After working for Ball State's photographic services for 22 of his 24-year professional career, John Huffer finally fulfilled his goal.
On June 27, at the University Photographers' Association of America's annual symposium, Huffer was named the national photographer of the year over 300 other entries from universities as far away as Canada.
"It was very, very gratifying," Huffer said. "It is kind of the culmination of it all for me.
"I've been entering things for 20 years. In the past I've thought I had good stuff and not won. This year I didn't think my stuff was that great and then I won."
He won both the sports category and the best-of-show category with a photo of the Ball State baseball team's catcher, Lucas Frye. In the photo, Frye's mask is being popped off after being hit by a foul tip.
"Baseball is kind of boring," Huffer said. "I love to shoot it but I just try to create little games for myself. I just wanted to get a shot of the catcher with the ball entering his mitt"
Huffer just happen to pick the right pitch.
"I didn't know that I had got the picture until I had got it back to the office," he said. "I could tell I had something by looking at the back of the camera."
Huffer said he shoots everything digitally. And if he didn't shoot digitally, he said he wouldn't have gotten the photo.
"Digitally I can just hold down the button," he said. "I would have never even tried to get the shot with film."
Released in a written statement, Jim Dusen, president of the UPAA had good things to say about Huffer.
"John has been a consistent winner in past print competitions and is especially strong in the field of sports photography," Dusen said.
Huffer said he approaches sports photography a bit differently than most photographers at the same event.
"My goal is to try to get one good photo of every player on the team," the Ball State photographer said.
The veteran university photographer also explained that as the coordinator of Ball State's photo services, he is responsible for making sure each player on the field gets shot.
"We have to give our photos to athletic communications for their publications," Huffer said.
That was another area that Ball State's photo services did well in at the annual competition -- general publications.
Ball State received a first-place award for a "mega-pub" that combined the "Above and Beyond" campaign wrap-up, the "Presidents Annual Report" and the "Ball State University Foundation Annual Report."
"It was really nice to win that since the publications are what we really do for the university," Huffer said. "It is really the backbone of what we do."
Two other Ball State photographers were honored in addition to Huffer and the department for its "mega-pub." Michael Hickey won second place in sports and third place in news feature while Don Rogers took third place in the personal vision category.
The UPAA has members from more than 250 campuses across North America and is the only organization that promotes the profession of photography in the service of higher education. The week-long symposium, held each June, also holds several development programs and activities in addition to the award ceremony at which Huffer was awarded.
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