In the hype of the excitement surrounding Stevenson’s Homecoming activities, students and staff alike will look back on the photos of the football, soccer and field hockey contests without even knowing about the heroic behind-the-scenes photography of Sabina Moran.
Moran’s photography has been the mainstay of GoMustangSports for years, and her sports photography highlights The Villager’s articles on Stevenson’s NCAA teams.
“I remember getting my first camera for Christmas when I was 11,” said Moran. “It was a Polaroid, and I unwrapped the film before the camera, kind of spoiling the surprise, but I was so excited!” That’s when she fell in love with photography. “The fact that I could get paid to make people happy simply by taking their photo was amazing, and as I got older it was just so fascinating that two people could see the same thing so differently as evidenced through photography,” said Moran.
Stevenson’s athletes love that they have a local super hero like Moran to troll the sidelines of all of the home games to take action flicks of the players. Senior football wide receiver Devin Salisbury said, “It’s a great feeling knowing that after a win, you can have a great woman like Sabina to have your back and capture the best moments so you can hold on to those memories forever.”
But for Moran, the road getting to Stevenson University was not as easy as it might seem.
“There were many obstacles, especially being a woman shooting sports poses. It is a very male- dominated culture and sometimes it takes a bit more to prove that you belong,” she explained. “Then there is also competition. Most competition today is clients wanting work for little to no pay as the prevalence of digital cameras has grown,” she said. There have been a lot of highs and lows on her path, but one of her most memorable highs was photographing the Ravens’ Super Bowl win in 2013.
Moran has been all around the country when it comes to photography, shooting teams including the Baltimore Ravens, the Baltimore Blast, and Crystal Palace FC. In addition to Stevenson University, she has worked with other universities including the University of Maryland, Towson University, UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County), and Johns Hopkins University.
However, she ended up at Stevenson when she was sent on a task by her boss to take photographs of the new stadium that the university was building. There, she connected with [former Sports Information Director] Jason Eichelberger, and a friendship began to develop. Down the road, Eichelberger offered her a job as the sports photographer at Stevenson.
Currently she also works with the “PressBox” and still shoots Ravens games. However, sports are not all that she covers. She has shot weddings, portraits, special events, and a few landscape gigs that could be added to her extensive resume.
Moran is a role model for those interested in photography, and her low-key presence on campus makes her an unsung hero. She has proven herself in her field while making a statement, and Stevenson University is proud to have such an amazingly creative person on its side at sporting and special events.