James Brosher Photography
Portfolio website for James Brosher, a Bloomington, Indiana based editorial and wedding photographer specializing in action, documentary, and portrait images.
My main assignment today was to photograph Aaron Peirsol, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, as he practiced at the University of Texas with the men’s swim team. Piersol is training for the upcoming U.S. Nationals and Pan Pacific Championships.
Last July I covered the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was my first time covering the race although I had shot infield features that May at the Indy 500. I was flying solo as the only photographer covering the race that day for the Indiana Daily Student. It was … well … an interesting experience. I got to the track at about 4 a.m. to avoid traffic, parked in the infield and took a nap in my car. It can be very challenging to photograph inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Unless you work for a big publication, you have no access. There’s also a bunch of security guards (yellow shirts) who hassle the crap out of you at every turn. Walking into the media center I got stopped so I could show some obscure sticker on the back of my credential despite carrying two bodies and having a 300 mm lens thrown over my shoulder. Apparently I didn’t look legit enough. Moral of the story: the bigger the event, the worst the access. This means a smaller opportunity to get good moments. I would much rather shoot a high school basketball championship game than the NBA Finals. Sure, it’s cool to say you shot something like that, but oftentimes the access is better, less stressful and allows you to capture more moments at a smaller event.
Searching my name on the internet the other night, I ran across a couple features I shot last May at the Indianapolis 500 for the Indianapolis Star. Although I’m from Indiana, this was actually my first Indy 500. My main job that day was working on an online feature the Star runs called 500 Faces, which is basically photos of 500 different race day personalities. I was in the infield the entire day working on this, but while I was at it I shot a few features:
You win some, you lose some. Such is the case with soccer and photography. Today my main assignment was to shoot local reaction to the World Cup from one of the local bars. Since neither team had scored, I positioned myself where the light was best in the pub and shot the Dutch fans who happened to be in front of me (the bar I was at was about 80 percent Dutch fans). With the game tied at 0-0 at the end of the first 90 minutes, I was essentially guessing that the Netherlands would win. I was wrong. I got a great Dutch celebration shot (see the last shot), but since they didn’t win the image is irrelevant. Luckily, I was able to cover the flip side of the coin with a Spanish celebration shot:
