You got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.”
-John Madden
sports shooter
How a Girly Girl Became a Sports Photographer
The story of how I fell into photography is not that different from the story of other photographers. It started in my childhood. I always enjoyed creative things like art, crafts and photography. As a child, my mom would buy me those disposable cameras often. I loved documenting things going on in my life. As a teenager, I was Editor-in-Chief of my high school news paper and a section editor of the yearbook. In college, I initially studied journalism and took some photography classes. Of course, I graduated with a degree in psychology and went on to work in social services but that is another story...
I got married and eventually had five children (one girl, four boys). I loved documenting my children's day to day lives. Eventually, my children started joining activities and sports. I found myself sitting on the sidelines of many (so.many.) football games and soccer games and eventually wrestling meets. Anyway, there was a father on my of my son's teams who would photograph all the games. Then he would share the pictures with us and occasionally create posters for gifts or for purchase. I treasured those pictures. You see, I am girly girl. Sports always seemed so boring (and hot and stinky and oh so sweaty). But in those image he shared, I saw so much emotion. I saw more than a bunch of sweaty kids chasing a ball. I looked forward to those weekly emails full of game pictures. I was so thankful for those images he shared with us. They meant so much to me.
Shorty after the birth of my fifth child, I finally upgraded my good old Sony point and shoot to my very own DSLR. And my adventure began. I put those hours of football games and wrestling meets to use. I learned to use my camera. I studied articles, I watched tutorials but most important, I practiced. I love catching those moments of joy on the field, the moments of frustrations...the tears and joy. And eventually, I became the mom on the team that shares pictures.
And that is how my story began.
