He can be seen on the sidelines of nearly every EHS boys basketball game wearing the same collared, orange T-shirt underneath the camera that hangs on his chest with a simple, black baseball cap backward on his head.

Although this uniform makes him easily identifiable, it also camouflages him in the sea of cheerleaders crowding the court.

But every so often, senior Mark Smith will miss a dunk or junior Jack Marinko will stumble on a screen and nearly slam into the man in the orange shirt. As spectators move their eyes toward the play, the man’s face is hidden behind his camera trying to get the best shot of the action that just fell into his lap.

Those who look at the man long enough will notice a large, black logo emblazoned on the back of his shirt: “Rick’s Pics.”

The man in the orange shirt is Rick Brewer, and over the course of one year he has photographed a spectrum of EHS athletics from competitive cheerleading and dance to football and soccer—all for free.

“I don’t charge anybody, I do it because I like to and I know the parents appreciate it,” Brewer said. “There are no expectations, so I can pretty much do whatever I want shooting wise; and if people like the pictures, then that’s even better.”

Over the past year, Brewer’s photos have received lots of attention, but his fan-base hasn’t always been this broad. When Brewer first sparked an interest in photography, he focused the majority of his shooting time on the McOlgan family.

“My wife used to watch three little girls, Taylor, Alissa and Isabella McOlgan, when they were babies,” Brewer said. “I would capture pictures (of them) when I would be around for their mom and dad of them just playing and being little kids.”

At that point in time, Brewer said his photography skills left more to be desired.

“My photos weren’t very good, and I wanted to figure out how to make them better,” he said.

Brewer then turned to photography books, websites and YouTube channels to improve his technique and invested in higher-caliber cameras to improve his photos’ quality.

As the McOlgan girls grew, so did Brewer’s love for and commitment to photography.

According to Stephanie McOlgan, Brewer began traveling to dance recitals and gymnastic meets in 2014 to capture photos of her girls competing—the same year he started his photography business “Rick’s Pics.”

In 2016, Taylor made the EHS varsity dance team as a freshman. Although Taylor said this was a great opportunity for her, it also created a great opportunity for Brewer.

Since Taylor was now dancing at football and basketball games in addition to competitions, Brewer was frequenting more EHS sporting events—with his camera in tow.

But it wasn’t just Taylor drawing him to the football games. As an Iowa Hawkeye and Edwardsville Tiger fan, senior defensive end A.J. Epenesa caught his eye as well.

“There was a lot of press around Epenesa at the football games, and I wanted to see what it was about, so I thought I might as well bring my camera while I’m there,” he said.

Once Brewer saw what Epenesa and Edwardsville football was all about, he couldn’t get enough—and Epenesa couldn’t get enough of Rick’s Pics.

“His photos are just awesome to see,” Epenesa said. “He does such an amazing job capturing all the greatest moments. It has truly been a blessing to have him around, and he’s done a phenomenal job.”

Epenesa’s appreciation for Rick’s Pics continued as he transitioned to the court for basketball season. Rick travelled to nearly all of the boys basketball games—including the IHSA state series.

“His willingness to travel shows his passion for what he does, but it also shows his commitment level to helping us,” Epenesa said. “He is an awesome guy who takes awesome pictures.”

But Brewer’s commitment didn’t begin during basketball season, he has been faithful since August.

“I don’t think I missed a single football game,” he said, “and because of that, I met a majority of the players’ parents. One parent would find out my name and then they would tag the rest of the parents, so it really exploded through social media.”

Between SmugMug, Snapfish, Dropbox, Facebook and Twitter, Brewer has been able to connect parents with the photos he has taken of their child—and those parents have been able to connect with him in return.

“I would like to say thank you to Rick Brewer for the wonderful photos you took and shared with all of us (basketball families),” Yvonne Smith, mother of senior guard Mark Smith, posted on Facebook after the basketball team’s final game. “We all appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedule to capture awe-striking moments of our sons.”

Although it would seem that this much traveling would be stressful, Brewer said the time commitment has been almost the opposite—especially since his two sons are now grown and out of the house.

The largest responsibility keeping Brewer from photography is what he calls his “real job” as a salesman for Bratney companies based out of Des Moines, Iowa, which he still works for today.

“We are a construction company, but we design and build corn and soybean processing plants. I sell the equipment that goes inside those plants: processing, packaging, conveying and other pieces of equipment,” Brewer said. “It requires me to travel a lot during the week, so that’s why sometimes it’s tough to make it to some of the weekend events, but I have plenty of time in the evenings.”

And Brewer said he loves spending those evenings shooting EHS sporting events. Although he does charge for some family and senior sessions, he describes his photography as a pastime, not a job.

“I don’t do this for the money, I do it because I enjoy it,” he said. “If I had to do it to make a living, that would take the joy out of it.”

The joy that Brewer feels when he is behind the camera is felt by the athletes on the other side of the camera as well—especially those who play sports that don’t typically receive media attention.

“My teammates and I are all appreciative of what Rick does for us,” Taylor McOlgan said. “Many of them have never had someone take photos of them like that, so it is something they think is really special.”

Rick hasn’t limited his lenses to only those sports with a large fan base. He has photographed EHS soccer, football, dance, girls and boys basketball, cheerleading and girls volleyball this year.

“Each game has its own fun aspects,” he said. “With basketball, it’s a little interesting because (the game) is all contained. With football, you have to move a lot because the field is so big, and same way with soccer.”

Of all the sports Brewer attends and photographs, he said basketball is his favorite.

“Soccer doesn’t give you much action, most of the action is with basketball,” he said. “That’s the sport as a kid I enjoyed the most.”

But that extra action adds extra work for Brewer. Sports photos present more lighting, speed and space challenges than posed shots, so Rick said he has to take more photos at games than he would in a posed shoot to ensure he captures every moment. At a single game, he said he takes anywhere between 500 and 2,000 photos.

“Editing can take me hours. I try not to put photos out that I’m not proud of, so if someone has their eyes closed or the shot is blurry, I kick that picture out,” he said. “Cameras now can shoot ten or 12 frames per second, so (I) shoot a lot and hope that to get at least one (picture) pulled out of that particular play—whether it be a dance move, girls flipping or a boy dunking the basketball or scoring a touchdown. You take a lot and hope you get that one great shot that everyone wants to see.”

But to Brewer, all of that time is worth it when he sees parents’ reactions to his photos.

“The kids will reply or like on Facebook or Twitter, but the parents are the ones who really appreciate it,” he said. “Just knowing that the parents don’t have to spend a lot of money to capture their kids doing what they love, I think that is most important to me.”

Brewer’s orange uniform may conceal him on the sidelines of the basketball court, but his talent is not so easily hidden inside his home.

The computer in Brewer’s kitchen is filled with over 60,000 photos he has taken over the years. Those immortalized moments of dunks and touchdowns create the computer’s rolling screensaver, forming motif of Brewer’s work—which he hopes is the legacy he leaves behind for his friends and family.

“Everyone who comes to our house watches our screensaver scroll through the thousands of memories, it’s like watching a movie. I look at it every day.”