This forms part of a series of articles on the S4J. This is article 3 of the series.
At the S4J we were blessed by a multitude of athletes during the past few years. The LOVE, FRIENDSHIP and even SUPPORT from athletes are amazing. One of the ways through which we connect with athletes is S4J photo-shoots. This simply means that we take photos of athletes and post them afterward on social media platforms like Facebook.
The positive feedback from athletes indicates to the S4J team the perceived value of how we serve athletes through our photo-shoots. The S4J team takes pics of athletes at between 15 to 20 races per year. We then sort this later and for example, post it on Facebook.
Most of these pics can be found on the Facebook page of Norman Johnson. Norman has journeyed with a vision for the people of Sudan and South Sudan for the almost past 22 years. He also journeyed with many athletes since the start of the S4J in 2010. From time to time other photographers like Eddie Howden and Allie van Niekerk have also taken pics on behalf of the S4J.
To do a photo-shoot requires rising early morning, with equipment ready, positioning yourself at good spots for taking pics, connecting with many athletes as they run past. After the photoshoot comes many hours of checking every photo, selecting most of them for posting on Facebook. The whole process can literally take days. Between 2000 and 4000 (sometimes almost double that number) photos are taken at a race.
After all the photos are scanned and prepared to post, they have to be sorted into albums. Every album is allocated information like e catchy title that would make it easy for athletes to identify and even find the pics. Other information is added like some information on the various S4J projects with an invitation for athletes to connect with that. A request is also stated that, when the person KNOW an athlete, they tag such a person. In that way, as many as possible athletes could be made aware of the availability of their photo(s). Facial recognition technology is often very helpful on Facebook. Sometimes though, the wrong person could be tagged that may upset sensitive viewers. For many athletes, the S4J photo-shoots have been helpful though. It remains a privilege to serve in this way.