Only the engaged parent of an elite student athlete can fully appreciate the grueling hours of away games, how slick the stands are in the pouring rain and how hard the bleachers become during a tournament. You do it to support your kids and to watch them grow and thrive in the alternate family that are team sports.
Now imagine that you’re an accomplished photographer with a keen eye for critical moments in a game and the uncanny ability to capture either rapture or loss in the face of a teenager. You’re a pro, with a gift – not to mention the equipment needed to capture a fleeting moment in stark detail and living color. You’re out there too, on the sidelines or along the cross-country in all weather and haunting the aromatic high school gyms season after season.
And you do it out of love for the game and the people who play it.
Such are the photographers behind Viva Loudoun. When we discovered Viva Loudoun (http://vivaloudoun.com), with its extraordinary galleries of virtually every sport in every high school in the county, we had to find out – who are these extraordinary artists and what motivates them?
So we took the opportunity to crash a holiday pizza party at Kahvila Coffee House on King St. to meet those who make magic with their lenses and ask them to share some of their favorite shots.
Jeff Scudder, who with his wife Betsy now manages the site, has a daughter who played volleyball and he took up photography as a hobby. The shot he shared is of the Stone Bridge girls volleyball team right after winning the 2021 State Championship. Betsy says, “The joy on the girls' faces is priceless.” She explains “We are rather partial to this team as our youngest daughter played for the same coach on the 2015 team that won the first state title for Stone Bridge.”
Jeff relates that Viva Loudoun began as a blog, as things did back in 1999, covering local sports, for the four existing county high schools. (There are now 17!) When the group added a SmugMug account allowing people to post and purchase photos of their teams and star athletes, the site developed a following.
And, when the founder moved to Texas in 2008, a group of photographers led by Jeff teamed to purchase it and it became a kind of photo gallery co-op where photographers retain 90% of the revenue from the sale of their work. About five years ago, Jeff became the sole owner so he could put more energy into marketing the site, but the same compensation rules apply. Fans and family can now buy stunning reproductions from $5 for a 4x6 to $60 for a 20x300 print. Stretched canvases can go as high as $843 for a 20x30, and there are refrigerator magnets, buttons and mugs for everything in between.
“Of course, everyone loves seeing photos of the teams,” Jeff said, and the fervor has only grown with the manner in which Loudoun’s teams have come to dominate several divisions with state championships. Beyond high school, Viva Loudoun has been able to cover an NCAA division three national championship women’s soccer team at Christopher Newport with five girls from Loudoun County on the team. Along the way, the photographers’ proficiency grew as did their number. Jeff says the total of participating photographers now ranges between 12 and 14.
Sharing with local media outlets enabled the photographers to become credentialed to cover more sports, all while studying, learning and buying better gear. Now they have a desk to cover the Washington Football team at FedEx Field as well as college basketball and soccer.
Chuck Moore, https://www.randomsnapsphotography.com/, is one of the few Viva Loudoun shooters to have spent half of his life in sports photography. He was credentialed to cover the division matchup between Washington and the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. Before you get too excited, he happens to be an Eagles fan, and his favorite shot is of Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle, Fletcher Cox, sacking Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, in a December 20, 2014, regular season game at FedEx Field in Landover, MD.
“For me it’s a bucket list kind of thing,” Chuck says. He grew up in Philly so putting on a set of creds and prowling the sidelines is sheer joy. But so is seeing graduates of local high schools land professional playing careers. “One is the starting center for Michigan and one is a one of the Washington Football Team’s best defensive players.” He fondly recalls walking across the field after an NFL game with the Detroit Lions when he heard a player say, “Mr. Moore, Mr. Moore.” It was Alexander Rhys Carter, a former cornerback with the Lions and former star at Ashburn’s Briar Woods High School. “He asked me what I was doing there and I said, ‘Well I guess we both made it to the big time!”
Art Pittman (https://www.artpittmanphotography.com/) is a retired Virginia teacher who taught band classes for 34 years, the past 25 as an elementary band teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools. Over the past 15 years photography was a side hobby that has now grown into a new career. Currently he assists the athletics photographers at Georgetown University and George Mason University with any coverage of games, events, receptions, award ceremonies, headshots, and the like, as well as serving as a contract photographer for Georgetown University and USA Today Sports. One of his favorite local shots is of the Dominion High School girl’s lacrosse team.
For most it’s not a living – they have day jobs ranging from teaching to consulting to program management – everything from information security to oil spill preparedness for the Department of the Interior.
Amanda Poffenberger is a program manager with the U.S. Department of State and runs a photo studio on the side, https://www.mandypoff.com/. Her son Winston is a quarterback at Broad Run High School – and just a sophomore, so she’ll be there for a while, and allows that she’s “got the bug” for shooting sports and now prefers it to her studio work. Yet it’s likely her studio eye that can lay claim to the glittering luminosity captured in her favorite photo of the Broad Run varsity team celebrating their homecoming win against Loudoun Valley. “They wre shaking water bottles in the air. I loved how the water looked like champagne.” The game also marked head coach Matt Griffis’ 100th win.
Bill Vocke, @billvocke and http://www.billvockephotos.com, has been involved in sports most of his life as a player, coach, referee, and a fan. While photography had long been a hobby for him – shooting animals, landscapes, sports his kids were playing, and sometimes games when he was a spectator – what triggered his dive into sports photography was a request from a student at Tuscarora where his wife works. “He asked her if I could come to a game and get some photos of him playing on the football team since he didn't have any. I enjoyed covering the game, but more importantly, I enjoy knowing what it means to the players to have good photos of their playing days. The photos will be something they can look back on for the rest of their lives.”
Asked for his favorite shot, Bill initially cited a Trinity Rodman goal from this past championship season of the Washington Spirit. On reflection, he decided on a one-handed TD catch by a Lake Taylor HS player in the Virginia State Championship game against Tuscarora. “Unfortunately, it wasn't my team's TD, but I love the photo nonetheless.”
Pete Felber, like any parent, loves it when his technical skill can capture a moment of pure grit by their own child. His favorite shot is of Anna Felber, an All State Soccer Defender from Tuscarora’s High School Class of 2018, cuts around a striker from South Lakes.
And some, like Michael Dow, https://photos.michaeldow.com and on social @mdowphoto, appreciate the sense of being on the sidelines of history. The photo he shared is of Loudoun United FC’s first goal in franchise history when the played a scrimmage against Bethlehem Steel FC at the Evergreen Sportsplex on February 21, 2019 in Leesburg. They went on to win the match 2-1. “This photo hangs above the door to LUFC’s main office, I am told, though I haven’t seen it myself
To a man or woman they all say that it’s the energy and atmosphere surrounding high school and professional athletics that draws them. Something about the youthful determination, passion and team spirit is perpetually addictive, and makes for exceptional photographs besides.
For fun, they get together and talk about camera equipment and their experiences on the field. The biggest controversy they face is which is better: Cannon or Nikon? (Jeff takes ribbing for what the team calls “CAS” or Cannon Acquisition Syndrome.)
What’s dawning on the group is that they’ve built their own unique audience, totaling 64,000 unique visitors and 18 million views in the last year alone.
We hope you’ll join the crowd and watch the sparks fly upward.