Shutter to think: Style and sport collide in Football Player of the Year photo

For one reason or another in years past we have gotten away from big, stylized, sports portrait sessions. Time and circumstances change things; it just happens.

For this year’s Sauk Valley Football Player of the Year, I did want to dip back a bit to a bygone era if you will, and just add a little extra style to the image. I employed a technique I’ve used before - Through the Viewfinder (TTV) photography. It’s fun, a bit gimmicky and definitely a reaction to crystal clear, flawless, digital picture making. Think punk rock vs. disco music.

The method is pretty simple: Take a picture of a subject through the viewfinder of an old camera. The images come out dirty, distorted and, to use a technical term, a bit wonky. But they have style and as F. Wilma Askinas said: “Style is always in fashion.” I don’t know who that is but it showed up in my “style quotes” Google search.

Dixon’s Eli Davidson was our chosen subject for Sauk Valley’s Football Player of the Year. Eli was cool enough to stand on the field on a deceptively cold day while I fumbled around setting up an old camera while juggling two others and a gear bag.

Undoubtedly the photo that will run with the story is the “safe shot,” which I in no way have a problem with. Davidson worked hard all season so he deserves a classic image celebrating that. I do think he, and hopefully the readers, will enjoy this stylized outtake, if you will.

• Alex T. Paschal is a photographer with Sauk Valley Media.