Lows, highs captured in photo

Editor’s note: Sports editor Chris Schanz has taken thousands of photographs since starting the summer of 2013. In this “Photo Focus” series, he will take a look back at a handful of his favorite pictures and describe the story behind them.

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Not all photographs can be happy ones.

Obviously, the pictures that make us feel a strong, euphoric emotion are great for that very reason.

Pictures of loved ones we haven’t seen for a while make us look forward to the time our paths cross again; scenic views of our favorite places on earth leave us longing to go back to the moment the picture was taken or to recreate the feeling of being there; snapshots of celebrations in victory stir up memories of fond athletic achievements.

Photographs like those tell a story in their own right.

But pictures that result in an opposite emotion can have just as much of an impact.

Early in my career, I generally focused more on capturing the action of whatever game or match I was covering. I didn’t quite have the eye at the time for paying attention to everything else going on; I was just trying to capture the best action shot I could get.

As the years have gone on, I have switched my focus a little bit. I’ll shoot most of my photos early on in the contest. That allows me, as the event progresses, to shift my center of attention to anything significant that may happen as the end nears.

I’ve also learned over the past few years to let photos happen instead of trying to force a specific picture.

On Oct. 3, 2017, I was covering the Jay County High School boys soccer team in a sectional opener against the Yorktown Tigers at New Castle.

(The following year I captured a photograph of Ian McCombs being laid out by the Yorktown goalkeeper which was featured earlier in this series.)

Sectional games between Jay County and Yorktown on the soccer pitch — boys or girls, but more typically boys — tend to be games full of intensity.

As that 2017 game went on, neither team was able to break through and end a scoreless tie. Jay County had plenty of chances, Derrian Riojas specifically as he attempted to slip behind the Yorktown defense throughout most of the game. The handful of occasions it seemed as if he had a step on the Yorktown defense but he wasn’t able to break free for a one-on-one with Tiger keeper Chris Reff.

“It was open nets, the ball just didn’t bounce right,” JCHS coach Brad Horn said after the game. “None of them were (with the) ball on the ground, easy kicking opportunity. They were all volley opportunities. Volley opportunities, you never know what kind of bounce you’re going to get.”

The game approached the 75th minute, and it was becoming clear only one goal was going to decide which team advanced to the semifinal.

And with 12.5 seconds left, that goal came. Unfortunately for Jay County, it was the Tigers who scored.

Yorktown’s Mo Schohatee blasted a centering pass from the left corner and Regan Frost put a shot past JCHS goalkeeper Seth Fugiett to derail any hopes the Patriots had at playing another game.

From where I was standing near the middle of the field, I noticed JCHS junior Daniel Fugiett bury his head in his hands after Frost’s eventual game-winning goal.

I reached for my camera, zoomed in on the forward and started taking pictures.

When I was new to sports photography, I always wanted to zoom in close and take tight photographs with the subject filling the full frame. It’s what I did initially when making pictures of Fugiett in a distressed moment.

I noticed something else happening in the frame, and quickly changed my approach.

Yorktown’s players, jubilant in celebration, were moving closer to Fugiett. I zoomed out, continued to take photos and got a wonderful — albeit disheartening — photo of the Tigers celebrating with Fugiett’s head still buried in his hands.

It wasn’t an easy moment to capture.

“It was a close game,” Fugiett said a week later. “We both were having the ball pretty good. Once they scored with 12 seconds left I was pretty disappointed because it happened a couple time that year; (teams) scored in the last minute.”

That moment accurately tells both sides of the story: the Tigers’ exuberance in taking a lead so late in the game and Fugiett’s feeling as the game had just slipped away.

“It shows how we thought we were going to make it (to overtime) and all the sudden it ended,” Fugiett said.