The Class of 2025 has many standout students from the Morgan Bowl to the Paul Skip Johnson auditorium. But what’s notorious about the senior class is the amount of talented photographers and videographers who are on the sidelines to capture it all. Get to know the students behind the lens: Brady Crogan, Caelen O’Brien, Ella Spuria, and Cam Yates.
Brady Crogan started doing photography in his sophomore year. He first took pictures at a youth football game at the Morgan Bowl, and from there he started covering all sports in high school. He even took a year off of football to cover as many sports as possible.
Crogan’s dad, also a photographer, is his inspiration. To learn the basics of photography, Crogan used his dad’s camera. When his dad noticed that photography wasn’t a passing hobby, Crogan received his own camera.
“I don’t know what it is,” said Crogan. “It’s the art of the photo. Being able to capture these moments and make people happy. I try to get everyone.”
It’s not just about freezing the moment, but seeing the joy of those who he captures.
“I love to hear people saying, ‘thank you so much!’ I just love giving people these photos,” said Crogan.
He loves sports photography, but also does portrait pictures and wishes he could do more nature photography. Crogan sees himself doing photography in the future more as a hobby, and also taking pictures at his track meets at Nichols College next year.
Photographer Caelen O’Brien began taking photos during his sophomore year when he injured his knee in football. He didn’t want to just sit out the season, so he borrowed a camera from his friend Cam Yates, another photographer in HHS.
“I love being able to see the results each time,” said O’Brien. “You can always try new things and be creative.”
Pretty soon, photography went from simply keeping him busy, to becoming a passion for O’Brien, and a tool to demonstrate his love for the sport he was unable to play himself.
“I fell in love with the progress with each different shoot,” he said. “It got better and better.”
Beginning last year, O’Brien’s extended his talents for photography to videography. He took on the role as the Team Videographer for the Varsity Football team, the very team he used to play with.
“I love being able to see the results each time,” he said. “You can always try new things and be creative.
O’Brien loves sports photography but he also does photo shoots for his older brother’s clothing brand. He plans to explore marketing and its creative side in the future, where he could use his photography and videography skills to transition his hobby into a career.
Ella Spuria started doing photography in freshman year when she did a gallery for the newspaper. She admits that at first her work was ¨really bad” because she didn’t really know what she was doing.
“I’d never even used a camera before,” she said. “But I’ve tried sports and didn’t like playing them, so I figured I could take pictures of them instead.”
This led her to take photography class the following year where she began to improve her skills, and continued to take pictures for the newspaper.
“The newspaper had a camera which I was always borrowing,” she said. “I finally saved up and bought my own in the middle of my sophomore year.”
When she was a freshman, there weren’t photographers at the school like there are today.
“The sidelines weren’t as crowded as they are now,” she said. “No one else was really doing it.”
Today, Spuria runs her own social media and website for her photography. She likes to photograph lots of sports and tries to cover every team at school. Other than sports, she also does senior and studio art portraits.
“I’ve done portraits but I don’t like them as much,” she said. “I like to capture life while it’s happening in the moment.”
Though she enjoys the hobby, she’s not sure about doing photography full time as a job.
“I think I will always have my cameras wherever I go, with friends or traveling,” Spuria said. “I think it’s always fun. I’ll always be into it, for work or not.”
Inspired by his mom, Cam Yates started doing photography during the Fall of 2022. His mom, art teacher Erin Jameson, teaches photography at Hudson High School and he saw her doing it and fell in love with it.
“It lets me be free and become who I want to be,” Yates said. “I can show that in my work.”
As a captain of the Varsity Football team, his main focus for photography is sports but he would also be interested in covering concerts in the near future.
As for the hobby, Yates hopes to make this a full time career.
“I’d love to be on the sideline for an NFL games,” he said.
He knows that will take work, and that his portfolio and quality of his photos will determine where he ends up. As for advice for others hoping to get into photography, Yates ends on this note.
“Just chase your dreams,” he said.
