Emmy Franklin, a senior at Western Albemarle High School, turned a hobby into a career. Now her photography is seen on scrimmage play and all over social media. Her talent, commitment, and editing skills have helped her to make a name for herself. Now, Franklin’s sports and student photography are widely known within her school and county. She is the reason that student-athletes have access to free in-game action shots that she provides on her website.

She started taking photos in middle school. “8th grade when I first started using an actual DSLR, I started shooting sports and football and just really fell in love with it, ” she said. Freshman year she said she “jumped into the deep end with photography” when she started to get involved with football as a varsity football manager. At first, she was mainly in charge of bringing water to players, however as time passed, she contributed more to the team by taking photos and videos of the players. By sophomore year she invested in her first camera and lens. “I really started to notice a difference in quality,” she said.

From there she continued to develop her skills into her junior year by photographing events that took place through Western. Senior night, signing days, Play for Preemies, and WAHS got talent are just a few. She also photographed all sorts of sports including football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, lacrosse, soccer, and track. Her reputation earned her an internship with Scrimmage Play, a central Virginia sports coverage service. Franklin was assigned to take photos for sports within Albemarle county. As her internship picked up, so did her attendance at WAHS sports games. Franklin said people began to expect her to show up. 

This year Franklin has photographed every home and away football game, as well as a few varsity volleyball and field hockey games, and has done media days for varsity and JV football teams and cheer teams. She also photographed Western’s spirit week. 

Not only has she used her photography skills to benefit our school’s community, but her photography has also opened the door for many internships and job opportunities. Her talent has led to several opportunities including a Charlottesville Tom Sox internship last summer, where she worked as a media director. Franklin received an internship at the ACPS communication department where she mainly focused on graphic design and video editing. She is also an intern for The Sabre, where she gets to attend and report on UVa sports games. Emmy also works with the Virginia sports properties. As well as her internship with scrimmage play. She stated that her internships have helped her branch out and increased her involvement in sports photography.

Principal of WAHS, Jennifer Sublette says this when asked about Emmy, “We are all really impressed by the high quality of the work Emmy does and just the energy she puts into being at every single event. We are really going to miss having her document all the wonderful things that happen at western because that has been a real gift for us. As somebody who has known Emmy since she was in elementary school, it’s been amazing to see her grow into a professional artist, and I hope that she keeps working in this field.”. Looking forward to the future, Franklin hopes to pursue something sports management or sports media related at Clemson, JMU, VCU, Virginia Tech, or Shenandoah.