Shorthorn photographer Casey Holder wrote:

Head coach Scott Cross, center, supervises his staff doing defensive drills with the Men’s basketball team. The team started practice Monday for the upcoming season in the Western Athletic Conference. 

A lot of times when shooting sports we think to focus solely on the action. Get the guy with the ball, follow him with the camera, and capture his every move until something good happens. We sometimes forget that we actually need to take a [moment] to step back and think about the overall composition.

In this shot Casey used his photographer’s eye and found a great framing opportunity. Not only do you get the head coach in the center watching over the coaching staff and players running drills, but there’s also a hierarchy. The head coach is the sole person in the center. You get his coaching staff right under him working with the players that are underneath them.

It’s interesting when you think about it. Whether intentional or not it creates a great photo that goes deeper than just the action.

(Source: theshorthorn.com)

Shorthorn photographer Casey Holder wrote:

Architecture and city planning graduate student Milad Fereshtehnezhad submitted a plan to that was approved by the Arlington Urban Design Center to redesign the Mesquite street side of the Arlington Public Library. Work is currently underway.

Photography isn’t just about taking a pretty picture, it’s also about telling a story. The key is to compose the photo in a way that encompasses all the elements of the story without the photo becoming cluttered and messy. In this photo you get the subject and “Arlington Urban Design Center” in the foreground. In the back you get the different city plans hanging on the wall. This tells you that the story has something to do with architecture and the Arlington Urban Design Center. Right there you already get half of the story without having to read the cutline.

The key in story telling is composition. Without good execution you leave a lot of people with unanswered questions.

(Source: theshorthorn.com)

Shorthorn photographer Casey Holder wrote,

Business managment junior Dora Fernandez is currently in a competition to win a handicap accesible van from the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association for National Mobility Awareness Month. To see Dora’s profile go to http://www.nmeda.com/mobility-awareness-month/heroes/texas/arlington/810/dora-ivonne-fernandez.

It is crucial in photojournalism to tell a story with your photos.  It can be very difficult to do this in a studio, which is why Casey’s choice to photograph the subject in this piece outside in a different context was such a strong conceptual choice. Simply by placing her on the road, he not only gave himself a great compositional leading line with the road, but also linked the photograph back to the story.  This young lady was trying to win a handicap accessible van - a mode of transportation and freedom.