James Brosher Photography

Portfolio website for James Brosher, a Bloomington, Indiana based editorial and wedding photographer specializing in action, documentary, and portrait images.

Portraits

Cheyenne East long jumper Jeremiah Hunter

This week I was assigned my second prep athlete of the week portrait. It was a particularly challenging portrait because of the sport and the season. My subject was a long jumper and I was photographing him on a day when Cheyenne was getting blasted by a few inches of snow in the morning. I decided to shoot him inside with the lights at full power to over power the ambient light, thus leaving a completely black background. The shoot took place in a gymnasium, but I wanted to keep it very clean since the background doesn’t contribute to his sport.

Jeremiah Hunter performs a triple jump on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011, at East High School. Hunter is the WyoSports Cheyenne staff's prep athlete of the week.
Jeremiah Hunter performs a triple jump on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011, at East High School. Hunter is the WyoSports Cheyenne staff's prep athlete of the week.
Jeremiah Hunter performs a long jump on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011, at East High School. Hunter is the WyoSports Cheyenne staff's prep athlete of the week.
Jeremiah Hunter performs a long jump on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011, at East High School. Hunter is the WyoSports Cheyenne staff's prep athlete of the week.

A memory for Valentine’s Day

On Friday, I was assigned to shoot a portrait of Francis Oline, a local WWII veteran living at the Cheyenne VA Medical Center. Oline submitted a touching story about proposing to his late wife to the paper for a Valentine’s Day feature. I was trying to make a nice portrait of Oline with a framed photo of him and his wife, but I kept getting frustrated with myself. The background is too busy. There’s a glare on the frame from my flash. The window is too hot. As this self criticism was running laps through my head, I was having a pretty nice conversation with Oline as he reflected on his life. At one moment as he talked about his late wife, Dolorus, he paused and looked away from me as he reflected on a story in their life together. I snapped a few frames. It was a touching moment, and by far the best photo from the assignment (seen below). It might not be the best composed image, but for me the moment completely trumps the composition in this case. After I had taken several frames, I listened to about another 45 minutes of old stories from Oline, including a very interesting one about hunting buried train robbery treasure near Cheyenne. I felt bad as I had to leave soon thereafter in order to make an afternoon meeting back at the newsroom. Oline is a lovely gentleman and I hope my pictures represent him well in the newspaper.

Francis Oline holds a portrait of himself and his late wife, Dolorus, as he reflects on a few memories on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, at the VA Medical Center in Cheyenne. Oline, who is 90, was married to his wife for 57 years until her death in 1998.
Francis Oline holds a portrait of himself and his late wife, Dolorus, as he reflects on a few memories on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, at the VA Medical Center in Cheyenne. Oline, who is 90, was married to his wife for 57 years until her death in 1998.
Francis Oline holds a picture of himself and his late wife, Dolorus, as he reflects on a few memories on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, at the VA Medical Center in Cheyenne. Oline, who is 90, was married to his wife for 57 years until her death in 1998.
Francis Oline holds a picture of himself and his late wife, Dolorus, as he reflects on a few memories on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, at the VA Medical Center in Cheyenne. Oline, who is 90, was married to his wife for 57 years until her death in 1998.

Cheyenne Central wrestler Bryce Meredith

I got the opportunity to shoot my first prep athlete of the week sportrait on Tuesday evening. Every week, the paper names an athlete from a local high school, which gives the photo staff a nice opportunity to go all-out on a sportrait. Given that it was my first one, I played it pretty safe and didn’t do anything too experimental out of the gate. It’s a pretty basic three-light setup with two back lights at 45 degree angles from the subject. The key light was shot through a gridded softbox from a 45 degree angle to the right next to the camera. The subject was a pretty nice guy who helped me unload the lights from my truck before the shoot and was extremely patient while I look about 20 minutes to set everything up.

Central freshman wrestler Bryce Meredith poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011, in the Central High School wrestling room. Meredith is the Tribune-Eagle prep athlete of the week.
Central freshman wrestler Bryce Meredith poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011, in the Central High School wrestling room. Meredith is the Tribune-Eagle prep athlete of the week.