Leaving it All on the Field
Longtime sports photographer Jeff Johnsey pours his heart into sports photography.
Words by Terrell Manasco | Images by Al Blanton
In the mid-80s, Jeff Johnsey’s brother, Ken, played football for T.W. Martin High. The Warriors didn’t make the local sports section very often because no photographers were covering their games.
Jeff had a solution.
He would grab his dad’s old Minolta camera, snap some photos from the sidelines, then send them—unsolicited—to Robin Conn, sports photographer for the Daily Mountain Eagle. Although the execution was a bit clumsy at first, it worked. “I didn't know what the heck I was doing,” Jeff admits. “My early stuff wasn't good, but he would try to run some of it.”
By 1987, Jeff was a part-time stringer for the newspaper, shooting games at Martin, Oakman, and Parrish. He decided to step up his game and bought a Nikon camera, but he didn’t know how to use it. Fortunately, a photographer friend of his dad’s, Gerald Dutton, taught Jeff about the settings and gave him pointers. Dutton even let him use his studio and darkroom.
“They’d go to bed at night, and I’d still be in the darkroom,” Jeff remembers.
Jeff grew up in Sylacauga, near the Gaston Power Plant where his father worked. As a teen, he and a buddy would ride down to Auburn on Jeff’s Honda motorcycle, hoping to see a game. “We had enough money to eat at Krystal, refuel, and come back home,” Jeff says. “Somebody would invariably give us tickets.”
By the early 90s, Jeff and Ken owned a car stereo shop in Jasper called Traffic Jamz. On Friday nights, Jeff would shoot high school games, then hurry back to Jasper to process the film for the Sunday paper.
Then in 1992, a former girlfriend left a message on Jeff’s phone: “How would you like to shoot the retiring of Bo Jackson's jersey at Auburn in three weeks?” When Jeff called her back, she explained that a friend with the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame mentioned they needed a photographer for the event. That led to more opportunities for Jeff. Soon, he and his camera were on the Auburn sidelines every Saturday.
Jeff has shot hundreds of photos in his career, but his favorite was taken after the 1995 Class 3A State Championship game at Hudson-Kerby Field between the Blue Devils and Jeff’s alma mater, B.B. Comer. “It was a quagmire,” Jeff begins. “The final was 6-0. The players are covered in mud. (B.B. Comer quarterback) Tellie Embery is on his knees… exhausted…after the game. The coach is helping him up.”
Shot on film, the photo no longer exists, but Jeff’s words perfectly capture that moment in time; the raw emotion on the face of a mud-soaked, physically drained, distraught young man who has given heart and soul for his team—and lost.
Over 30 years later, Jeff still shoots high school games for the newspaper. His goal is two a night, but he has shot three. He’s retired his dad’s old Minolta and now uses a Nikon D4S with a 400 mm lens. “It lets me stay far enough away from the action to not get run over,” he laughs.
Jeff truly loves what he does, calling himself “one of the most blessed guys in the world.” He’s been fortunate to shoot Auburn, NBA, NFL, the U.S. Women's Open at Shoal Creek, as well as “a ton” of SEC Championship games. Along the journey, he’s made lots of new friends, too—all because he wanted to help his brother’s team.
In a way, Jeff’s photography life is much like his favorite photo. He left it all on the field. The only difference is, he won. 78