Dedication to Excellence, Pride in Workmanship
The news, though hardly dream-shattering, was surprising, nonetheless.
What will I do with my afternoons now? Maggie Bowman wondered that late February day in 2022 when she received word that, as a junior, she wouldn’t have a roster spot on Collegiate’s varsity soccer team. I can’t just sit around. I have to do something. But what?
Over the years, she’d participated in the Outdoor Collegiate program, but soccer had always been her spring sport of choice. She’d played two years of Cub and two of JV. Varsity was the next step, of course, the logical progression, except now it wasn’t, and she knew she’d have to pick herself up, dust herself off, and figure out a plan of action.
“I had high hopes,” she said one day recently as she reflected on what quickly became a one-door-closes, another-one-opens moment. “I was disappointed, for sure, but I’m not one of those people who gets super into something and just has their sights set on that and can’t look anywhere else, like with blinders on. I don’t think it took me any time to get over it.”
A day or two later, somewhat on a lark, she picked up her old Canon T4i camera with limited range and a dying battery and headed to Collegiate to take some action shots of a boys varsity lacrosse game.
She laughs at the memory.
“I couldn’t really zoom in,” she said. “The pictures were nothing great.”
It didn’t help that she was shooting from the stands.
“Coach (Andrew) Stanley said, ‘You know you can go on the field. Right?’” Maggie recalled. “I didn’t know that.”
From that humble beginning, an avocation of significance and meaning was born.
For the remainder of the spring, she was a regular presence at Collegiate’s varsity athletic events, shared her pictures with Collegiate’s athletic and communications offices, posted them on her website, and invited anyone who so desired to download them free of charge.
She continued her photographic journey this school year in addition to spending the fall as the manager for the varsity football team.
Her work has been very well received, more so than she could have ever anticipated, she said. Her photos have appeared, among numerous places, on Christmas cards, in Collegiate’s publications and on social media posts, and as illustrations that greatly enhance Reflections columns.
“Sometimes people ask, ‘Why aren’t you charging money for this?’” she said. “I don’t do it to make money. I do it because I love the people. I do it for fun.”
And she does it oh, so well.
“Maggie has filled in in a lot of areas of need this year,” said Bill Ruhl, Collegiate’s sports communications manager. “The quality of her photography has definitely improved. She’s learned a lot by trial and error, which is essential for any photographer. It’s relatively easy to point and shoot a phone or over-the-counter camera, but you don’t end up having high-quality photos.
“It’s not just a matter of showing up at an event and taking a bunch of pictures. It’s constantly, during the process, reviewing what you’re taking and making the necessary small adjustments.”
Dedication to excellence and pride in workmanship are Maggie’s modus operandi.
“She’s taken on a real ownership of her craft,” Ruhl added. “She’s really embraced being a photographer and building her own brand, which is impressive for a high school senior. She’s definitely tapped into a talent that she has that could be a great career for her.”
Capturing just the right shot from just the right angle and with just the right lighting is no easy feat. At first, she was looking only for action shots. During the four seasons she’s chronicled Collegiate sports, she’s broadened her horizons.
“It started when I was trying to get the typical Sports Illustrated photo of somebody catching a ball or somebody at bat,” she said. “When I started getting to more games, it was like, Hey, I already have that shot. What can I do next? Obviously, you’re always trying to improve.
“At first, my favorite part was when players would celebrate by doing chest bumps in the air after they scored. Now, I like to zoom in super close on their facial expressions. When I shoot a game, I’m following the ball, pretty much. Or if I’m standing on the sidelines and hear a coach yelling, I’ll spin around and see what they’re yelling about. If they’re super animated, I try to get that too.
“Now, I’m trying to get more intimate moments, like the player and coach. I like to get everybody, not just the people who start, but also the people on the bench. When a team loses a big game and I see somebody’s sitting on the bench with their head in their hands, I’m like, That’s a good picture.”
For the past few months, Maggie has used a Canon 90D, quite an upgrade from her original which allows her to home in closely to anticipate and document both the action and the backstory. It’s a constant race toward the elusive quality of excellence for which she’s been rewarded in the relatively brief time she’s shot photos, both athletic and otherwise.
In January 2022, she received honorable mention in the Scholastic Art and Writing Contest for a photo entitled Sunrise Ocean Bubbles. In January 2023, she earned a Silver Key for Strike and honorable mention for a six-image series entitled Emotion in Sports in the Scholastic Art and Writing Contest. In April 2023, she earned honorable mention for Strike in the Josten’s Photo Contest.
The honors are nice and well earned, of course, but Maggie, humble to a fault, finds intrinsic value in the experience that exceeds the acclaim she’s received or the recognition she’s gained when she indulges her passion for photography from the sideline.
“I miss the competitive aspect of soccer and Outdoor Collegiate, but I love that I’m able to experience it in a different way,” she said. “I don’t play a sport where there’s a Senior Day, but I got to shoot a ton of other Senior Days and give those photos to parents and they’re like, Oh, my gosh, you captured my kid smiling on their last Senior Day. I still love sports. I love watching them on TV. I love going to games. I love being a fan. I also really love being a photographer.”
