which was run by former Seahawks legend Kenny Easley.

At this time, NFL teams, like the Seahawks, were trying to become more media-savvy and take greater control over how they interacted with fans.

“It was great, so I ended up doing copywriting at this little weekly newspaper, which would now be considered like a blog. At the time, there were these fan newspapers for all the [NFL teams]. Then they were like, ‘You want to take the pictures?'” And just like that, because Mar slept through a final, he was covering and photographing the NFL.

While working the sidelines at Seahawks games, Mar got to know photographers from the Seattle Times and learned from some of the greats. One of the biggest lessons Mar says he learned in these early days is that every single photo has to tell a great story.

“Every photo in the newspaper has to tell a story,” Mar recalls being taught. “The writers get 20, 25 inches to write, so you get a thousandth of a second to tell your story. That always stuck with me. It sticks with me now.”

A football player in a white and navy uniform stretches his arm out while holding a football, celebrating during a game. Referees and other players are visible in the background.

Mar became a sports photographer for the Seattle Times and worked there for years before the broader downturn in the newspaper industry led to his exit. But while at the Times, Mar did a lot of sports coverage and some more standard, everyday news.

“It was great training and learning how to do storytelling photography,” Mar says.

‘… you get a thousandth of a second to tell your story.’

One of Mar’s last assignments was one of his favorites: the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Mar’s grandparents are Chinese, so he says it was an incredible opportunity and experience to go to China, cover the Olympics, and just do exceptional work.

Shortly after returning, Mar saw the writing on the wall at the newspaper, and he knew it was time to seek other opportunities.

The Seahawks came calling, saying they wanted Mar to do what he did at the Times for them.

“This was 2009. Websites are blowing up and teams were starting to want to draw eyes to their own website,” Mar says. “They hired a writer, they hired me, and thankfully, gratefully, luckily, I’ve been there ever since. It’s been 16 seasons and I’ve been to three Super Bowls, two of which were great, and one which was great for you,” Mar says.

“It all worked out.”

A packed football stadium under a partly cloudy sky, with sunlight streaming through the open roof. The scoreboard displays "GET LOUD" and fans fill the stands, cheering on the teams lined up on the field.

What Makes Photographing Football Different?

During his time at The Seattle Times, Mar photographed many different sports. And, of course, he covered the 2008 Summer Olympics. However, his career really got started with the NFL, and that’s where he landed again in 2009. Yet, Mar says his favorite sport is basketball. He officiated college basketball for a while and still refs high school games.

“But then I look back at my life and career… my entire life has been around football,” Mar says. “Despite being completely by fortune and circumstance, I’ve always been around football.”

While some aspects of photographing NFL games are the same as in other sports, like finding peak action and compelling storytelling moments, football does present unique challenges for photographers.

“I really, really try to incorporate the human element into my photography, but I think about football players now, and a lot of them wear face shields,” Mar says. “They’re already wearing helmets in huge pads and they look like inferior storm troopers or something out of a sci-fi movie. But underneath that is a human being.”

A Seattle Seahawks player tackles a San Francisco 49ers player holding the football tightly during an intense NFL game, with both athletes showing determination and physical effort.

“The thing that I really enjoy about football is to me, it’s the hardest challenge,” Mar says. “And people say to me, well, you’re at all the practices. You know what the plays are, where the ball’s going to go. Well, I think for most of us, our football was limited to playing in the street or a little junior high or high school. And the plays are very simple. At the NFL level, they might call multiple plays in the huddle and then they can flip the play with a signal from the quarterback. They can change the play with an audible, but they also have site cues where if they see someone lined up, everyone knows that we’re going to do something else. So in the NFL, you really never know where it’s going. You just don’t. And so to me, that’s the ultimate challenge.”

Mar is always keeping an eye on the down and distance, the time left, and the score, and trying to file all that information away. But once the ball is snapped, he’s in the moment and just trying to follow the ball and see if he can make a good photo.

Although many of the important skills are on full display as the action unfolds, and Mar can draw on his wealth of expertise and experience at a nearly subconscious level to give himself the best chance of capturing great shots, there’s also a lot he can do to put himself in better positions.

Since he’s the Seahawks photographer, he understandably wants to focus on their players making huge plays. Whether that’s on offense or defense, Mar wants to always be in a position to capture the action in a way that tells the story of the Seahawks. That often means making sure he can see their faces and capture their emotions.

Seattle Seahawks players and their mascot celebrate in the end zone during a football game, with a crowd of fans and stadium lights in the background.

He also takes an approach to photography not unlike that of NFL players. Mar studies his work, finds out where he’s strongest, and more importantly, where he’s weakest, and constantly tries to improve.

