Giant KU dunk broken down frame by frame. See how we chose the ultimate moment

The high flying KJ Adams is a Kansas Jayhawks fan favorite. The photographers covering KU games at the baseline appreciate the sophomore forward’s out-of-this-world vertical leap. Give Adams one step and he can launch his slim 6’-7” frame into the Allen Fieldhouse stratosphere with apparent ease.

The photos can be spectacular.

To best capture this and give fans a real sense of just how high a human being can jump, I often place a camera with a wide angle lens on the floor under the basket.

That camera has a remote control receiver attached so it can be triggered by either the camera in my hand or an auxiliary button. I prefer using the camera in my hand, which has a remote transmitter attached.

When I hit the shutter release with the camera I’m holding, it activates the remote camera. That way, if there isn’t a referee with his butt in the way, I have a choice of using the wide angle shot from the floor camera, or the tighter version from the camera I’m holding that has a 70-200mm zoom lens attached. If there is a ref blocking my view, I go ahead and hold down the shutter button and the floor camera provides a different view that may not be blocked by the ref.

While editing the sequence of Adams going up for a dunk I shot last week during the Texas Tech game, I was mostly curious about what I had captured with the remote camera. It’s usually feast or famine.

This time it was a feast.

Here is a breakdown of how I selected the final image out of the 14 frames I captured in the sequence. Use the interactive sliders to scroll through the sequence of photos.

In the photos, if you take away the opposing team’s defenders or any of Adams’ teammates in this photograph, it ends up looking lonely and bland. As important as the star of the show is, it’s equally important to have those bodies with their facial expressions attached and filling the frame.

In this case, it’s Texas Tech’s Fardaws Aimaq, at left, who is our best supporting star with a look of awe smeared all over his face. The rest of the frame is nicely filled with other players and the Allen Fieldhouse crowd to back it up.

As for which frame I like out of this sequence, it’s Frame #1370 with Adams at the peak of his jump, back slightly arched, as he accepts the pass out in front of the basket.

We know what’s coming next.

Adams dunks the ball as hard as any player I’ve ever seen. It’s like a release of anger, in a good way. And then comes the release of pent-up emotion and the deafening roar from the crowd.

From an observer, Adams appears to be as quiet and unassuming, as a player of his abilities can be. He’s quick to smile and joke around with his teammates. But don’t blink, he’ll make you the joke with that lightning-fast first step.

Below is the full-sized version of Frame #1370, the one that I ultimately chose out of the sequence.

Rich Sugg is an award-winning staff photojournalist for The Kansas City Star. He has covered local NCAA basketball for The Star for more than 30 years including the Jayhawks’ run to the championship in 2022.

This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 3:00 PM.