John Boal Photography

About 18 months ago, I had an idea to alleviate some of the awfulness of covering high school football for a small daily in Metro DC. What we were used to as photographers was going to 2, 3, and sometimes (if you’re REALLY lucky) 4 games, in order to come back with photos from the night’s action. Needless to say, getting good images is next to impossible when the only thing you’re worried about is getting a sharp picture as fast as possible of each team, and then leaving. And to boot, if you are shooting the “Game of the Week”, that might change on Sunday (yes, you read correctly, all these games will be published 2 days later, b/c our deadlines are at 730pm). The “game of the week” is basically an ad hoc reference to the game that turned out the best. You may even see a 3 column-inch photo in the paper! So I thought this year, to battle this insanity, we could focus on one game. We can’t put it in the next day’s paper anyway, so why not cover it top to bottom? Get really good art from...

I originally had a plan to write an interesting piece about New Mexico and how I love it. But really, as Forrest Gump once said, "...that's all I have to say about that...". I love visiting the state. I think the landscape is beautiful, and the state, from Alamagordo, to Santa Fe is just a nice place to relax and not stress out. Enjoying a sunset in Placito, north of Albuquerque... Santuario de Chimayo Skulls for sale in Santa Fe The hearth in our rental condo... Enjoying a couple cocktails, and then it spilled an made a "B". So I took a picture... WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT Jumping for joy in White Sands...

Here are some final headshots I accumulated after thinking about it in a different way (like I talked about in my previous posts). Anyway, creating these photographs made going to high school football practice a far more interesting endeavor, even if each kid stood in front of me for a maximum of 5 seconds.

I've now found something to focus on when I shoot football practice. The headshots. Once a throwaway 3 second moment, I'm now realizing, with just another half a moment to compose yourself, some pictures can look great. That I just wrote that last sentence embarasses me. This is what should separate professionals from the others. But sometimes it's very difficult to embrace making memorable photographs when you are in the throws of trying to wrangle 20+ kids from the football coach in their first week's practice. If you last more than 5 seconds with these kids, the annoyance factor rises exponentially between you and the coach. So generally speaking, headshots never were anything I focused on, until the other day ( my last post ), when I stumbled into a couple I liked. Here are some more, with an action shot to boot. The one headshot is in color, because, well, his eyes were such a striking color, that monochrome didn't do it justice...for once... Maybe he...

I was planning on sharing some photos from the early goings-on of the two-a-days that signal the start of the high school football season and school year. I thought of shots of players pushing the sleds with coaches shouting the whole time. I thought recievers catching, quarterbacks throwing and running backs, well, running. You get the idea. And then today happened. Today was a black flag day. Meaning no one could practice outside. I had a list of shots to get for the preview page for this particular school. No worries I could still grab a few headshots while they were lifting weights. Lo and behold, the 10 seconds I took to make pictures in teh entryway of the gym, are some of my favorites in the past few weeks. Some nice natural reflective light while we stood in the shade with a white door to frame their heads. But when I converted them to black and white to archive into our system, I couldn't help but linger over some of the pictures. They just look a little more classic and i...

Once summer rolls around, many of the assignments you are used to shooting aren’t there anymore because school is out, and people are on vacation. So instead, you find yourself searching community centers, pools…etc for interesting pictures. Sometimes you find them, and sometimes there isn’t anything to be found and you just make it up. For those not on the east coast, it’s really hot. It is so hot, the A/C in the car doesn’t work unless it’s past 2. The sun just blasts away any feeble dribbling of cool air that whispers out of the vents. So you crank it, until you are cold, then turn it to 1, realizing a minute later you may as well turn it back to 2 or 3, and point the vents into the vacant space around your body, trying to create some cool environment in the car, and not so much blast icy air onto your face or chest. I’ve become pretty adept at figuring out the best positioning of vents to achieve that goal. I’ve also become quite adept at finding shade in a parking lot, or if ther...

I haven’t posted in a bit, and it’s generally the same reason as always. I decided I didn’t like anything from the past several weeks to post. But often times, several weeks pass, and an opportunity presents itself for reflecting on the work you’ve done, and you are pleasantly surprised. The school year is finished, but between the last weeks of May and the first couple of June, my days are full with sports. Player of the year for this, playoffs for that. And knowing I’m not much of a sports photographer, I brushed aside any of my work from this period, assuming it not blog-worthy. Lo and behold! As I corralled my work for the quarterly VA News Photog. Assoc. contest, I found what I thought to be several interesting photos. Many of which, unfortunately, went unpublished. But that doesn’t deter me, because I know what I’m doing, even if the publisher does not. And my personal progress is ultimately what matters in this context. Naturally, I hope these are interesting to you, t...