“I break down my own photography the way you break down a sport. Where, and what am I missing? What am I not thinking about when I’m out there? My overall philosophy is that I’m trying to make one great picture every day,” Mar says. Whether that’s the Super Bowl or team training activities in the spring and summer, Mar approaches his photography the same way. A little bit better every single day.

“If I want to make one great picture and I shoot 12,000 on Super Bowl Sunday, I’m probably going to get 10 that I really like, but it might be four. Or it might be 20 on a really good day when the stars align,” Mar says.

A group of athletes runs drills on a grassy field under a bright sun, casting long shadows as they train vigorously against a clear blue sky.

“But honestly, whatever it is, if I’m shooting a community outreach assembly with the Seahawks dancers and mascot, I’m still trying to make one great shot. That doesn’t change for me. Whether it’s the Super Bowl or training camp, or guys lifting weighs, that’s my goal, always.”

Mar believes that if he ever let up and lost that focus on making one great shot every day, it’d be all too easy to start phoning things in just because they aren’t the Super Bowl. But that’s not how Rod Mar ticks.

‘I break down my own photography the way you break down a sport. Where, and what am I missing? What am I not thinking about when I’m out there? My overall philosophy is that I’m trying to make one great picture every day.’

“I’m addicted to that chase of ‘Can I make a great image today?'”

Despite having been at it for 25 years, Mar has not lost any of the excitement he felt that very first time he saw a photo come to life in the darkroom, after, admittedly, missing nearly every single shot across many rolls of film.

A group of Seattle Seahawks players celebrate in a locker room, smiling and cheering as one player in uniform takes a selfie with his phone. Some players hold cigars and wear victory T-shirts.

Perspective Shifts

Mar says those first few times he picked up a camera actually helped keep everything in perspective today.

The morning of Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014, in which the Seahawks decimated the Denver Broncos by a lopsided 43-8 score, Mar was listening to the Seahawks’ then-defensive backs coach, Kris Richard, talk to the players.

“Rashard, a great coach, was telling his players, ‘Look, when you go out there today, everyone’s telling you all week, this is the biggest game of your life. It’s not. It’s another game. You’ve played these games since you were seven years old. It’s the same thing. You’ve trained for this. You’re ready for this. Don’t give 110%, don’t give 120%, give 100%. Just do your job, the job you’ve trained for, and let it rip.'”

Mar says hearing this resonated with him deeply.

A football player in a dark uniform walks through a tunnel, reaching out to high-five fans whose hands are extended toward him under dramatic blue lighting.

“This was, I think, a monumental shift for me. Like, oh, I’ve shot a million things. I’ve actually shot harder things,” Mar says. Those early basketball games with ISO 1600 film in dark, dim gyms with slow lenses, those were tougher than the Super Bowl.

“This should be easy compared to some of the things I’ve had to do,” Mar thought to himself.

And in that game, the first play from scrimmage was a snap over Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning’s head that rolled into the end zone, right into Rod Mar’s lap.

“And I was ready.”

Mar had started the play on a long lens, but in a matter of just a few seconds, his instincts kicked in, and he switched to his camera with a wide-angle lens and expertly captured the entire sequence. It was a very quick and helpful reminder to him that he could do it.

“I think we, or at least me, make things bigger than they are. It’s still just taking photos,” Mar says.

To help stay in the moment, Mar will often do breathing exercises between plays and during timeouts.

“I look like I’m just staring around being a dork, but I’m often doing deep breathing. I’m just trying to be in the moment. I don’t know where the ball is going to go. If you start thinking about where it’s going to go, you’re going to screw it up,” Mar says.

‘It’s still just taking photos.’

“And I screw it up a lot,” he laughs. “People don’t think I screw it up because on Instagram, you only show your best stuff, right? I’ve always thought I want to have an Instagram where I show you all the ones I’ve missed because there are plenty.”

A Seattle Seahawks player leaps and dunks a football over the goalpost while a referee raises both arms, with a cheering crowd in the background.

Mar’s Nikon Camera Kit

From his early days on film to his modern, super-powerful Nikon mirrorless cameras and Nikkor Z lenses, Mar has seen camera technology change dramatically throughout his career.

As a Nikon Ambassador, he says he’s lucky to have access to all the latest and greatest gear. He sticks with his tried-and-true gear during the season, as he needs to always be familiar with all the equipment.

“I always shoot with Nikon Z9 cameras as my main bodies, and then I’ve got a couple of Nikon Z8 bodies, and a Z6 III,” Mar explains. “I think I had five cameras at the Super Bowl, but one stayed in the locker room.”

That backup camera is there in case the weather is bad during the game, so if Mar brought his cameras into the locker room after it had been raining or humid, they’d fog up.

