We Live Soccer airs on FOX Soccer in the US and on GOLTV Canada and we bring you so many stories about so many different things throughout the season.  We are continually uploading those features to our PROFILES page so feel free to get your bad self over to the page to check out the who’s who and the what’s what and the where’s where in the North American game.  Did any of that make sense?  Short and sweet translation… go check out the profiles of cool things we shot.

I just uploaded a cool clip in which we met up with Bumpy Pitch.  We dig these guys as they make some ridiculously cool clothing.  Here’s the video with some instructions to follow for the rest of your day (but only if you are medically cleared to partake in).  Watch the video below.  Check out some more profiles. Go to BumpyPitch.com.  Buy yourself a shirt.  Go to the fridge.  Grab a drink.  Chill out.

How did you land the gig as FC Dallas’ team photographer?

I was in the right place at the right time and had made the right connections. Prior to the 1994 World Cup, I was working with the Dallas International Sports commission when it was announced that there would be a MLS team in Dallas. I photographed all their board meetings with FIFA and made my connections into the soccer community.

I didn’t get the initial job as team photographer with the Dallas Burn but ended up with the job following the first game. I’ve been the team photographer to date except for two years after the team became the current FC Dallas. There was a personnel change and with that change came a new photographer. Another personnel change happened, and I was back. For the two years that I was not the official photographer, I was hired by a Guatemalan newspaper to photograph all the FC Dallas matches. My job was to photograph one player, Carlos Ruiz. So, I have photographed a majority of the Dallas Burn/FC Dallas games from inception.

Coolest thing about the job?

Going to the games and getting paid for it!

Who’s your favourite player to photograph and why?

Brek Shea! You follow Brek and you’ll come away with great images.

Who’s easier to work with… the guys or the team dancers?

It depends on what kind of shoot is going on. They are both easy to work with, but the guys do have a tendency to cut up during shoots.  That actually makes it more fun, but it can take a little more time, which is no big deal. That’s where you really get to know them on a personal level. The dancers on that level are true professionals. They are the easiest by far because they are used to being photographed. They can give you what you need in a few minutes.

What’s your favourite FC Dallas photo you’ve taken and why?

I don’t have a favorite photo that I can think, but I have some that I like for different reasons. I really don’t prefer looking at my work.

I enjoy shooting and checking the images in camera just to see what I didn’t see, plus to make sure I got what the client is looking for. I may shoot 1200 to 2000 images in a match. In a matter of an hour or less, you have to narrow that down to 25 to 55 of the best images. In a perfect world, I would shoot and have an editor that knows the sport do the editing. I could care less about looking at my shots after a shoot but I have to.

I like going back a month or so later to see what I captured. To me that is exciting; it is like reliving the match again. When shooting the event, you see so much, and it’s the one I see that I remember wishing it was in the camera. If you see it, you didn’t capture it.

On an average day, say your shooting game action, what’s your go to gear?

I use flash for candids, close up crowd, fan and marketing type photos. I never use flash for any game action on the field. Go to gear for a match – Three camera bodies with one flash, Lens – 16-35mm, 70-200mm and a 400mm

Not that your going to show any kind of team bias of course… how do you think FC Dallas are going to do in 2012?

All the way to the MLS CUP! This is our year.

What else do people need to know about Rick Yeatts?

I remember that my first camera at the age of ten was a plastic camera that shot 120 film. I still have some of the negatives today. I used that camera till I was about fifteen. After that it was a succession of the latest Kodak cameras they sold at a corner Drug Store.

I joined the Marines after high school and naturally I got mixed reactions since we were still in Vietnam. After bootcamp, I was a marksman instructor before going to Military Police School. I signed up to go to the Japan mainland and they sent me to Okinawa. After arriving in Okinawa, I took seven hundred dollars to a camera store, bought a camera case and filled it up with several lenses, 35mm camera body and a flash. At that time, all my photography was travel-type photography.

