Recently Custom SLR Photographer Dustin Snipes was approached by Red Bull to do something really unbelievable…shoot NBA star Anthony Davis dunking the sun. Yes, you read that right.

Check out the finished product:

Obviously shooting the sun poses quite a few challenges:

• It’s bright
• It moves
• It can seriously hurt your eyes

Dustin found a few ways around this:

• He added 8-stop ND filter
• He scoped out the spot and stuck to a strict schedule
• He wore dark sunglasses, had the filter on, and squinted a lot. (Although, despite all of this, his eyes still were sensitive after the shoot.)
  

Many of you may wonder why he didn’t simply Photoshop the image. We asked Dustin, and he said there were talks of using a bright light to imitate the sun or using Photoshop to create the image of the sun, but he said he wanted to “do it right.” They chose the location specifically for this shoot, and there was nothing obstructing the view of the sun. One thing’s for sure: Dustin’s persistence and hard work paid off with this surreal shot.

You can get a glimpse behind the scenes in this short video:

For the full story, check out PetaPixel.