Gym Dogs: McCool

I walked through the 3 sets of double doors leading to the Georgia Gymnastics training facility for the final time today. Last week I pushed the gymnastics beat writer Roger Clarkson to do a feature so I could do one last Gym Dogs sportrait. Of course it could be of no one other than former Olympian and current superstar senior Courtney McCool. She is currently No. 2 in the nation on floor exercise. McCool was the first gymnast I met and photographed back at the start of the 2008 season. I was still bumbling around with lighting at that point.

Courtney McCool during her sophomore season

When the 5' tall beaming athlete approached I was immediately struck by her charisma. She was all smiles, incredibly outgoing, and assertive. I liked her instantly. Over the next two seasons I had a total of 6 photo sessions that included McCool. I didn't even mind when she took control with her own ideas or told me she didn't like a picture. It was always refreshing to photograph someone that really contributed to the shoot. Of all the athletes I've shot Courtney McCool cares the most about creating the best image we can.
Today I set up for the shoot, bouncing around the squishy mats and floor for the last time, until an enthusiastic McCool bounded towards me wanting to know what we were doing. We did two shots. The first is the opening pose of her floor routine. For the second I asked her to do one of her leaps. We got lucky in the first couple of tries and got the shot, but McCool wasn't done. She ran to see what we had after each attempt and insisted on going again and again trying to perfect something that already seemed perfect to me.
When it was over it was sad to say goodbye. She gave me a hug and demanded I can't go. I got to tell her how gymnastics has been my favorite thing I've covered during my time at the Athens Banner-Herald. I will face many more sad goodbyes in the next two days as my two weeks notice comes to an end. One wonderful thing about saying goodbye is learning that you truly will be missed and getting to tell people how you really feel about them.

Georgia senior gymnast Courtney McCool


Georgia senior gymnast Courtney McCool

Read Roger's story HERE.

Photos of the Year III

ILLUSTRATIONS AND PORTRAITS

Dog Days of Summer


Georgia wide receiver A.J. Green


Former Olympian and Georgia gymnast Courtney Kupets


LeEllen Chandler made it her mission to find out where, when and how her grandfather died in World War II.


Gameday cover: Georgia vs. South Carolina in the first of several night games
(Cedar Shoals' Caleb Miles, left, and Charmarcus Pittard pose for illustration)


Clarke Central defensive stars Devante Derricotte, left, and Jordan Pierce


Georgia running backs Caleb King, left, and Washaun Ealey


Jefferson QB Darius Minor


Georgia gymnasts from left Courtney Kupets, Courtney McCool, and Grace Taylor have each scored a perfect 10 on beam this season.


Oconee County setter Darby Rogers is the 2009 Athens Banner-Herald Volleyball Player of the Year.


Madison County's Courtney Freeman


Illustrations on concussions in football


Georgia defensive end Cornelius Washington


Brooks Mendell played baseball with the MIT beavers on the 1993 team that won its conference for the first time ever. Brooks has written a book about that winning season called Beaverball.


Emily O'Rear of Athens Academy is the 2009 girl soccer player of the year.


Illustration on Gym Dogs fitness and nutrition


Georgia's Jeff Owens, left, and Geno Atkins


Georgia cornerback Brandon Boykin


Daniel Gade, who lost his leg when hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005, is competing in the Nautica New York City Triathlon Sunday, July 26. He began doing triathlons last year and competes with Operation Rebound and the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF).


Brian Bowles is the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) Bantamweight Champion.

GAMEDAY: BACKS of the FUTURE!

Last week I shot the final Gameday cover of the year for the Independence Bowl between Georgia and Texas A&M in Shreveport, La. The cover featured running backs Caleb King and Washaun Ealey in a story about the future of the Bulldogs running game. My first thought was a Back to the Future themed cover with a Backs of the Future logo. I found an image from the movie I could base the cover on and after shooting the guys in their team meeting room and toiling in photoshop for 5 hours had finished my last Gameday.




