this stuff is HARD :::: sports photography

I'm asked quite often how I became a photographer. The truth is, I never really intended to do this for a living, though I did know that I wanted to do something different and I wanted to be involved everyday in creating something. I was always interested in art, and I painted and drew quite a bit while growing up. But I never felt comfortable in those mediums, and I wasn't very good at them either, actually.

The majority of my early life was spent on a ball field somewhere. I played four years of college baseball and one year of college football. I still keep up with sports quite a bit. The St. Louis Cardinals are one of my major loves, as are the New Orleans Saints.

After teaching junior high English and coaching football and baseball for a year after college I went back to graduate school. I wound up the the journalism program at the University of Mississippi and that's where I found photography. I took a job with the school yearbook which required me to make sure we had all our necessary photos. Eventually that led to me creating a majority of those photos. And the best part? I had access to nearly every event on campus, including all of the athletic contests. So many of my first photographic images were made at the sports arenas at Ole Miss. And I can say with certainty that sports photography is TOUGH. It seems quite easy, and it isn't. Not at all. I've been humbled more than once when looking at my images after an event. It's not something I'm very good at. I have a great deal of respect for the guys and gals that do this for a living.

I don't do much sports photography anymore. Recently, however, I had a free Saturday and decided to head out to a football game at our local university, Delta State. It was fun to be on the sidelines again, and I had forgotten the rush of being so near the action.

Here's a few images. Hope you like them.


~wj