ESPN’s photo booth captures winning pictures at Women’s Final Four

DENVER — The idea to wrap a photo booth into the NCAA Women’s Final Four motif was inspired by attending weddings, where getting your picture taken in goofy props and acting silly has become a staple at friends’ nuptials. It shows people having fun and their personalities come to the forefront.

This project is the brainchild of Tara Baker, who started at ESPN in September 2006 and is currently an associate producer working on a variety of sports from basketball to soccer to tennis to the Heisman, to name a few.

This novelty is something Baker would have loved to do with her soccer teammates at Northern Michigan, where she was a four-year letterwinner for the Division II program.

Fast-forward many years and Baker is reliving this through the 2012 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship Presented by Capital One, a project she has immersed herself in along with additional ESPN staffers who were instrumental in bringing this to fruition – Kathryn Monahan, producer; Jay Fiedler, editor; Brian Girardin, creative services and Kevin Wilson and Phil Hanson from the music department.

The “photo booth” has been seen throughout the championship during the telecasts as part of ESPN’s exclusive coverage, culminating with the Final Four at the Pepsi Center . The games will air on ESPN HD, ESPN3 and on the WatchESPN app starting with the semifinals tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET (Notre Dame vs. Connecticut) and 8:30 p.m. (Baylor vs. Stanford), followed by the national title game on Tuesday, April 3, at 8:30 p.m.

All day Friday, as teams went from practice and additional NCAA commitments, they stopped by ESPN’s shoot to tape opens and teases that will be used throughout the weekend across ESPN networks and platforms.

Take a look into Front Row’s “photo booth” capturing some fun moments during the team’s time in front of the camera.

And tune in Sunday and Tuesday to see the finished products.