There are a million reasons why I love sports of every kind.  Not only does competition expose the character of the athletes, coaches, and fans; not only does it evoke emotion and drama,  and can be used to teach valuable life lessons, but for me there is a comfort and escape within the safe confines of sport. Sport has helped define who I am.  I root hard, hate hard, work hard, fight hard, fly hard, crash hard… and when it is over, it is over.  The sun rises and sets again, and we can go back to getting along, taking life one step at a time, dealing with things that really matter, until the next event gives us reason to get away from it all.

It is no wonder that my photography journey began shooting sports.  My dad once played semi-pro basketball in Puerto Rico, coached by the late Bill Guthridge, who at the time was a young assistant coach at UNC Chapel Hill, the right hand man to the eventual legend, Dean Smith.  Until I went to Carolina years later, literally to cheer on the Heels, my family had no other ties to the University.  Still I was, as they say, Tar Heel Born, Tar Heel bred.  Any self-respecting Carolina Fan faithfully follows our basketball program… and this one was from a family that was, because of Coach Gut, a ferocious fan of any team sporting Carolina Blue.

I also grew up in a time when there was no cable tv.  We only had 12 channels to choose from, and TBS aired Atlanta Braves baseball every single night throughout the spring, summer, and fall.  At the Portela house, if the Braves were playing, we were watching.  We pulled for them when they were good, through the days of Dale Murphy and Bob Horner.  We pulled for them when they were dismal, and then when they were great again.  It has been a while since I have watched a Braves game, but my love for all things baseball began then.

Sports were just what we did.  My brother and I played tennis in our driveway during Wimbledon.  He was Jimmy Connors, and I was Chris Evert.   We played football and wiffle ball with the neighborhood kids during the days when summers were spent outside from dawn until dusk.

I love games.  I love sports.  They bring back the warmest memories of times long gone.  So it was a no-brainer, when my children became of age, to give them a taste of that love.  We wanted to see if it would spark passion in them; to see if it would foster for them relationships and friendships; to see if they would learn through sport how to handle the ups and downs of real life.  And as it did all of those things for them, it became my new passion to capture the memories, and to freeze the small moments in time.

Now when I shoot, I get to give athletes of all shapes, ages, and sizes a chance to see themselves in their element, but larger than life.  I find joy in their reactions to seeing themselves in my images.  I love to watch them see themselves as they have seen their sports heroes in the pages of magazines, or on TV.  Whether I give them an individual photo or create for them a custom collage poster, these athletes get to step outside of themselves to experience their action as we see it.  The memories of their glory days can now live on for them and their families, as they all remember when.  And as they remember, it is my hope that the recollection of the emotional highs and lows, and the friendships built within will be cherished by them, and give them a clearer picture of the road that led them to whom they have become.

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