Sports photography in its highest form

From the playing field to a field of flowers, Just Another Mom Photography has set a high standard

July 12, 2023 by Ken Leinart

Put a typewriter in front of a good writer — a notebook even — and you may get the next “Grapes of Wrath.”

Put a blank canvas in front of others, give them a choice of media to use, and maybe you’ll get the next Mona Lisa.

Give a young man a guitar, a catchy tune, and you may get the next Elvis.

Put a camera (a Canon) in the hands of Tracy Helmering Hibben, and you are going to get more than a photo. You are going to get art.

Hibben started out as a mom of a son playing sports.

“And I said at the time, ‘I don’t want to be just another mom with a camera,’” she said.

Those days of taking photos of her son’s practices and games when he played at Jefferson Middle School and Oak Ridge High School turned a hobby into a serious collection of work.

And a collection of memories.

It also turned into Just Another Mom Photography.

Included in the countless number of athletes she’s photographed, there’s Cincinnati Bengal Tee Higgins. It’s not the kids who became famous who make her work what it is.

It’s taking all of her subjects and finding that right “look.” It’s making every athlete she photographs look like, and feel like, the world’s best.

It’s a knack, a talent that comes naturally because she loves the kids and loves photography, and she has almost a sixth sense about the hearts of the athletes she photographs.

“Cheerleaders are so much more fun,” Hibben said. “They’re just fun to work with. They are a little more open to trying things.”

She said, however, that once you get the guys — the players — in the studio, they tend to break out.

“You get them in the studio and they really get excited,” she said.

The studio work is great, but Hibben uses nature a lot in her photography — fields of flowers, beach settings, and leaden skies.

Since beginning with Oak Ridge schools, Hibben has branched out to work with Anderson County, Clinton, Harriman and Powell high schools.

She has a busy schedule, especially from July through November.

“Christmas is really busy,” she said.

While sports may have been the start of Hibben’s art, she has since branched out and made some stunning sets of newborn and maternity photos.

“Maternity is my favorite,” she said.

Sometimes it takes a mother’s eye to capture the essence of a mother, or a mother-to-be.

As her work and art have grown, so has her use of “extras,” the smoke and gels that ad a certain element. To Hibben, learning new techniques, new styles is a constant.

Her sports photos — teams and individuals — can have an edge, a look that shows the sweat and commitment athletes have put in to their sport.

The athletes look intense and determined, like they’re having a blast. It’s a hard look to capture, but Hibben does it.

Her maternity and newborn photos are completely different.

There’s a gentleness about them, a sense of something … Hope? New beginnings?

Put them side by side and you can see they are by the same photographer, yet they are different in tone.

“It’s been fun,” she said. “It’s work, but it’s also learning.”

You can find samples of Hibben’s work at Just Another Mom Photography on Facebook, or at justanothermomphotography.com