Oct 21

Oct 21 From Collector to Contributor: Two of My Orlando City Photos Are Now on Topps Soccer Cards

Yesterday I learned that two of my photographs had been selected for Topps soccer trading cards. They are now for sale on the Topps website. I am still processing it.

I grew up collecting Topps. Baseball and NFL cards were my entry point into sports, long before I thought about photography as a career. I spent hours sorting stacks, trading with friends, and studying the pictures on the front. I never wondered who took them or how they got there. Now two of those pictures are mine.

Both images are of Orlando City Soccer Club, shot while working as a stringer for Getty Images. One features Antoine Griezmann. The other shows Griezmann with Martín Ojeda, the two striking a yoga pose together to celebrate after scoring.

Stringer work means being ready when the moment arrives, whether that is a goal, a tackle, or the split second before a header. The job is to anticipate the play, find a clean angle, and deliver sharp, well-edited images on deadline. Most of that work goes out quickly through the wire and is seen by editors and fans without ever being traced back to the person behind the lens. Seeing two of those frames chosen for a Topps card is a different kind of recognition.

A trading card is a different medium from a news photo. It is held, kept, traded, and sometimes passed down. The kid I used to be would never have believed that someday his own photographs would be in that world.

I’m grateful to Getty Images for the opportunity to cover Orlando City, to the club and its players for making the action worth capturing, and to the Topps team for choosing my work. The two cards are available now on the Topps website.

I’ve spent decades behind a camera as a photojournalist, videographer, and editor, and I’ve had a lot of proud moments. This one is personal. It brings together the kid with the shoebox of cards and the photographer who never stopped chasing the next great frame.