Melissa Fishbaugh, a Jupiter High volunteer whose children are JHS alumni, takes time out of her busy day to photograph nearly all of the athletic events at the school, from action shots to team photos. 

“I believe we are all here for a reason, each of us are given various talents to help share with the world to make it a better place. Mine happens to be photography, amongst other things, and if I can inspire young adults to go on and use their talents in the future to make this world a better place than I have done my job,” Fishbaugh said.

Fishbaugh makes a point to attend at least one game for each sport, including bowling, swimming, water polo and golf that all compete off-campus.

“If I can capture that moment and see the smiles of those athletes, when they get to see those pictures, that makes it all worth it,” Fishbaugh said.

Not only does Fishbaugh take photos for sports but also for the Student Athletic Community Education club, an organization that provides student athletes with leadership skills on and off the playing field.

“An artist does a few different things to tell a story through pictures or to capture a moment, I believe that the only thing we can carry with us as time goes on is moments, I love photography because it’s a way for me to capture those moments for as long as the photograph lasts,”Fishbaugh said. “Most of the time the photograph lasts longer than the memory of the moment.”

When taking her photos, Fishbaugh focuses on different aspects depending on the thing she is capturing. 

“If it’s sports, it’s the moment of success, if it’s portraits, I try to capture each person, or group’s personality, just like when I would draw a face in pencil to capture the spirit of who they are,” Fishbaugh said.

Fishbaugh gets the perfect photo by persevering. 

“Just like an athlete I have more failures than successes, but I never stop trying, I may take thousands of pictures and only get one or two true successes,” Fishbaugh said.