As for his glass, he used some classics. He had one Nikon Z9 armed with the Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 VR S lens with the built-in 1.4x teleconverter. He also had the Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S with a 1.4x teleconverter.

“Then I had a wide-angle lens, a 24-70mm f/2.8. And a 24-120mm f/4,” Mar says. He also had a 14-24mm f/2.8 on standby, which he used in the fourth quarter to capture the celebrations.

As Mar adds, he doesn’t need a super-long telephoto lens, since the Z9’s 45-megapixel sensor makes it so easy to crop in after shooting. He sends his editors straight-out-of-the-camera JPEGs and, in nearly every case, those files are perfectly good for any use case. He always has the RAWs, “just in case,” but rarely needs them.

The Best Shots From Super Bowl LX

Rod Mar says he’s always looking to make one great photo every day, and he absolutely delivered during Super Bowl LX.

“I’ve done it long enough. I can feel when pressure is coming,” Mar says of his spectacular photo of Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon hitting the ball out of Patriots’ quarterback Drake Maye’s hand. It was a pivotal play in the game, and Mar saw it coming.

A football quarterback in a white uniform throws a pass while being pressured by defenders in dark blue uniforms during a game. Teammates and opponents are engaged in blocking and tackling around him on the field.

“There’s something about a quarterback’s motion. I’m just watching the QB, I can feel when they feel pressure and then that pocket collapses on him and Witherspoon hits the ball and I’m just reacting.”

When Witherspoon knocked the ball loose, Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu picked it up and ran it all the way back for six points. At the time, while a Patriots comeback felt improbable, it was still possible. As a Patriots fan, you never quite give up, as the Atlanta Falcons know all too well.

Seattle Seahawks football players in navy uniforms run down the field during a game. One player holds the ball while teammates run alongside, and opposing team members in white are seen in the background.

A Seattle Seahawks player in full uniform celebrates with arms wide after scoring a touchdown in front of a cheering crowd during a football game. Photographers and fans fill the stadium background.

A Seattle Seahawks player, number 7, kneels on the field with arms raised holding a football, celebrating as teammates gather in the background during a night game with a cheering crowd.

Mar was using his telephoto lens when this play started. But then Nwosu suddenly barreled toward him, so he swapped to his 70-200mm. And then Nwosu is in the endzone, so Mar swapped over to his 24-70mm f/2.8.

“I was able to shoot that play on three different lenses with three different bodies,” Mar says. It is difficult to overstate just how quickly all this happens. Photographers like Mar sometimes operate on instinct, which they build up one game at a time over many years.

A person is being doused with a large splash of yellow sports drink from an orange cooler during a celebration on a brightly lit sports field.

Mar has other fantastic frames from the Super Bowl, including one of Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald getting the traditional Gatorade bath, and of a player holding the Lombardi trophy out in front of them during team celebrations at their home stadium in Seattle, Lumen Field.

“I want to frame the trophy in our stadium with the arches, and if I cut off the arm, it’ll be this kind of anonymous shot, so it doesn’t belong to just one player, but it belongs to everybody,” Mar says.

A person holds up the Vince Lombardi Trophy as confetti falls in a packed stadium, celebrating a Super Bowl victory.

“So I’m looking for that signature moment and I think, ‘Oh, it’s going to look cool.’ The skies are blue and then all this confetti and stuff, and I’m not even registering the confetti or the smoke when I shoot it. I’m leaning over one of our players with a camera and I’m trying to reach out and trying to get that trophy into my foreground with a 14mm, but I’m not really looking at it, seeing it, and I’m not registering the smoke and confetti until later, and then I was like, ‘Oh, happy accident.'”

While it was a happy accident, as Mar puts it, the shot came together because he was already there and ready. Sometimes we make our own luck, after all.

“I’m so lucky. I’m so grateful for what the Seahawks allow me to do here, and the trust they put in me to capture the moments of the organization, and the trust of the players and coaches. It’s my job to capture special moments and document a special team and show our fans all the things we do,” Mar says. “Pete Carroll, when he was the coach in Seattle when I first got here, he said, ‘Rod, what I want you to do is show the fans all the cool things we do.'”

A man in a "Champions" hat sprays champagne over a cheering crowd during a street celebration, with people raising their arms and holding signs in front of tall city buildings.

Rod Mar has been doing that for 16 years and has no plans to stop anytime soon. Mar adds that he is thankful to all the people who have helped along the way, taught him, and given him great advice.

“Now that I’m older and hopefully a little bit wiser, I’m still trying to get better.”  

It’s always about the next great shot.

Image credits: Rod Mar (website, Instagram)

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