After the Marines, I ended up going to barber/ beauty school and worked in the top salons in Dallas. I traveled and taught at different hair shows throughout the country. During that time, I worked with one of the top fashion photographers in the country as a stylist and picked up the photography bug again. I went out and bought the latest Nikon camera body, which was a F4 and a couple of lenses, and I started photographing my models on my own and that was when I started considering a career change.

I started shooting minor league hockey for fun and ended up being the team photographer for the Dallas Freeze for four years, while still hairdressing. I kept up shooting fashion, which eventually led to an Avant Garde style, which was way more fun but not much of a market in Dallas at the time. I also shot for different hair salons, doing publicity hair photos.

The hockey led to shooting professional ice skating. That led to the Dallas International Sports Commission, which lead to Fox Sports. I shot the championship matches at the Dallas Cup for a few years, which was my only knowledge of soccer. I met their media manager who ended up working for the Texas Women’s University Athletic Department in Denton, TX. I was hired to shoot all of TWU sports, which lead to working with the Athletic Department at the University of North Texas. I’ve been with them since 1997 and that’s the same time I started with the Dallas Burn. The rest is history. I’m still with North Texas and FC Dallas.

To check out more of Rick’s great work go to www.rjy.com

I’m really excited about this blog posting!

You see I do a little of the picture taking myself and I love reading photo blogs and books… so I thought it’d be cool to incorporate the photo and the soccer.  After a bunch of Googling, mixed with a little digging, and a few e-mails… BAM! There you have it! A series of web-interviews with some of the men and women rockin’ the soccer photography world.

Now the questions aren’t going to bust any brain cells here. If they do, someone’s not doing something right. These are just to get a little insight on the wickedly talented people behind the lens. Then feel free to check out more of their work to see all the cool stuff they shoot.

So enough with the lead in… We’re kickin’ off the series West Coast style, with a true veteran of the photo game who is passing the photo torch to a new generation, and is now an actual rockstar, Juan Miranda.

How did you land the gig as Chivas’ team photographer?

I was working with The L.A. Galaxy Media Public Relations department as the Media Coordinator when I heard that Chivas USA was going use The Home Depot Center as their home base for their inaugural 2005 season in the MLS. I ran into their Vice President Whit Haskel who had also worked for the Galaxy. I asked him if they had a team photographer, he stated that they did not and to submit a resume. They hired me as a Freelance photographer to document the historical presentation to the media on September 23, 2004. Well as you can see, I became the first official Chivas USA team photographer.

Coolest thing about the job?

The coolest part about the team photographer position is that I was able to capture the historical first of everything for Chivas USA’s inaugural year, first official team photo, first pre-season match in San Diego, there were a lot of first photos that the team gave me the opportunity to be a part of.

Do you travel with the team to away games?

Yes, a few matches here in California, Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Jose. Most of the away matches in other states are cover by the opposing team photographers.

Who’s your favourite player to photograph or that you really want to shoot and why?

There were a lot of great players that I enjoy photographing, the legendary Ramon Ramirez, Claudio Suarez, Paco Palencia, Ante Razov, Jesse March, and some of the newer players like Brad Guzan, Dan Kennedy, Atiba Harris, Maykel Galindo, Johnnie Bornstein, Sacha Kljestan… that’s just to name a few. What make these guys fun to shoot was that their style of play was phenomenal, they could run around the opposing players carrying the ball past them with no effort, goal keepers Brad and Dan made some spectacular saves. They were always accessible, never shying away from a photo. That’s what makes professional players famous, the more they get their face on the covers of media article the more the fans are aware they exist, without the photos no one knows who you are.

What’s your all-time favourite photo, any kind soccer or not, that you’ve taken?

There are a couple of shots that I’ve taken that really made me proud. There is one of Los Angeles Galaxy Carlos Ruiz make a scissor kick (The Chilena), I took the photo just at the right time and was able to get the ball right on his foot, the Galaxy used that photo for the 2004 calendar.

Another one I have is goalkeeper Brad Guzan capturing the ball as Galaxy Landon Donovan goes flying over him, some of the other great photos that I like are Claudio Suarez and Cuachtemoc Blanco crashing against each other jumping for a header. There are too many photos that I think are great to list I would need another few pages to describe them all.

