'I love capturing a moment in time forever'
<p>Local photographer Jason Duchow snapped this self-portrait. His blog was recently recognized by Shutterbug magazine. (Photo by JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY)</p>
SANDPOINT — If you’ve been to a sporting event in Sandpoint in the last few years, chances are you’ve seen Jason Duchow, camera in hand, capturing the action with a skilled and deft eye.
Many of his sports action photos are seen on these very Bee pages, from football to volleyball to basketball to track and everything in-between.
The quality of his work was recently recognized by the national photography magazine Shutterbug, as Duchow’s handiwork earned him the Blog of the Month award by the magazine.
Joe Farace, a noted photographer, described Duchow’s blog as fresh and contemporary, where the images are the star. He also said it looked as if the shots could appear in Sports Illustrated, and that the sight had panache, very high praise from a famous photographer.
“It’s an honor to be recognized for having quality work up to that level,” said Duchow of being honored by one of the preeminent photo magazines in the county. “It was nice to see what they had to say about my work.”
Duchow, who played football and did track at Sandpoint High School in the early 1990s, started Jason Duchow Photography about three years ago. He does more than just cover sports, also shooting senior portraits and weddings, among other things.
Duchow won a state discus title in 1993 and still holds the SHS record, and also played football, traits he said help him with shooting sports. He’ll take between 500 and 2,000 shots during a single game.
“You have to have an eye for it,” said Duchow of shooting sports, noting knowledge of the respective games helps a ton. “You need to understand where to be and when to be there. You can predict it better.”
His website, www.jasonduchowphotography.com, has a wealth of action shots available for purchase. He started the blog as a way to generate more interest and create more of an online presence.
When asked what was his favorite sport to shoot, the former lineman and fullback didn’t hesitate.
“Football, in the daylight,” he said. “I love the game, it has a lot of drama. I love capturing emotion through the face mask, I love seeing their face.”
Snapping thousands of photos means countless hours sorting, toning, cropping, shrinking, enlarging and cataloging the shots. Suffice it say, it has to be a labor of love.
“I love capturing a moment of time forever,” said Duchow. “You get to capture something that will never happen again. That’s exciting.”