Words and Light

I had only shot one track-and-field competition — and, since I was to focus only on the track events, I had never shot any field events — until I was assigned to make pictures of Jared Allison.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Dallastown’s Jared Allison ties up his training shoes as Palmyra Springs senior Shawn Mayer watches Cumberland Valley senior Chase Gehr use the rings before they all began a pole-vaulting training session on Wednesday, April 25, 2012, at the indoor training facility VaultWorx in Camp Hill. Dallastown’s Jared Allison — one of the best pole vaulters in the state — trains at VaultWorx, which is an indoor facility in Camp Hill.

At the time that reporter John and I followed Jared during one of his pole-vaulting training sessions at an indoor facility, the high school senior had his eye on breaking the state record and capturing the gold at the state championships, which were about a month away.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Dallastown’s Jared Allison works on his lift method during a training session at the indoor facility VaultWorx in Camp Hill on Wednesday, April 25, 2012.

I did my best in the indoor facility. The light situation was terrible. One end of the large, tall-ceilinged room was lit with blue-white fluorescents, the other end (where the landing pad was) was lit with dim orange lamps and finally, just beyond the landing pad, were windows that let in a good amount of sunlight. Not the ideal situation for decent white balance.

But I had fun. Pole-vaulting is such a fundamentally strange sport, as John alluded to in his profile of Jared, and I had never shot it before. So it was a challenge on multiple levels — lighting and exposure, the novelty of the sport — but it was fun.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Dallastown’s Jared Allison runs with the pole during a training session on Wednesday, April 25, 2012, at the indoor facility VaultWorx in Camp Hill.

Be sure to check out John’s full article, which includes more photos.

And as for the state championship? Jared didn’t get the gold or break the state record — but that’s okay.