On Wednesday I spent the afternoon at Naperville Central with this year's Sun Player of the year, running back Matt Randolph.
Every season the Sun picks a student athlete who has excelled both on the field and in the classroom to bestow the honor.
It's always fun finally getting to meet these kids after photographing them playing all season.
We try to make the portraits something fun and different that they can be proud of having and reflects them and their accomplishments.

Read on and see how this photo that ran in the paper came together!

After starting outside on the field, Matt and I headed into the locker room, I knew I wanted to do something with the rows and rows of red lockers at Central.
After finding the section I thought would work best I took the first frame to see what the existing light looked like:

I then started by putting some lights in the lockers to add some life and texture to the background:

Next Matt steps in and I put a single light to my left pointing right at him. This shot is to see how all the lights are looking more than anything else:

Now things start getting interesting, I put a light on the bench directly behind Matt to help separate his red jersey from the red lockers:

The image was looking a little to bright and open for my taste. I wanted the photo to be more dramatic and have a bit more edge to it. To achieve this I moved the light that was pointing at Matt from my left into a locker to my right:

Getting closer...I had placed the light too high which was causing Matt's eyes to fall into a shadow...not pleasant. I left the light in the same locker, but moved it down about a foot. I also told Matt to raise his head up just a little bit to help get more light in his eyes:

Toss in a little contrast bump afterwords and that is how the photo you see in the sports section today came to be!

Every once and awhile you meet someone that makes you re-think who you are as a person. Rick Guzman and his wife Desiree are two of those people.
The couple started Bryan House in Aurora in 2002 and haven't looked back since. Their organization has continued to grow as the Guzman's hope to open Emmanuel house on Aurora's east side to help those barley getting by to start saving for their own home.
I spent the other night with Rick and company as they hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner for a few past and present residents of Bryan house.
Check out Today's Beacon-news for the full story!

A group of about twenty protesters rallied at the Dupage Government Complex in Wheaton on Tuesday morning to show their support for the Dupage Youth home that is in danger of being shut down. Look for the story in Wednesday's Naperville Sun to read the full story and see more photos!

UPDATE: The board voted to consolidate the home and will pay Kane County $110 a child per day to house its residents. Read the full story HERE.

Naperville Central's state run ended on Saturday with a heartbreaking 22-19 loss to Bolinbrook. Check out the full gallery on the Naperville Sun's website HERE.

I spent this morning hanging out at Batavia high school as NBC filmed their segment: Prep Destination of the week. Students, family and friends all voted, and in the last hour came out on top to have the popular Today show segment come out and film live at the school.