If you are an active GCHS sports fan, you’ve most likely seen senior Andrew Oelschlager taking photos on the football sidelines or down the third baseline at a baseball game. Oelschlager recently started taking pictures of Grayslake Central’s varsity football team and then moved onto Grayslake Central’s varsity baseball team.

Oelschlager will be attending Notre Dame next fall, majoring in visual communication and design. His passion first came from his parents, Steve and Patricia Oelschlager. “Both of my parents kind of had digital communication backgrounds and from a young age, computer graphics and design, those aspects have always been a part of my life. My parents both had Photoshop and I would sort of [tinker] with it,” said Oelschlager. “I’m hoping that I can do sports graphic design or something [along those lines] in college, and I figured the more versatile I can make myself, the better. So if I’m able to do photography, it can only help me; I’d seen somewhere online someone saying a good way to start is just do it at your high school, and so I’m borrowing a camera from the art department. They were super kind letting me borrow one and then I had to get permission from the athletic directors, too.” 

Oelschlager has had some great experiences with graphic design over the past five years. “I started doing Photoshop in like eighth grade, at first I only did athletes who played at the University of Wisconsin because I’m a Badgers fan. And then eventually, at the end of eighth grade, I made an edit of Collin Sexton, who at the time, was still in high school. Now, he plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and it was totally random because whenever I make a graphic of someone who’s somewhat famous 99% of the time, they don’t like it, if I tag them, they usually won’t see it. He actually liked it, so looking back that was maybe a blessing in disguise, if he hadn’t liked it and pushed me to keep making stuff, or if no one liked it, maybe I would have stopped making content. I got super lucky that he liked it and then I started doing graphics for really anyone,” said Oelschlager passionately

Oelschlager explains an opportunity that arose for him. The former director of recruiting and the former director of player personnel from Colorado State University saw his work on Twitter and one of them sent him a direct message about a possible internship, “Originally, I started in September until about March the director of recruiting would Zoom with me for about five minutes once a week and tell me about a specific graphic or idea she had in mind. Then I’d work on it over the course of the week and get it to her, and I’d have a new assignment for the next week. It’s a lot of fun, and they always gave me a lot of creative freedom, and it’s been a super great experience for my career. My work is not really seen too much because it’s usually sent directly to the recruits from CSU, but it’s still been a really great experience for me,” said Oelschlager. 

There has been a lot of trial and error for Oelschlager. Oelschlager admits he has not always been great with graphic design and photography. He has tremendously improved from the time he started and has learned so much throughout the process.

“One of the biggest things that helped me was watching YouTube videos from people who really know what they’re doing. Sports photography is a pretty big field, and there’s a lot of really good YouTube videos out there from people who are official photographers for the Seattle Seahawks or other professional teams and they walk through their process of how they capture photos, and they explain what camera settings they use,” said Oelschlager.

Oelschlager’s presence is immediately recognized by the team when he is in attendance.  Senior outside linebacker Keaton Dietsch has a high appraisal for Oelschlager’s work, “He took some of the best photos of us that I’ve seen, it’s professional quality,” said Dietsch.

Oelschlager has some advice for other sports photographers and editors. “Don’t compare yourself to other people’s work; it’s all about your own improvement. Everyone’s at a different place. If I compared my work when I first started to where I am now, it’s definitely improved a lot. But looking back, just stick with it, it will be a long road ahead, but the results will show.”

Check out Oelschlager’s work here.