Local Houston pitching phenom, Jameson Taillon, at Scotland Yard in The Woodlands, Texas.

This past weekend I was assigned to photograph a local high school pitching star from up north in The Woodlands, Texas, Jameson Taillon. As I usually do before a portrait session, I research the subject to try and understand why they are being photographed and to learn a little bit about them. Jameson who recently graduated from The Woodlands high school was recently selected 2nd overall in Major League Baseball’s 2010 first-year player draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Not only was he considered the top pitching prospect of the draft, Jameson was offered a scholarship to Rice University and a spot on the prestigious Rice Owls baseball team. Given the fact that I love sports (especially baseball) the research on Jameson was more exciting than tiresome. After coming to the realization that this kid was a little more than just decent high school baller, I tried to come up with some ideas on how to approach the shoot.

Saturday morning I arrived at Scotland Yard, the home field for The Woodlands High School baseball team, early, to scout locations. Although there were a few lingering clouds, rain was not an issue, but the 110 heat index was definitely going to play a role. I had my gear set up and ready to go well before Jameson showed up.

“How did you get in here,” Jameson said with a grin.

Little did he know that in the absence of any facilities personnel on a Saturday morning, I roamed around long enough to find an unlocked gate and let myself in.

Local Houston pitching phenom, Jameson Taillon, photographed by Todd Spoth.

Given Jameson’s recent success, it’s no wonder that several of my colleagues in the photo world have photographed him recently, with most of the shoots taking place at this same location. Although it may have been repetitious for him, he was in good spirits and a great sport. Unfortunately for me, since my shoot was taking place after the high school season was over, Jameson was unable to be in full uniform for the images. He had a cap, a glove and a logo t-shirt. The trademark socks, pants, jersey and cleats that set the iconic baseball uniform apart from the rest of the sports world were no where to be found.

Some of my planned shot ideas involved shooting Jameson full length and in a variety of different locales around the ballpark. Since his uniform was incomplete I adjusted my game plan and decided to work in tight and concentrate on Jameson’s look.

Pitchers in baseball are known to “stare down” their opponents. There was a certain look in his eyes that showed me he had what it took to intimate batters, but there was also a touch of innocence about him. Here is a kid that was just another high school teenager a few months ago and now is on the verge of a possible multi-million dollar offer from a Major League ball club. Once I took a few tight frames of Jameson, concentrating on his eyes, I knew that my last-minute game plan adjustment was for the better.

After we started shooting, Jameson was very accommodating. Since I was dealing in tight, it meant that he wasn’t able to be as mobile as maybe he would have liked, but we pushed through several different angles and lighting setups and were done well before he had to leave.

I played baseball for about 8 or so years, before I moved to Paris, France in my younger days, so I am definitely proud to see another local Houstonian about to break out in the big leagues. Our area is known for producing exceptional sports talent and Jameson will hopefully go on to become an awesome Major League hurler, whether he decides to jump right in or attend Rice for a few years.

A gallery of some of my favorites from the shoot is below. If you dig the photos, please use the “tweet” button below to help spread the word.

JAMESON TAILLON (10-06-19) – Images by Todd Spoth

I’m dipping my toes into all kinds of stuff in this new year, 2009. I don’t really do engagements all too often, but this was for a friend and her fiance who happens to work for the greatest baseball team of all time, The Houston Astros, so for that, I will. It also didn’t hurt that we would have free reign of the Astros home field and my summer home, Minute Maid Park in Houston. I was really excited about the shoot the whole week. The weather forecast looked good and I was confident that I could really knock the session out of the park (you see what i did there!) but come Saturday morning, the weather was cold, windy and overcast.

All was not lost when we noticed that the roof of the stadium was open as we approached downtown. Having the roof closed would have made things even worse. When we got there I scouted locations and met the couple, Dave and Sondra in the press box. They weren’t really dressed for the cold so the shoot went a little quicker than planned, each shot was sporadic some using a small light I had brought, others using just natural light. I tried as much as I could to play on the composition of the stadium, shooting some obvious shots that revealed the locale and other, more abstract images that played more on the composition. We were able to get their names on the outfield screen for a few shots too. Some of my favorites were taken in the manual scoreboard. They spelled out the date of their wedding on the scoreboard for a few. We shot some images on the diamond and in the dugout as well.

After the couple had enough of the cold stadium, they changed and we did a few impromptu shots on a nearby street in the warehouse district.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending some time with 82-year-old Mickey Stubblefield at his home in his hometown of Mayfield, Kentucky. Mickey is a former Navy veteran, Shriner Mason, Kentucky Colonel, and was also the first African-American baseball player ever to play in the Kitty Leagues. He receives an average of 10 letters of correspondence a week from fans and while he may possess fame, he is not rich. He has been everything to everyone, but his most important role is being a father (and a mother) to 2 young girls, ages 10 and 12. The real story of Mickey is his relationship with the 2 girls under his care. This is a story of love and compassion. Although I am actively pursuing the multimedia option, the story will likely end up a still photo story. I did however capture some good A-roll interview clips and since they may not make it into the piece itself, I have included an un-cut, raw clip of a portion of one of the interviews below. It is an emotion recollection from Mickey’s past.