Georgia running backs Caleb King, left, and Washaun Ealey

A Time to Reflect

I had 40 minutes to think about what I wanted to do for my sportrait of Jefferson star quarterback Darius Minor as I drove to the assignment. I used every second of that time planning out all the details down to the expression I hoped to capture. When I arrived and stepped out of my car it took less than a minute for me to completely nix the whole thing. A big beautiful mud puddle stood before me positioned perfectly with the stadium stands and the sun behind. Before I knew it I was on my hands and knees in an inch of muddy water to get the angle I needed for the shot. I'm sure Darius thought I was insane, but as I told him "anything for a picture."


Jefferson Dragons' quarterback Darius Minor

sportrait catch-up

Lately I've struggled with creativity in my high school sportraits. I haven't invested the time into planning like I once did. Most of them I only think on the road to the school or just decide when I get there. That isn't the whole problem though. I've done that in the past and ideas pop in my head when I need them. The last few I've shot I've arrived and had that frozen feeling of not knowing what to do, so I just do something. As long as it is decent enough to carry a page I've done my job, but this doesn't satisfy me. I've driven off from a couple high school parking lots feeling like I failed. I don't like that feeling.
Today I finally had a breakthrough. I was out at Clarke Central to shoot their star defensive players Devante Derricotte and Jordan Pierce. I had no idea what I was going to do. Even as they were walking towards me my brain was still at work trying to iron out a plan. Then I noticed some mud left from the recent flooding rains. These guys were friendly, enthusiastic and on board with slamming their facemasks into the mud and then growling at me from the muddy helmets. Thanks to these fun guys after weeks of dissatisfaction I got a sportrait I like.

Winder-Barrow QB Christian Davila


Winder-Barrow QB Christian Davila


Prince Avenue Christian's Taylor Clark


Prince Avenue Christian's Taylor Clark


Cedar Shoals running back James Gordan, left, and Clarke Central wide receiver Dimitri Holmes


Jefferson's Lucas Redd


Jackson County quarterback Jalen Banks


Jackson County quarterback Jalen Banks


Clarke Central linebackers Jordan Pierce, right, and Devante Derricotte ranked first and second, respectively, in tackles for the Gladiators this season.

GAMEDAY: Call to Action

This week the Gameday cover story features some of the players with big potential who have gotten little to no playing time yet. They might get their chance in this week's gimme homecoming game against Tennessee Tech. I photographed 3 guys I'd never met before. One of them had apparently gotten in trouble and was running extra drills as me and the other two players waited. The only thing I knew going into the shoot was that the story was about "reserves." This immediately gave me the idea to try to line the guys up in some kind of military fashion. I wanted them to look as similar as possible, but goofed a bit with the lighting on Marlon Brown. I didn't get quite what I was looking for, but think it lent itself well to headline ideas.


Georgia football players from left wide receiver Marlon Brown, defensive end Montez Robinson, and tailback Dontavius Jackson

Design layout by Chad Clark

Check out the full GAMEDAY section HERE.

staying fresh

Last week I had the pleasure of shooting a sportrait of the four new freshman Georgia gymnasts. The Gym Dogs' Sneak Peek exhibition event is only about a month away and their season starts in early January. Yay!!! I love shooting gymnastics and by then will be eager for the change from what feels like 24/7 football. It will be interesting covering the Gym Dogs this year. They are coming off of 5 straight National Championships and a NCAA record breaking 10th overall title. On top of that their legendary head coach Suzanne Yoculan peaced out at the top of her game leaving the team to long-time associate head coach Jay Clark. Also, super star gymnasts Tiffany Tolnay and Courtney Kupets graduated and will be back as volunteer coaches. Even more so the Gym Dogs beat writer, my partner in crime, and co-worker left the paper this summer. So many changes! The only thing that won't be different it seems is me. I need to find new ways to shoot this year to keep my work fresh. I already started to feel I'd tried every angle and lens by the end of last season. I've shot wide, I've shot tight, I've shot from the stands, I've shot while laying on the ground, and heck I've even shot from overhead on the catwalk! What next...


