Hello, my name is Josh Ritchie, a freelance photographer who works with editorial, marketing, and advertising clients to bring their visual needs to life. This is where I’ll be sharing recent work, talking about behind-the-scenes moments from assignments, and giving some insights into my life working on visual storytelling.

I’d love the chance to work together, so please reach out.

In the Footsteps of Giants

Recently, I had the privilege of photographing the Washington Nationals during their media day in Florida during Spring Training. Washington Post photo editor Toni Sandys entrusted me with the coverage for the second year in a row. After several in-depth discussions with Toni, about the approach to take with the portraits, I sought inspiration from photographic giants like Platon and Dan Winters. This decision set the tone for a visually compelling and distinctive series of portraits.

To emulate Platon's iconic style, I used a medium format camera paired with a wide-angle lens. This combination allowed me to capture images that felt different from the tried-and-true approach to Media Day photos. The lighting setup was carefully crafted to mirror Platon’s signature aesthetic, emphasizing powerful contrasts and dramatic tones that highlight the unique character of each subject.

For just a few of the players, we decided to use a second setup and sought to replicate the lighting techniques used by Dan Winters. If emulating masters isn't nerve-racking enough, running two separate lighting setups during a media day event can be stressful. After all of our testing, we were confident we could pull it off.

Knowing the time constraints – and getting just 60 seconds with each player – I enlisted the help of my assistant Ben Rusnak, and we invested two full days testing various lighting scenarios ahead of time. Our thorough preparation ensured an efficient workflow and allowed us to figure out what was working and what wasn't, so we could maximize the creative potential of each brief encounter on the day of the shoot.

On the day of the shoot, Ben and I unloaded an extraordinary amount of gear. After 3 trips to the car and some time spent catching our breath, we were finally ready to set up. For the main look, we used three lights and two black flags for negative fill. For the second setup, we used two lights and two flags to create the trademark Dan Winters look. Once the lights were in place, we looked over the test shots we had done the previous days, as well as the two inspiration photos. After a few hours of setting up and testing, we were satisfied that the result was what we had planned for. We exchanged a few high-fives and then got to work. I photographed over 60 players and managers over the next three hours.

If you would like to see our set up in action watch the behind the scenes video above.

I’m based in South Florida, and I love working in my backyard, but I do travel well. To see more of my work visits my website. To find out how I can help fulfill your visual needs shoot me an email or give me a call.