**UPDATE**

I am proud to announce that the above clip of Mickey was used in a presentation at the Indianapolis Museum of Fine Art on Martin Luther King Day in 2009. The still images from the story of Mickey, entitled “The Good Loser” are viewable on my portfolio site at TODDSPOTH.COM.

Today was a day off for me, so I took care of some grocery shopping and also visited the inner harbor Best Buy to pick up the amazing Fun Run Kit, which is the Best Buy exclusive season 4 DVD set of The Office (aka best show ever) I also did some computer organizing and editing and came across this shot from Nationals Park. Wish I would have taken one during the game with more butts in seats, but I still dug the frame.

I haven’t posted a blog in some time, and much to my surprise I’ve gotten quite a few inquiries to my condition as well as requests to post more. Ive been in Kentucky for the last week so I’ve been a bit disconnected with the rest of the world. Several more blog posts will accompany this one to get things back up to speed. My last two days of my Kentucky trip I visited the wonderful city of Louisville. An intense bout of thunderstorms limited my exploration, but I did manage a bit of in-car sight seeing through not only Louisville, but parts of Indiana as well. My main mission for the two days before I boarded a flight back to the mile high city was to visit the Louisville Slugger Factory. Before I even came to Colorado, one of the first things on my to-do list was visit the Slugger Factory when I came down to Kentucky. It was originally slated as a personal trip, but now that the Rockies are entering their first World Series, it has become a story for The Gazette. I happened to visit while the factory was producing the official game bats for the Red Sox and the Rockies, so that was an added bonus. The photos are a lot of tight, detail shots of the making of the World Series bats, from their origins as large dowels of hard wood to their branding. I had the pleasure of being toured about by tour guide and overall expert, Larry “Pee-Wee” Joyce. Not only was I given access to anything I needed, I got the chance to play in their private batting cages with some of the famous bats. It was amazing, and as the Rockies are just moments away from Game 1, the fact that I most likely wont be attending an actual World Series game is an afterthought. I would recommend a trip here to anyone visiting the Louisville area. I produced a multimedia piece that I entitled The Journey of a World Series Bat.

I love baseball. It’s that simple. I always have. I watched the game since as far back as I can remember, Ive played the game (both organized and unorganized) on multiple continents and have shot the game for a number of years now as well. After interning with the Astros (my hometown team and by far my favorite organized sports team ever) I thought I was pretty strong as far as shooting baseball goes. When I knew I was coming up to Colorado, one of the first things I wanted to do was shoot the Rockies in Denver…and within a week or so of being here I had. I actually got an assignment to shoot the team this past Sunday. They played the Arizona Diamondbacks and won in an amazing game. The MLB stars aligned on this day and with their win the Rockies were set to play a 1 game tiebreaker the very next day at Coors Field, against the San Diego Padres to decide who would gain a playoff berth as the NL Wild Card. I was already excited to have the chance to shoot such an awesome game and have it be a nice, sunny day game, but when I heard that I was the one that would be coming back hours later to shoot the tiebreaker, I was beyond myself. I prepared a camera ahead of time outfitted with zip lock bags for a possible (wet) clubhouse celebration and it was a good thing I had since the Rockies won the almost 5 hour, marathon game in the bottom of the 13th inning with NL MVP candidate making a controversial, yet tough, slide into home. The place went ballistic. The Rockies were headed to the playoffs for the first time since 1995. The chaos that ensued was no doubt part of some of the greatest moments of my humble life. I was sprayed with champagne and Coors beer (Coors Field…go figure) and had an amazing time. At one point Willy Taveras (former Astros) recognized me from my tenure with the Astros, took my Astros hat from my head, slapped his alcohol-soaked cap on my head and proceeded to wave my Astros hat around, throwing more alcohol on it all the while. After the celebration died down, I talked with Willy and his wife (with whom I graduated last December) and was introduced to their new baby. I have adopted the Rockies as my new team to root for since my ‘Stros are out of it and for the simple prospect of possibly attending or shooting more playoff baseball in the near future. As I write this the Rockies are leading the NLDS race against the Phillies 2-0 and are coming home to play 2 games. It looks VERY good that they will continue on to the NLCS. I was forced to use the Nikon gear and although my shooting wasn’t the greatest ever, I was simply glad to be a part of history and be able to shoot through it all. My photos from Sunday and Monday ran in The Gazette fairly well on not only A-1, but the sports cover as well.