Through The Lens: Oconee County Baseball (2025 GHSA State Playoffs)
This is Part 3 - Playoff Edition - of my “Through The Lens” series on the Oconee County High School baseball team’s 2025 season. The Warriors finished with a record of 23-7, won the GHSA 3A Region-8 championship, and were the 5 seed in the state baseball playoffs (the top 32 teams qualified). Now that the high school baseball season is over and all champions have been crowned, you might wonder how far the Warriors advanced?
In this series that I’ve been writing, (read Part 1 and Part 2 here) I share my favorite photo from each game along with my thoughts on the single image I select to represent that game and the camera settings used. This entry features one photo from each game of the playoffs. And if you read all the way to the end, I’ll link the 2025 year end highlight video that I created for the team, which I set to an awesome cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
If you want photos or videos for recruiting or to share with kids and families, please contact me via DM on Instagram or through my contact page.
Isaac Smith (Class of 2025) | Oconee County vs Cairo (Gm1) | Apr. 25, 2025
First Round Playoff Game 1: Last season the Warriors made the playoffs, but did not receive as high of a seed, which meant they were on the road for the entire stretch. This year was awesome because Oconee hosted Cairo. You could tell the excitement of the home crowd leveled up the intensity of the kids. With a packed house, the Warriors immediately faced adversity in the top of the first inning. Cairo loaded the bases and were threatening to jump out to an early lead, but pitcher, Nate Roberson got a strikeout, an infield pop out and a fly out to end the threat. Oconee went on to win game one easily with a 5-0 victory.
About the photo: I love how Oconee announces the starters and they run out to their position in the field. This photo shows senior shortstop, Isaac Smith running down the first baseline high-fiving his teammates after he was introduced. You learn as a photographer - and this was a photo I really wanted. Many times earlier in the season I was trying to shoot through the backs of the players lined up and hoping to get a clean shot of the player running out. But most of the time I would miss focus, or it just felt like something was missing. It felt like the story of the moment was missing. The emotion of the photograph was missing. This is the best angle. It feels much more like a documentary photograph than a sports photo. Not only do you get Isaac, you get to see all of the expressions of the other guys in that moment and even way out in the distance you see Carson, who also had just been introduced, rounding first and heading to his position at second base.
Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II | RF 70-200mm | ISO 125, f/5.6, 1/400 | 200mm focal length
Adam Lafontaine (Class of 2025) | Oconee County vs Cairo (Gm2) | Apr. 25, 2025
First Round Playoff Game 2: Every successful team, no matter the sport needs that special someone - a leader who sets the tone of the season. In my opinion, that special someone for the 2025 Oconee County Warrior baseball team was senior, Adam Lafontaine. Adam played right field, did some relief pitching and late in the season developed a huge power surge. He hit his first home run in the last week of the regular season and then provided the cushion the Warriors needed in game two of the playoff series versus Cairo. Adam was always the first one to greet anyone who scored a run with his patented timed jump before they reached the dugout. As a photographer, I could always count on an awesome celebration with Adam leading the charge. The Warriors put up four runs in the top of the 4th during game two and cruised onto victory, punching their ticket into the sweet sixteen of the GHSA playoffs.
About the photo: All the guys on this team deserved to perform well in games. Most of them did at times all season long, which could be seen in the success Oconee County had on the field. But everyone was thrilled with Adam’s playoff homer. I teased the season highlight video, which I’ll link at the end of this post - you’ll be able to see Adam’s sweet, powerful swing where he hit this no doubter out of the park. I move around a lot when photographing baseball and was lucky to catch the video of the home run from this angle near the first base dugout. I rolled video until he crossed home plate and then switched to photos to get the reaction shots. You can see the emotion of Cole to his left and Josh “Cut-G” to his right. What a moment! Want to see more photos from this two-game series? Check out the post on my Instagram.
Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II | RF 70-200mm | ISO 2000, f/3.5, 1/2500 | 100mm focal length
Brody Christopher (Class of 2027) | Oconee County vs Jefferson (Gm1) | May 1, 2025
Second Round Playoff Game 1: The Sweet Sixteen is a monumental achievement by any measure. To survive the thirty game regular season, play well enough to make the playoffs as a high seed, and win the first round matchup with two shutout victories is something that many teams would never be able to dream about accomplishing. But Oconee ran into a familiar foe in the second round thanks to the GHSA’s new power ranking rules. I won’t get into how they rank teams and everything, but getting paired up against a region opponent in round two - for lack of a better term - is dumb. Still they had an even chance to beat Jefferson, but it didn’t happen in game one. The Dragons jumped out to an early lead and Oconee climbed back to tie it late in the game thanks to a Cole Johnson home run. But a three run burst by Jefferson in the 6th inning proved too much and the Warriors dropped game 1 by a score of 6-3.
About the photo: As far as a photograph, I was pretty happy when I saw the pitching change and the guys gathered around Brody like this. It’s real, it’s in the moment, and there was so much riding on the line when this image was taken. Someone without any knowledge of the situation could look at this photo and know that there was a lot of tension going on in the game. Shooting from behind home plate is a great spot for someone like me using a long lens. You get so many layers on a baseball field from this perspective - a triple layer for this one - I call this a sandwich shot where you get focus on the middle layer and sandwich two out of focus elements in the front of the lens and in the background.
Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II | RF 70-200mm | ISO 640, f/3.5, 1/2500 | 85mm focal length
Cole Johnson (Class of 2025) | Oconee County vs Jefferson (Gm2) | May 1, 2025
Second Round Playoff Game 2: You never want the season to end without a championship. You believe you have a chance to win not only the game, but the whole thing every time you step on the field. After watching this team with the talent and comeback ability they showed all season long - even needing to win two games in a row versus Jefferson, I thought it was going to happen for sure. But, it didn’t. In game two of the series, Jefferson won 5-4 in an emotional game for our guys. Jefferson was the home team for this game and walked it off with a game winning hit in the bottom of the 7th. But what a season Oconee County had (see the Jefferson photos on Instagram). Not the ending they wished for or perhaps even deserved, but this was a team that accomplished a ton and set up the program for wild success for years to come. I enjoyed every bit of the run they went on and look forward to doing it all again in 2026. Go Warriors!
About the photo: Cole Johnson was the quiet leader for the entire season. His thirteen home runs led the team by eleven home runs. He had multiple outfield assists during the year. I feel honored to have been able to photograph him during the majority of his high school. You’ll be able to watch Cole next year at Foley Field as he has committed to the University of Georgia to play baseball - I can’t wait to watch him put balls over the right field wall next year for UGA. This photo was pretty cool. The crowds were so big during the playoffs that students would park their trucks beyond the outfield wall. I recognize a lot of the faces in this photo. Many of them are seniors and watching their last high school baseball game as a student at Oconee County High School. It was Cole’s last game playing for Oconee as well. Just a routine fly ball, but with all of the emotions that reflect during a close nip and tuck playoff game. Best of luck in college Cole!
Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II | RF 70-200mm | ISO 640, f/3.5, 1/1250 | 200mm focal length
The Warriors finished with a 25-9 record and I was there for thirty-three of those games. As you can certainly see, I took a lot of photos. But, I’m a hybrid shooter, meaning I’m switching all the time between video capture and photography. It really does amaze me I’m able to get as much footage as I do because of the changing back and forth. But I’ve learned what needs to be filmed and what needs to be photographed.
I hope you enjoy this video highlight reel (I made a slideshow as well. You can watch it here). It took me weeks to put together and I’m very proud of it. One of the most favorite things I get to do as a creator is to see an individual or group of individuals watch what I’ve edited in real time. This doesn’t happen often for me as I’m usually sending edits and links to final projects to my client via email. But about a week ago, during the Oconee County baseball team banquet, I was able to debut this video in front of the players, the coaches, and the parents. No one had seen it. I love watching people watch what I make and this brought me a ton of joy. I love my job.
Follow me on Instagram if you aren’t already. I specialize in sports photography, sports highlight reels, and also work with clients on retainer.