Words and Light

The night before I left for a three-day photojournalism workshop in Fairfax, Va., I shot and turned in photos for our 2012 spring sports tab.

Earlier that day, my editor told me three female athletes would be arriving for the studio shoot.

“Do anything you want,” she said. “Make it gritty or stylized or anything, but they all have to be in the shot.”

“All three?”

“All three.”

So I worked with the girls, took suggestions from them, made them get closer to each other and turned in three different options before I left for home to pack.

The next day, as I was in one of the workshop’s sessions, my editor texted me… because, in the photo I’d designated as my favorite, the track-star girl in the center seemed as if she were missing an arm.

I wasn’t there for any of the deliberations, but they kept the shot. And no, New Oxford’s Jamilla Janneh is not, in fact, missing an arm.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News and GameTimePa.com.

I also turned in this similar option:

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News and GameTimePa.com.

For both of the shots above, I had a three-light set-up: One in the back to highlight Jamilla’s jumping figure, and two — with umbrellas — flanking me. The cover photo was taken from the third or fourth rung of a ladder we have in the studio; the outtake was taken from almost floor-level, as I sprawled out on my stomach.

Below one of the last shots I tried, this time with only one front light for a more stylized approach. Not as punchy as the others, and my depth-of-field was way too shallow for this to work for a cover photo, but I still like it:

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News and GameTimePa.com.

Related: Check out this past football season’s preview tab, which I also shot.