Wednesday I drove out to Wimberley to shoot Brennen Blakemore, a senior on the Wimberley High School football team, for the Statesman.
Reporter Danny Davis was working on a feature on Blakemore and they needed a new photo.
We got to the stadium a few minutes before practice, hoping the team would allow us to borrow Blakemore for a few minutes. While we waited, I lined up a few shots I thought might work.
When Blakemore appeared, we only had about 10-15 minutes to shoot and interview, so I went to work quickly. First, I posed him at the top of the bleachers with the field and some of the hill country behind him.
As sometimes happens, the shot didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it, and the background looked better without the team on the field. So I put Plan B in to action and moved Blakemore down to the bottom of the bleachers, and shot from the sidewalk below. I used a speed light in my left hand make Blakemore a little brighter and separate him from the background.
There was an old State Champions banner posted on the press box and Blakemore stared off in the distance. It made him look like he was reflecting on the 2005 state championship game.
That shot came out much better, and that’s what the Statesman ended up using. Before I left, I got one more shot – a quick mug – and then turned Blakemore over to Danny.
The whole shoot took less than 10 minutes and we had him back on the field in no time.