A few weeks ago I was on the phone with Nikon's NPS sussing out a problem when another call came in. I didn't recognize the number, but when I checked the message, it was an inquiry about my availability to shoot a high school student-athlete the following week for the Wendy's High School Heisman. It was really short notice but fortunately I was available for the shoot in Jackson, TN which is just off I-40, about 2 hours west of Nashville where I live.
QUICK VERSION: The entire experience was fantastic. Everyone from the agency Rattleback, the school admin and teachers at Madison Academic Magnet High School, and especially the student-athlete and her family... all first class.
FULL VERSION: The Wendy's High School Heisman is a five stage process and starts at the school level where every high school in the nation can nominate one boy and one girl to represent their institution, so just being named the top senior student-athlete at your school is quite an honor. In the second stage, the field is narrowed down to 20 state finalists for each state (10 boys and 10 girls), and from there, two state winners. The field of 100 state finalists is then cut down to 10 national finalists in the fourth stage... that's 10 out of the 7.9 million high school student-athletes in the entire country. Those 10 and their families are then flown to New York City for the award ceremony which will be broadcast on ESPN2 the night of December 10, 2017.
With any shoot, It's always important to speak with everyone involved prior to the shoot, in this case the parents and school college counselor. The student-athlete I would be photographing was not told of her being one of ten national finalists until the morning of the shoot, so everyone had to keep things under wraps. While I didn't know anyone in Jackson, this still meant no posting of anything on social media about the upcoming shoot and limiting who I told about it prior to the day of. I was sent an extensive shot list with examples so the night before, I selected the gear I would need to make everything happen.
With competitions like this, the cynical part of some of us may wonder whether the backstories of the student-athletes they feature are actually legit or whether they just find great athletes and embellish their off-the-field accolades to make for a better story. While I cannot speak for other awards, I can say for certain the Wendy's High School Heisman truly seeks out and recognizes great student-athletes whose lives off the field match and often exceed their athletic accomplishments. This was the case with Aline (Wells) Johnstone.
Wells is three sport athlete, competing in Cross Country (Fall), Swimming (Winter), and Track (Spring). On top of that, she is involved with her church, will be valedictorian and will be attending the United States Naval Academy next fall. If that was not enough, she is part of the school's nationally ranked Academic Decathlon team. It was truly fascinating sitting in their class for a bit listening to a bunch of high school students discuss and debate subtitles of literature, Winston Churchill speeches, the arts, and various science and math topics.
Over the course of the shoot, we started at the school, getting shots of her in a classroom setting, spending time with her friends, and a headshot out in front of the school. From there we headed over to an old church on a 30+ acre property to shoot cross country. In Tennessee, the leaves are still changing in early November so this provided a wonderful backdrop for this part of the shoot. From there we drove over to the University of Memphis Lambeth aquatic center for the part off the shoot we were all the most excited about. We were able to get a series of great shots here. The opening shot at the top of this post was one of our favorites and was shot on a Nikon D750 with a 15mm fisheye at 1/1000, f/4, ISO1000.
When doing an editorial-style shoot for swimmers, I always bring shorts if I need to get into the pool as some shots you cannot get if you're not in the water.
When we finally wrapped up, it had been a long day but totally worth it as we were all pleased with the results. Wells had missed her swimming workout and just before she left, she asked her swim coach for the reps-laps training schedule for the day. She pulled out her phone and took a picture of it. Not realizing what she was doing, I asked her mom and she told me that Wells would be coming to the pool the next day BEFORE school at 5:30AM to get in the reps she has missed, not because her coach has asked her to do it, but because "that's just what she does." The most amazing people achieve what they do partially because they are just wired this way, but it is the work ethic and commitment to being their best which truly separetes the great from the rest. I can say for certain that Wells will be doing amazing things in the coming years. I was my pleasure to meet and work with her and her parents for the day.
THANKS: Many thanks to Wells and her parents Valerie and Mark, Natalie Lockridge at Madison Academic High School, and Jason Sutton, John Randle, and Karen Mlicki at Rattleback,
TECH: I used (2) camera bodies, my Nikon D750 and D500. Normally I would have used my D810, but I had just sent it to Nikon for a recall repair. Lenses ranged from a 15mm fisheye to a 400mm, including a 24-70 and 70-200, all f/2.8. The lighting rig consisted of (4) strobe heads with a variety of modifiers including standard reflectors with and without grids, a few medium sized softboxes, and a beauty dish for a few of the tighter headshots. Cameras were loaded up with memory cards in both slots for redundancy. Most of the action shots were shot at 1/1000 using HSS.
