A recent tear sheet Austin-based photographer Sarah Lim. Read below what Sarah had to say about the shoot.
Where: The Alcalde
What: Texas Quidditch are the 2013 World Cup Quidditch Champs.
Art Direction: Em Dash
Article: 40 Acres
“Kate Collins of Em Dash gave me my first real magazine assignments after seeing my work at Slideluck a few years ago, and I’ve been working with these wonderful ladies ever since. There’s sometimes very specific art direction, but with this one, I pretty much had free range to make a quirky/fun picture of the team, with a serious athlete vibe. About half the team showed up,and they were serious athletes for sure. I think Erin and Kate know I’m “into the weird stuff”, so they thought I’d have fun with this shoot.
Kind of like a boxer, they don’t actually play with capes – it’s too dangerous
After some research, I saw some videos of the Harvard team wearing capes and practicing with brooms, so I originally wanted the Texas team to do the same. I even scoured fabric stores to find the right color and sew them some burnt orange capes. Kind of like a boxer, they don’t actually play with capes – it’s too dangerous. But I did see videos of them playing with full brooms at a game and not just the sticks. But some of the players strongly objected to just the idea of the brooms alone, saying they didn’t want to mis-represent the sport, so I never even ended up mentioning the capes. But one player did add, “We only play with actual brooms during tournaments, when they MAKE us. But we HATE that.”
We had already switched locations, and I couldn’t convince them to play along with my original idea, so I had to come up with a new plan. This happens to me often enough, so I try to stay open and flexible, so I can change gears and think on my feet when things aren’t going like I planned. I started out just shooting it like your typical middle school sports team photo- in two rows, front and back. As we got a more into the shoot, they opened up to do more stuff and had more fun with it. But I could still never charm them into using those damn brooms. “– Sarah Lim