Georgia freshmen gymnast from left Christa Tanella, Shayla Worley,
Noel Couch and Kati Breazeal

GAMEDAY: Head Games

Gameday strikes again, at least in newsprint form. Even on the bye week we churn out a Gameday special section. The assistant sports editor has done illustrations the last two weeks and the break has been nice, but I was happy to have a challenge again. After Tim Tebow's concussion played out for the nation to see the issue has been at the forefront of sports news. This week the cover story focused on the dangers of concussions in football.
The image that came to me first was an x-ray of a skull and brain inside of a helmet. Then I thought it would look cool to do that using a real action shot. I scoured a recent game for a picture of two players helmet to helmet. I cut them out, pasted them on a shot of tiny fan dots in the stadium, and inverted the colors to give it that x-ray look. Then I dug up a skull and brain x-ray and worked some photoshop magic.





Design layout by Chad Clark

GAMEDAY: Rise to Power

Oh Gameday how you torture me.
After Georgia wide receiver A.J. Green's mind-blowingly awesome game last week against Arizona State (8 catches for 153 yards and a blocked field goal) he was chosen as our Gameday cover story. I shot A.J. once last year, but paired with former wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi (now with the Cleveland Browns). This is the first time I'd get the college superstar all on his lonesome. I've had an idea for the 3 football seasons I've been covering Georgia that I haven't had the chance to use. This was the chance. A.J. Green is like a superhero on the field so I wanted to have him pose in a Superman stance with a Georgia "G" flag billowing off his shoulders like a cape. We typically get our ideas approved by the folks at UGA beforehand. Late the night before the shoot I got the word that the Superman idea was a no-go. I was absolutely exasperated. I'd spent so much time conceptualizing my plan and just had no creativity left in me to conjure another good idea.
I spent hours that I should have been sleeping rolling it around in my brain. I thought of words that describe A.J. and one came to mind that stuck: ELECTRIC. From there I came up with an idea for an illustration centered around electricity bolting from his hands to a football. After shooting A.J. and spending 4 hours in front of a computer screen I had a cover. It's no Superman, but it works.


Georgia wide receiver A.J. Green has 81 career catches for 1,391 yards and 12 touchdowns. At this pace, he will be the Bulldogs’ all-time top receiver after his junior season.


Design layout by assistant sports editor Chad Clark

Check out the full GAMEDAY section HERE.

sportrait catch-up

Here are some recent sportraits. As usual I'm shooting a good many of these, but actually less than last year. I think I'm averaging two a week. As much as I love shooting them I'm glad it has been less as I just about use up my creativity for the week on the Gameday cover. Wednesday when I was driving out to Apalachee High School to shoot running back Reggie Battle my mind was too preoccupied with the upcoming Gameday shoot to come up with ideas. I went with a locker room shot which I hadn't done yet this season. Anybody got any cool sportrait ideas? Throw them my way!

Georgia quarterback Joe Cox


Cedar Shoals High School defensive lineman Charmarcus Pittard


Oconee County QB Hutch Roper


Cyclist Matt Sanchez


Athens Academy Volleyball coach Nikki Chester and team front row from left: Maddi Brady, Taylor Payne, Melisssa, Corry, Ansley Richardson, Sara Busswenger, Kelly Foster and back row from left: Morgan Solomon, Emily Hansford, Caroline Sanders, Sarah Chuboff, Hannah Hays, Priya Desai, Elizabeth Sinyard, Dakota Williams, Jamella Banks, Carey Stewart, Mary Banister, Meredith Ross, Crysten Curry, Morgan Maddox, and Aashni Patel (not pictured: Lauren Marbut and Morgan Anderson).


Prince Avenue Christian's Taylor Clark


Apalachee's Reggie Battle