Maya Ortiz Photographer of the Year Portfolio

I knew there was a chance Emma Yeager might break the school record for goals on this night. I had a softball game that started a little earlier. As soon as I stepped off the mound for the varsity softball team after pitching, I rushed over with my camera and set up on the team's offensive end hoping to capture to moment Emma had been waiting two years to achieve. You could tell it was pure joy and relief when she finally got it.

At the start of the second semester, the choir teacher tried to mix some fun in at lunch. For the month of January, he held a burrito eating competition. I attended the first round and shot a number of photos of the kids eating the burritos. This one was shot during the finals and it was such a rare display of laughter and fun at school. I thought I might catch emotion from the kids at some point and caught it in Aaron's laugh toward the end.

I spent most of the spring season learning how to shoot soccer. I followed the girls' team the entire season and captured the boys' playoff chase as they continued winning. I focused a lot on emotion after plays, but also catching key moments of action in the big games.

Toward the end of the year, science classes finally steered away from virtual labs and started doing hands-on labs. In anatomy class, I was able to shoot students paired up and working on skinning cats before they spent the week dissecting them. It was a rare instance where kids were not on computers and sitting six feet apart.