On an average day, say your shooting game action, what’s your go to gear?

You always have to be prepare when you go to any photo event. I rely on my Canon equipment to help me get the best photos. I ‘m currently using the Canon EOS 1D Mark 4, 3 and a couple of mark 2′s, I also carry 24-70mm 2.8, 75-200mm 2.8, 400mm 2.8 and to get all the way across the field I use the 600mm 4.0 lenses.  For day time photos you want to shoot at ISO 200 at 2.8 and shutter speed as fast as you can get it. Night time shooting in the stadium I go 800 ISO to 1000 ISO always f2.8. Some guys like the focal point more cleaner, f-11, I like the f 2.8 to get the background to blurr, you get some spectacular backgrounds in the night with the stadium light giving you some cool reflections. Getting an “All Access” photo credential also helps a lot, you get access to all the spots most media photographers can’t access, you don’t have to fight for a position with the rest of the media photographers, getting in your way and distracting you from get the money shots.

Not that your going to show any kind of team bias of course… how do you think Chivas are going to do in 2012?

Chivas USA can be a MLS cup contender if they play as a team and not just individuals trying to make a name for themselves. Coaches Robin Fraser, Greg Vanney, Carlos Lllamosa with Goalkeeper coach Daniel Gonzalez make a great coaching staff, I was fortunate enough to have seen Robin, Greg and Carlos play when they were in their prime years in MLS. They know how the game has to be played to win games, all the combined experience they channel to the players hopefully can bring a fruitful year. The player line up this year can and will be fantastic, they kept “Sueno” aka Jorge Villafana, Juan Pablo Angel, Dan Kennedy, Alejandro Moreno and have added some great new young players, Miller Bolanos, Oswaldo Minda from Ecuador,  British Ryan Smith and probably more great players to come, the season is young and they can still add players.

What else do people need to know about Juan Miranda?

It’s hard trying to talk about yourself, trying not to brag too much. I started shooting MLS games when the league first started in 1996, at the Rose Bowl were my first MLS photos, I was working for a small time newspaper called La Voz Latina out of Lancaster, California. One of the first photos published was one of the Mexican great goalkeeper Jorge Campos playing with the Los Angeles Galaxy. It’s a great profession with a lot of competition, it’s exciting, frustrating, trying to get the money shot before the other photographers beat you to the wire. You can’t make any money if you are not a fan of the game, you would miss a lot of shots watching the match. Every movement is a photo when your the team photographer, the team want you to capture as much still footage as possible. Whether it be a face of frustration by a player missing a goal shot to the face of a fan celebrating or crying with fanatic emotion.

My favorite music is Rock n Roll, mostly loud guitars and drums,  garage sound bands like AC/DC. Last year I joined a Latino Rock Band “Felix and the Katz”, they were famous in the late seventies, early eighties, Felix the singer and founding member got the itch to play again and has reformed the band, unable to get the original lineup he opted to get new members, thats when I auditioned and the got the Bass guitar spot. We’ve been play in Los Angeles, places like The House of Blues, the Yost Theather and smaller clubs around Hollywood and the Los Angeles area. Unfortunately for me this year I have decided to follow my childhood dreams of playing in a rock band, playing loud rock and roll. I decided last year that I would leave Chivas USA and let another aspiring photographer take the role of Chivas USA Team photographer, I wish him/her and the team great success.

You can see more of Juan’s great work at:  CDChivasUSA.com  and Gettyimages.com

So did it go the way you thought it would?  Did Montreal make the right choice?  Do you think Wenger is really stoked to start his career in the Great White North… on an expansion team?  Not to be biased, but we do think it’s pretty cool up here beyond the 49th parallel, but an expansion team… there could be a few lean years ahead.  Hopefully it all works out for ALL the boys in the draft.

Here’s a video from the boys over at MLS talking with the #1 overall pick Andrew Wenger

And for a complete rundown off all the picks, MLS has that for you too