Last week was a busy week of editorial assignments. Always a good thing! On Tuesday I headed out to Riverside, Calif., to photograph Ramogi Huma for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Huma, a former UCLA Rookie of the Year, is the president of the National College Players Association and is a leading advocate for some major changes to levels of transparency in the NCAA’s recruiting process. His focus lately has been on helping athletes understand their university’s policies when it comes to medical reimbursements for scholarship athletes. Apparently it’s often the case that an injured student will get stuck with all of the medical bills should they suffer an injury. There are two laws pending in California and Georgia, which the NCPA supports, that would force universities to be forthcoming on those issues.
This was a tricky portrait assignment, but I’m pretty happy how it turned out. The task was to do an environmental portrait of Huma in his office. The problem was, he had just moved into his office and didn’t even have a nail with which to hang a picture. So the environment was pretty stark, to say the least. Luckily, he had a couple of statues and a desk available and with a little creative framing and lighting I was able to produce something that worked. I was also fortunate enough to have an easy-going subject and Erinn along to assist. I don’t normally put her to work, but she was off that day and wanted to come along, so it worked out for both of us!