When FIFA Comes to Dallas — Shooting Tim Howard and Carli Lloyd Behind the Lens
By David Loi | David Loi Studios | Dallas, TX
Dallas / Fort Worth is a soccer city right now whether you were expecting it or not, and FIFA World Cup 2026 coming to North Texas has accelerated that energy in a way that’s hard to ignore if you’re working in commercial photography here and paying attention to what brands are prioritizing.
When the opportunity came through Arcpoint Studios to shoot Tim Howard and Carli Lloyd for American Airlines & FIFA related content here in Dallas, I was in before the conversation was over. Arcpoint is the kind of production house that’s in the room with you, invested in the outcome the same way you are. A shoot with this much pressure around it needs that kind of energy behind it and they brought it on this one.
The Brief and Building a Studio for People Who Have Five Minutes
Before Tim Howard & Carli Lloyd even walks in front of your camera you’ve spent hours building a studio environment that has to be ready and performing before he arrives. Since American Airlines has a strong partnership with FIFA, we were tasked with making sure that American Airlines branding was very strong everywhere. We hired set builders for the background so that when a subject at that level shows up you get somewhere between five and ten minutes and your entire preparation exists to make those minutes count rather than waste them solving problems you should have solved at call time.
Arcpoint was tasked with capturing all of their social media content in 20 minutes total and I had 5 minutes per person for stills, which sounds like enough time until you’re actually in it and the clock is moving and the talent is in front of you and every frame has to count because there is no second session and there is no coming back tomorrow to get the shot you missed today.
Athletes like Tim Howard and Carli Lloyd have full schedules and people managing every hour of their day and they give you the time they can give you, which means the studio build is the performance and the shoot is just executing what you already figured out. Every light & modifier position locked before they arrive, every gaffer tape marked for positioning, every role pre-defined, every shot tested prior to the actual shoot time, every potential problem already solved so that when the talent walks in the only thing left to think about is the human being in front of your camera.
The Lighting Challenge
We had to turn a conference room into a full set studio, one side for stills, one side for motion. Any time you’re building a controlled studio environment for sports talent the lighting conversation starts with one question about what feeling the image needs to carry, and for American Airlines & FIFA campaign in Dallas, the answer was power and presence because these are athletes who defined American soccer at the highest level and the light had to hold that without overworking it.
We ran the Cheetah Stand large QPB-48 softboxes as the primary setup, giving us a broad wrapping key light that held shape across different subject positions without needing to re-strike between setups. Every minute spent adjusting light in a five minute window is a minute you’re not shooting and you can’t get it back.
Five Minutes With Tim Howard
When Tim Howard walks into a room and you understand immediately why he had the career he had and it has nothing to do with physical size. It’s calm, earned authority that fills the space without asking for attention. But he’s friendly and approachable at the same time. As much as you’d like to make more small talk, the window is short and we start shooting immediately. You don’t waste frames on setups you’re not fully confident in because every shot has to be intentional and every direction has to be clear and brief while you’re simultaneously reading the subject, adjusting the energy in the room, watching the monitor, and making creative decisions with the clock running. We pre-tested all the shots ahead of time, so that we were ready when they came in. We rehearsed and practiced it so that the directions were clean and clear.
We got what we came for and the frames carried exactly the weight they needed to!
Practice shot of Conner and the final photo!
Carli Lloyd and Why the Same Setup Has to Read Differently
Carli Lloyd brings completely different energy into a studio than Tim Howard does and the lighting and framing that worked for one subject needed an honest read on whether it would serve the other before we committed to it. She worked with much more purpose in every movement she made. The approach had to shift because where Tim gave you stillness to work with, Carli gave you forward momentum and competitive fire and the challenge was capturing that specific energy without losing control of the frame in the same tight window we had just worked through.
The preparation from the build phase carried both sessions because when you’ve already solved every technical variable the shoot becomes purely about the person in front of you, and that’s when the work gets interesting.
Practice shot of Josey!
What FIFA Means for Dallas & Fort Worth Commercial Photography
I’ve shot significant projects in this city over the years including American Airlines, BMW, DFW Airport, and the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas has always been a stronger commercial photography market than people outside of Texas give it credit for, but FIFA World Cup 2026 changes the scale of that conversation in a way that’s going to be visible to the whole industry.
The volume of commercial content being built in and around Dallas & Fort Worth for this tournament is significant and it’s only going to grow as 2026 gets closer. Arcpoint Studios understood that early enough to be positioned for it and getting the call from them for a project like this felt like exactly the kind of work David Loi Studios was built for.
On Working With Arcpoint Studios.
The best commercial shoots I’ve been part of have always had a production team that treats the photographer as a creative partner rather than a hired vendor and Arcpoint operates that way consistently. The communication before the shoot, the problem solving on the day, the shared investment in walking away with something great rather than just something finished.
When you find production partners who work that way you show up for them and you say so publicly because it’s not as common as it should be.
See the Work
If you want to see what ten minutes of preparation, hours of setup, and a team that shows up ready actually produces, the final images from this session are live on the site. Take a look at the full set and see what it looks like when everything comes together.
davidloistudios.com/clients-2/american-airlines
Let’s Work Together
FIFA World Cup 2026 is coming to Dallas and if you’re a brand, agency, or production house building content around the tournament and you need a commercial photographer who knows this market and can execute under pressure, reach out.
📍 Dallas, TX 🌐 davidloistudios.com 🤝 Represented by Wonderful Machine 📸 Gear partner: Cheetah Stand
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