John Boal Photography

It's time for High School football again. After 2 weeks of tracking down about 300 players and 10+ teams, we're almost done putting the football tab together (although I'm finished with taking pictures). Here's a sneak peek of what will be in next week's News & Messenger High School football preview for Prince William County. Woodbridge Senior High School looks to advance to the playoffs for the 8th consecutive year. The cover story is about the "Secret of Their Success". I tried to work with a concept of a magic or "secret" playbook...etc. Woodbridge HC, Kevin Smith, who admitted during the shoot he sometimes thinks up plays in the coaches room and draws them up on the dry-erase board. So we threw this together as a last-second shot. When I heard him say this, I thought of Keith Barraclough's "Blackboard" portraits ( see here ). I'm always thinking of what other photographers have done and try to spin it in m...

If you plan to attend Manassas National Battlefield Park, there is a Battlefield App. Really, there is. Look it up. The Sesquicentennial “celebrations” came and went in Manassas. I figured I'd just make a picture page of what I did during the week. Local representatives were involved. Sheryl Bass, Manassas City Councilwoman is preparing for a rehearsal of the 1911 Peace Jubilee reenactment at the Old Manassas Courthouse. During the reenactment of the 1911 Peace Jubilee (meant to celebrate 50 years of peace between the north and south), a "film" crew eagerly documented the proceedings. I got a big kick out of watching them work. I did not attend the First Battle of Manassas reenactments, the parade or the opening ceremonies. I was the evening guy this week, so I covered a rehearsal of the reenactment of the 1911 Jubilee, the reenactment of said Jubilee, the encampments (briefly), cleanup of said encampments, a blue-gray ball, and a Pringle House hospital tour. Living h...

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 li...

Often at newspapers, you are asked as a photographer to show up at someone's house and make a picture for a centerpiece story about someone who deserves much more attention than the 30 minutes you have that day. This bugs me on multiple levels. One, it bugs me that we received a press release, and then responded with a hastily assembled story and published it 2 days later. And, two, it bugs me that when i do show up, there are 5 other people crowded around the family. It's almost always easier to photograph alone. In many cases, the solution is to reschedule or return at a better time. In this case, we were in the throws of player of the year portraits, graduations, and I was trying to find time to wrap up a personal project that had been going on for months. Joseph Briseno joined the Army Reserves and left for Iraq on his 20th birthday. "Jay" was supposed to help on civilian projects, until a civilian shot him in the back of the head. Somehow he survived, but he rema...

Generally the newspaper photographer calendar breaks down into different phases. During these parts of the year, the schedule gets pretty well filled up with assignments, and sometimes travel. Each sports season (fall, winter, spring) has an end, and with it, at least one local team with state title aspirations. Along with the high school sports calendar is the high school academic calendar. This usually means coverage of the first day of school, and finally, high school graduation. The challenge is always to find something different. That doesn't always mean finding something that's never been shot before. Just something you, as a photographer, haven't shot before. And sometimes the light is so good, you have to shoot it, knowing it looks good, even if you've seen it before. Here are some photographs of Osbourn Park's graduation, and Battlefield High School's unsuccesful attempt to win a state title in softball: Osbourn Park seniors enter the stadium... she was...

Here are some pictures from the most recent Powwow in Elon, VA. Still working on putting together the audio and video for a quick multimedia piece. And of course we're still waiting to see if legislation is able to pass to federally recognize the VA tribes . Yes, the same Native American tribes that were essentially the first tribes to interact with Europeans on this continent. In fact the VA tribes still honor the Treaty of Middle Plantation (1677) offering tribute to the VA Governor annually in November. This year was much more casual than last. I didn't set up a tent and do portraits all day for two days. This year my wife and I tried to just enjoy the event and watch. I shot a little video, recorded some audio, and tried to keep it simple for myself. Hopefully I can post something later this week.