Communications Student Takes Top Photography Honor By Capturing the Audience
December 12, 2006
By Pamela McLaren
A senior communications major — whose grandfather was a professional photographer — took top honors last month during the Sports Shooter Academy III, a workshop that enables participants to photograph sports events each day and then have results reviewed and critiqued by their peers and academy teachers. SportsShooter.com sponsored the 3-year-old event, which is held three times a year.
Carlos Delgado won “Best Single Photograph” for his image of betters watching the horse races via TV screens at Hollywood Park (image above).
During the Nov. 2 photography session at Hollywood Park, Delgado noticed that with most of the photographers were taking the same type of action shot, “it just got redundant. So I walked around the track and looked for something else.
“When I saw the betters watching the action on monitors, I thought it was a really cool image,” said Delgado. “It was a big hit [that evening during the critique session]. Everyone stopped when they saw the image and spent a long time looking at all the faces.
The image won Delgado that day’s photo prize as well as the workshop’s top honor.
Delgado had attended Sports Shooter Academy II in April and “really had a great time … I got the opportunity to do things that I hadn’t done before, that only professional photographers do.”
During the April workshop he was able to mount a camera to a 20 ft. vaulter’s pole, and with a remote trigger mechanism, capture an image of the athlete in action. “The photo — a bird’s eye view of the vaulter — won the Innovator Award and they actually named the award after me.”
The earlier event was “so packed with things to do” that Delgado decided to attend the next Academy offering in November.
Delgado, who hopes to graduate in June, first enrolled at Cal State Fullerton as an art major, but switched to communications and photography.
Former Orange County Register photographer Matt Brown, a member of the SportsShooters.com who had met Delgado on campus in the communications class of lecturer Davis Barber, recognized Delgado’s talent. “
Carlos has grown by leaps and bounds in his photography,” the veteran photographer said. “His future is bright.”
“Through the classes at CSUF, I found out what I really wanted to do and then having the opportunity to attend workshops like the SportsShooter Academy have expanded my skills and experience,” said Delgado. “I decided that this is something that I’d like to wake up every morning and do. It’s in my blood.”
Produced by the Office of Public Affairs at California State University, Fullerton.