The man. The myth. The legend. We hear his name whispered throughout the hallway, but who’s really behind the camera? You may know Darby Winter from his Instagram account @darbywinterphoto, his photography and promotional graphics for your sports team, or as a tablemate in class.
What started as taking photos of sunsets on his iPhone has now grown into a career path and passion. In 2021, Winter was gifted an old family camera and since then, he has never looked back. An athlete himself, Winter played basketball until high school, tried golf his freshmen year, and is now entering his third track season as a sprinter. With a background in basketball, it was naturally the first sport he began photographing for, and soon after he began to involve himself with and expand into other sports. Since then, Winter has traveled to Atlanta, GA; Boulder, CO; Salt Lake City, UT; Phoenix, AZ; and Seattle, WA to photograph for professional teams. This month, Winter plans to travel to Las Vegas, NV to continue his photography travels and coverage.
In 2022, only a year after being gifted his first official camera, Winter’s work was used by ESPN in a promotional announcement for an upcoming University of Oregon (UO) vs University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) football game. Later, in a four-day PAC-12 basketball tournament, Winter’s responsibility was to shoot for all of the UO games. However, he wanted to be at every game, and ended up photographing 11 games in just four days.
Winter currently works for the Ducks Digest for Sports Illustrated. He’s had season tickets to UO football games since 2010 and never missed a game, along the way growing his passion and knowledge of the team. After applying for the job and beating many professional photographers with his work, Winter began working for Max Torres — an independent contractor for Sports Illustrated — and has ever since. Winter also acts as Franklin Football’s creative director as their photographer in combination with his editing and graphic design skills. On the side, Winter has a senior portraits business that comes very highly recommended.
Apart from all those responsibilities, Winter also shoots photos at many other sports competitions to both bring awareness to the teams he’s photographing and build more Franklin spirit. “Darby has committed himself to Franklin athletics by showing up to many sporting events to take photos of athletes and posting them to his social media and letting people have access to his galleries of photos,” shares Izea Paz, a Franklin senior. This both expands school spirit and helps “promote future games with the photos he takes,” explains Paz.
“Watching his photography grow from the outside was like a flash. Within the span of a few months, he went from someone I would see casually take photos of random objects around town and school to … essentially guaranteeing his career two years before he would graduate high school,” says Anson Li — a Franklin senior and childhood friend of Winter’s. “I’m not exactly a photography expert but his portfolio from the start of his journey to now definitely speaks volumes for itself when it comes to his progress.”
After Winter walks across the stage for graduation in June, he will attend UO to study business administration with a focus on sports marketing. During his time at UO, Winter hopes to work for the school’s GoDucks Creative Team where he would have the opportunity to continue his work in photography, editing, videography, and graphic design. Upon graduation from UO, Winter plans to pursue a career on a creative team for another team or company, or build a real estate company and use his photography skills in the business.
“Darby has put in a tremendous amount of effort into his craft. He recognizes his potential and he works tirelessly to seek out ways he can improve,” shares Li. “I’ve seen him spend entire days at photoshoot opportunities and entire nights editing and perfecting his photos and his work. He’s very dedicated.”
Li continues, recalling how “one of the reasons [Winter] told me he seriously considered photography as a career outside of school was that he wanted to capture and envision the moments and memories in life, that showing things was better suited for him than speaking on [them].”
When not busy taking photos, you can find Winter playing video games with friends or learning the logistics of how to prepare for an NFL game kick-off. His favorite sport to watch and photograph for is football and he loves cheering for his favorite teams. As an avid Franklin student, his favorite class has been the Student Store. He loved doing it with friends, making smoothies, and working on some marketing projects and commercials to advertise what the store offered.
Both Li and Paz describe Winter as a businessman at heart, with a passion for photography and design. Whether you want senior photos, him to feature your sports team in his photography, or if you just want to talk about football or sports in general, Winter is the perfect person to ask. While we often only direct our focus to admiration towards Winter’s photography, graphic design, and other works, don’t forget the man behind the camera.
