BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Getting access to Blue Bayou Waterpark for a high school football photo shoot took Keith Joseph nearly a week of persistence — but the results reached hundreds of thousands of people on ESPN’s platform.
Joseph is the photographer behind a viral set of photos featuring the Glen Oaks High School football team taken at Blue Bayou Waterpark.
“It took me a good week to get access to Blue Bayou,” Joseph said. “I had a friend that had a manager; I had to get the manager to send me an email. The owner replied first; another two days of trying again, and then we got access.”
Reaction to going viral
When the photos were picked up by ESPN, Joseph said the response caught him off guard.
“I really didn’t know what to say; I was just shocked,” Joseph said. “I knew it was going to like, be popular, but I didn’t think it was going to be this big. I almost cried, really. It’s just something that came out of nowhere for real.”
Shoots at the football field, the zoo and Top Golf
The Blue Bayou session is one of several unconventional locations Joseph has used for high school sports photography. He has shot at a football field, a zoo, and Top Golf, among other locations.
“I just want to be different,” Joseph said. “Like last year I was still playing football, and everyone was still doing theirs at their school, and I was just like, it would be cool to go around to different places.”
What’s next
Joseph plans to attend the University of Louisiana this year and hopes to continue shooting sports and other events. He credits his parents for making his work possible.
“My mom and dad actually both are just working hard; they’ve been providing for me my whole life, really. Without them, I wouldn’t even be in the camera business,” Joseph said.
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