I was asked to review the photography of former Raptors guard CJ Miles. Here's what I saw

I teach a photojournalism course in college and when I assess students and their work, I’m looking for a couple of different things.

The main one is capturing moments. I’ll take a compelling moment over a technically perfect photo any day.

When looking at photos by CJ Miles, the former Raptors guard who fell in love with photography a long time ago but is now taking it seriously since retiring from the NBA, I see a lot of these moments.

The other thing I look for is passion.

Going into this. I wasn’t too sure what Miles’ ambitions are, so I took a scroll through his social media posts to gain a little bit more context and try to measure his growth in this field. I was pleasantly surprised.

What I found was the epitome of one of the things I preach to my students. I call it the rule of a lot.

Miles takes a lot of pictures. He explores a lot of genres. He challenges himself a lot. He experiments a lot.

I love the catch phrase on some of his posts: “Of course I had my camera.”

This shows he is bringing it. He isn’t shy about challenging himself with different genres of photography.

On social media, I can see he not only posts basketball pictures but also studio style (I loved the CrossFit gym photos), wildlife, the street and much more.

Now here goes the basketball critique.

As a photographer, you are reacting to a fast-moving game.

In Miles’ basketball photos I can see he’s able to capture those all-important moments. His experience allows him to assess what players on the court might do, which keeps him ahead of the game and able to anticipate moments.

I’m always excited when a player starts shooting a sport they played because they’re able to catch the little details and things that someone unfamiliar with the sport might never see.

His stuff is a little raw. There are some unusual crops where arms and limbs are cut off in a strange way. I’m not sure if that is happening in camera or in editing, but the way he’s experimenting with collages might be part of it.

The framing or cropping looks like something that he’ll clean up quickly as he gets more experience and learns the camera a little bit better. And like I pointed out before, learning the camera a little bit better won’t take long, judging by how often he’s using it.

Professional athletes are a rare breed. They are used to putting in long hours to make themselves better, not just in the gym or on the court but in the film room, too.

They are also used to making mistakes.

The scope of Miles’ experimentation with many genres will (and, I could argue has already) put him on the fast track to developing (no pun intended) as a photographer.

I don’t know where he envisions his professional photography journey will take him, but I do see he has the passion and is willing to explore all avenues, which, as I tell my students, will help accelerate their journey into photojournalism or professional photography.