My 2024 Highlights - What a year!

2024 has been an incredible year for my photography. I continued covering sports for VivaLoudoun and the Loudoun Times weekly newspaper as well as yearbooks for high schools in the northern Virginia area. This keeps me so busy that the joke at my career job is that photography is really my full time job! Hmmm. Sometimes I think there is some truth to that.

There were many highlights throughout the year, but the top two are come from :

I covered the boys and girls Virginia High School League basketball state championship games and the University of Richmond. Shooting in a college arena is wonderful. My photo of the Woodgrove girls celebrating their championship win was the first page highlight for the Loudoun Times. The photo also appeared on the cover page a second time at the beginning of 2025 for the  paper's "Year in Photographs" paper. 

The Loudoun Times entered one of my photos in the Virginia Press Association photography contest and my photo of a winning touchdown catch was awarded first place sports news photo in their non-daily newspaper category!

I was hired to shoot the throwing events at the Atlantic 10 college track and field championships at George Mason University. It was a great experience despite the pouring rain throughout most of the weekend.

I was also hired for a soccer tournament and several individual games with the VA Revolution soccer club in Loudoun County. 

Another Year and a Half Slipped By

Another year and a half slipped by and I haven't posted to this blog. Why? Well, I had great intentions but life gets in the way and before you know it you've forgotten to post. Soon after the previous post, family medical issues kept me busy. That also coincided with getting very busy with sports photography shooting high school yearbook candids as well as covering other games. Then it became out of sight out of mind. My 2025 New Year's resolution is to post more often. (Well, technically, even one post would be "more often", so let's say I'll post regularly.) Expect a few over the next week. Happy New Year.

Where has the year gone?

It has been one full year since my last post! So much for my commitment to post at least once a month. You miss a month. Then two. The next thing you know a year has gone by. 

What a year its been. Soon after my latest post, I decided to go all in on my sports photography. I splurged on a top of the line Canon R3 mirrorless camera. In addition to covering games for VivaLoudoun and our newspaper, the Loudoun Times Mirror, I began shooting yearbook candids for local high school sports. My schedule got out of control at some points but it was great fun. 

Highlights of this year include covering: several D1 college football games as well as NFL and XFL games; Major League Soccer, National Womens Soccer League, and United Soccer League games; as well as all levels of high schools sports up to and including a state championship game. What a great time. Here are a few shots from the Tuscarora Girls soccer team in the Virginia High School League class 4

state championship game.  

 

Is it Fun or is it All Business?

 

My Mother recently asked if I have fun when I’m covering sports events or if it is all business. The question took me by surprise because I never thought about it that way. Yes, I have to take an all business approach to focus on getting an image that captures the essence of the game or a critical play. But part of that business approach is the enjoyment I get from being on the sidelines witnessing the action up close. It is a different perspective than when I’m sitting in the stands as a spectator.

After covering several collegiate and professional sports you get to know different photographers from freelance photographers to major media outlets like Getty Images, USA Today, Washington Post, etc. to name a few. They focus on their business but also take time to enjoy the event and socialize with each other.  For example, after the FC Bayern Munich at DC United soccer match, we were all putting our gear away and having a good time talking and joking around. Then Berni, the FC Bayern mascot walked by the photographers corral. What did we do? Naturally, we all wanted to get selfies with Berni!

So my answer is – It’s a fun business on the sidelines!

High School Playoffs

 

ABC Wide World of Sports used to have a catch phrase – “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat” that they would say as they showed clips of victorious athletes celebrating interspersed with clips of a skier wiping out on the ski jump and other athletic failures. That phrase captures the range of emotions on display during the high school soccer playoffs in Virginia this year. Tuscarora High School in Leesburg had a successful athletic spring season with five teams making the post season playoffs and two teams making it to the Virginia High School League Class 4 championship game. Along the way, I was able to capture several shots of athletes celebrating when they scored or won while the opponents showed their agony or consoling teamates. 

Memorial Day

 

Happy Birthday Dad. We all miss you. It’s May 30

th, your birthday and the traditional Memorial Day in the U.S., or as my grandparents called it, Decoration Day. Although his birthday was a day to celebrate, it was also a very somber day as the nation honors the service of military members who paid the ultimate price for their service. Dad served but we were fortunate that he did not pay the price unlike so many others through the years. WWII ended before he was able to join the Marines and served for a couple years.

Our family had one veteran who paid the ultimate price – my Great Uncle Lynn Mort. He fought in France during the first world war. He contracted Spanish Flu, which was a pandemic at the time, and passed away from it like so many other military members. He was honored with the naming of the Lynn Mort American Legion Post in Lake Elsinor, California. Today, both Dad and Lynn are memorialized in our hometown with these flags on a pole outside my boyhood home.

Penn State Blue-White Game

It was a great day at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium last Saturday. It was the annual Blue-White football game at the end of the Spring practice sessions. The best part was having a field media pass that enabled me to get some great photos. I’ve covered a couple Penn State football games when they visited the University of Maryland, but this was the first time with access to Beaver Stadium. I am definitely planning to get back there in the Fall to cover a game. 

Penn State football is one of the nation’s top programs with a devoted fan following. Like the other top teams, they have been doing Spring practices to review their new talent and get ready for the fall season, impress potential recruits, and entertain their fans. Penn State delivered on all three areas. Several new players were showcased and around 200 recruits got the Happy Valley experience in front of an estimated 62,000 fans. I can’t wait to cover a real game there this Fall.