Written by Holly Bell, Director of First Impressions
Greetings to YOU! Two questions that I’ve gotten quite often are…. Why do you take photos of sports? and Why do you like sports so much?
Let me tell you a little background about: me taking photos of sports events. I’ve been entertaining myself in this way since the fall of 2008. It’s been a minute! And, I’ve only ever taken sports images of the GRS teams! “Back in the day” (15 years ago), I was working for a different school which was a member of the same sports consortium that GRS belongs to (grouping of more than one charter schools to get enough players for a team). Then, the school I was working for dropped out of the consortium for reasons I heartily disagreed with, but that’s a different story. I continued following the team and I’m really glad that I did! Over the years, I’ve met and worked with some pretty amazing student athletes. Does anyone remember Donovan O’Dowd who had several beautiful 3-point shots? I name him as an example since he still worked here up until last year.
When I first started this hobby, I would download all of the photos from a season to cds. Then, at the banquet at the end of the season, I would gift a set of cds to each player, each coach and the yearbook team of each school. All of that just seemed like the right thing to do even though I wasn’t related to any of the players. Nowadays, I have a google folder set up for each sport and I just share it with people throughout the season. It makes me smile to fortify the connection between myself and the players and coaches. By gifting the photos, I am able to bring joy to so many people, and it helps me to feel good, too..
Why sports? Because they happen fairly regularly. If I have something on my calendar for one game, I know that I can always catch a different game in that season. I also took photos of plays and concerts, but they didn’t happen nearly as often. Frequency is the main reason it looks like I prefer sports. I do admit, however, that I was raised to watch men’s college hoops because my father was the manager of the Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball team. That’s just what we did. March Madness!! (The other thing I did each year with my father when I was growing up was to enter Hoard’s Dairyman’s annual dairy cattle judging contest. He taught me a lot about cow structure.)
Over the years, I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback about these gifts of photography. It’s not so much about the gift, but more about the emotion and intention behind it. I keep reading articles about today’s society where many people have feelings of isolation and loneliness. Whether it’s a result of the pandemic or not, I hope to do my part to help people to feel seen, respected and valued. What is the most memorable thing you have ever received?
On we go,
Holly