Shutter to Think: Shoot the Moon

I received some good news Friday.

After a bit of a rough week, word came down that one of my photos, “Shoot the Moon,” had received third place in the sports photo category of the Associated Press Media Editors Awards. My colleagues also did very well for their hard work over the past year, and I will let them deliver their own good news as they see fit, but congrats to all at Sauk Valley Media.

One of the more interesting events of the four county fairs we cover is the motocross trick show at the Whiteside County Fair. These riders get big air, and it was always a bit of challenge to capture that big air in one single frame. The point of reference just wasn’t there.

On this beautiful August night, the moon was mostly full, the bikes were revving, and the crowd was excited. I felt like I needed to garner up something special to set this night apart.

What I did was simply changed my angle. There’s probably some great real-life advice there about how changing one’s angle helps when facing adversity, but I’ll let you decide that for yourselves. Anyway, moving to the north side and looking back, I saw that giant rock of a moon floating and gleaming and just begging to be included. I hoped the lighting and angle would hold up. After the first pass of one of the riders, I knew I had something good. The rider’s leg-extended flair in this photo was the icing on the cake.

– Alex T. Paschal, follow me on Instagram @svmphotogs or message me at apaschal@shawmedia.com.