Portraits at the End of the Year

The end of the school year means photographing area athletes and scholar athletes of the year. Because of scheduling conflicts I only photographed 4 kids this year. The boys and girls scholar athletes of the year, the boys soccer player of the year and the girl's track athlete of the year.

It's always a challenge to come up with something new. How many times can you photograph the soccer player of the year at the high school stadium in the bright light of 3pm (the time can't be changed too much b/c we shoot about 14 kids in 10 days, so the schedule just gets crammed between the end of the year and the dates the pages run).

I always try to approach a shoot with creating context. Metaphorical or literal. Often the easiest thing is to place a soccer player in front of the goal with the ball. A lacrosse player has a stick...etc. But I'm always trying to figure out a way to add context in a different way. What I've tried to do over the past few years is manipulate the light I use to create a more dramatic mood or look. So if I can't get anything other than a typical shot of the player with the ball, I can at least make it look cool.

Brentsville's Zach Willis, Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

For Zach , I was hoping we could do the shoot out in the variety of big lush tall grass fields around the school. On my way to the school I noticed many of the fields were mown, and the light was pretty drab, and overhead. So we checked the stadium, and the nets in the soccer goals were packed away. Damn. I went to a fail-safe idea of placing clouds/sun behind the player, throw stadium lights in the background and I had a safe, standard shot. But I did see a big orange paw beneath the scoreboard while we were finishing that shot. The diffuse sun was perfect as a gajillion Watt diffuser, so I raked a couple speedlights from the left and right, and made him look like a relaxed superstar. The pop of orange made it look nice on the page and in this case I definitely thought Different = better.

Brentsville's Zach Willis, All-area Boys Soccer Player of the Year

I really tried to create context for the Scholar Athletes, so we set up shop in a physics lab. The shoot was originally scheduled for the stadium, but I was not going to do the "books in hand, while on the field" shot. Screw that. So I had the physics teacher draw up a problem on the board, and in stepped Ryan McGreal, soon to be physics student/track athlete at George Mason, and I thought we got something kind of neat instead.

Woodbridge's Ryan McGreal, All-area Boys Scholar Athlete of the Year.

For Katie, I saw some cabinets in the back and a pile of stuff inside, so I tried to create a more fun shot with her. She'll be studying engineering at VaTech. Unfortunately, in this case the VanDerGraf generators on the bottom shelf were not working. We couldn't do a shot with her hair standing up, which I would have rather had.

Woodbridge's Katie Bolander, All-area Girls Scholar Athlete of the Year

Finally I shot Breanna Walker. And this is a case where I just saw something that looked right and went with it. By the time she got to the track I had worked out a couple different spots for her to stand. But she showed up in this hoodie over her uniform and her track shoes were slung over the fence. I thought "woah, that's it." I went ahead and did the regular stuff, just in case the hoodie idea didn't work. Many times when you're working with non-models, it's difficult to get them to look "right", and when you're shooting, you'll know it. It feels right, the pictures look right and as a photographer you can tweak this and that and get exactly what you want. Breanna was perfect. The way she looked at the camera was exactly what I wanted. I had her cross her feet, shove her hands in her pockets, and I slung the shoes around her neck.

Osbourn Park's Breanna Walker, All-area Girls Track Athlete of the Year

She didn't give me a big, bright, silly smile, nor a deadpanned stare. It was just enough of a smirk to look right. I love shooting beneath the stadium. I love how the light is diffuse and it looks industrial and rugged. I think this is an example of where I prefer to go with my athlete portraits. You know she's a runner, but you don't have to have her on a track, or physically running to know she's a badass. She looks like it and the gesture and the mood of the lighting hopefully enhance it. Cool.