Student Photographer Lexie Martin Captures the Heart of the Game

In early September, almost 900 miles north of her usual university classrooms in Greeley, Lexie Martin was making her way down the sidelines of a football game, her gaze and attention fixed through the one-inch viewfinder of her camera. Following the action on the field, she deftly maneuvered around obstacles, avoiding collisions with refs, players and coaches. This is a high school game: a showdown between two crosstown rivals on the Flathead Reservation, nestled against Montana’s breathtaking Mission Mountains. Martin’s assignment today (at the 2026 Montana Photo Workshop, a highly selective program) is to capture a “day in the life” of one of the young players, named Cheyenne.

An easy task since Martin is no stranger to a football field; for the past three years, she’s spent her Fridays on the sidelines of Nottingham Field, photographing Division I football for the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). Martin is in her third year at UNC, studying Photography and Printmaking as a Studio Art major, and her third year as UNC’s only Marketing and Communications student photographer: a title she’s held since her first semester.

Martin’s journey behind the lens began at age 15, when an observant teacher at Greeley Central High School recognized her potential and invited her to join the yearbook staff. The opportunity came at a pivotal moment in Martin’s life. In the face of a series of life-altering struggles, she discovered a passion for storytelling. Not just a passion, either, but an immense talent built on hard work.

“I was watching YouTube videos, reading Canon for Dummies, reading all this content on how to do photography, how to be a photographer,” Martin said. “Then I was the yearbook editor my junior year.”

After scoring an internship in Marketing and Communications at her own school district, District 6, Martin was unsure whether she would stay in her hometown of Greeley for her post-secondary education. That was until, through the internship, she connected with UNC Photographer Woody Myers, who showed Martin that the opportunities she was seeking were right in her own backyard.

“Woody was always just a name around Greeley. I mean, everybody knows Woody,” Martin added. “I didn’t know where I wanted to go to school, what I wanted to do, then I got connected with Woody, who saw my work and said, ‘I can offer you a job.’ And then I started.”

And Martin hasn’t stopped since. For the past three years, she has been at countless UNC games and events, camera in hand, ready to capture the moment. Specializing in high-energy action shots, Martin’s favorite assignments are always sporting events. Her work as UNC’s student photographer has helped her build a vast network of connections with professional photographers and journalists around Colorado, one of whom happened to suggest that she apply for the 2026 Montana Photo Workshop hosted by the University of Montana (UM).

Landing a spot at the workshop was no easy feat. The program accepts only a fraction of applicants nationwide, based on a small portfolio of photos. For Martin, most of those came from her time working at UNC. The experience places rising talent alongside heavy hitters from outlets like National Geographic, the Associated Press and major professional sports leagues. Earning an invitation meant a chance for Martin to study directly under seasoned industry titans, learning field technique from Portland Trail Blazers photographer Bruce Ely and unpacking narrative visual storytelling with award-winning photojournalist Tailyr Irvine.

A selective four-day intensive in Missoula, MT, the annual Montana Photo Workshop connects early-career documentary and sports photographers to industry professionals with the goal of refining their portfolios and inspiring their storytelling. Martin showed up ready to hone her professional prowess and shoot some electric shots along the way. That is, until Ely (Trailblazers) gave her the role of driving to Flathead Reservation with four of her peers and capturing high school football player Cheyenne’s “day in the life.” The new atmosphere instantly reshaped Martin’s perspective.

At Nottingham Field, full media crews and stadium announcers are standard elements of game day. But on the reservation, the production behind the game is minimal. So, from hearing an official announcer call their plays to watching the photographers document their hard-fought rivalry win, the student-athletes were deeply appreciative of the support from UM.

For Martin, the true heart of the assignment came after the final whistle when she met Cheyenne’s mother. She approached Martin to share that her son was typically quiet and kept to himself, but seeing someone take the time to highlight his daily routine meant the world to him and their family.

“It brings you back to how there are people behind this, and the people behind this are what I’m doing it for,” Martin reflected.

That night in Missoula, Martin, her mentors and her peers stayed awake until 1 a.m. analyzing and editing their day’s work. One piece of knowledge that Martin has held onto from that night came from New York Times and National Geographic photographer Irvine, who explained to her that photography exists in a balance between being holistic, poetic and practiced.

Carrying those lessons from Missoula back home, Martin returned to UNC just in time for the Bears’ football season. Energized and inspired, she leaned back into one of her favorite perks of the job: taking her audience into the intimate environments they can’t reach without a press pass. Her lens offers the campus community access to locker room celebrations and quiet conversations between plays. And whenever Martin sees these photos integrated into marketing or other promotional materials for UNC, she feels validated.

“I have so many screenshots on my phone of branding that I see and all the posts that get made from my photos,” she said. “There’s a little bit of my work in so many copies of these things, and it adds a lot more value to my job and my education. Also, it’s cool knowing literally everybody from all the events I shoot.”

For Myers, watching Martin evolve from a promising high school intern into a confident photojournalist has been a highlight of the last few years. He credits her rapid rise to success not just to technical skill, but to an innate ability to command the room:

“She is fearless. She can walk into any setting, connect with people and take control when she needs to,” Myers said. “Those instincts are difficult to teach, and they’re a big part of why she can step into a room with photographers who have been doing this for years and fit right in.”

As Martin continues to sharpen her craft at UNC, her growth is just as much about skill as it is about navigating the environment around her. Entering the world of sports photography as a woman means carving out her own place in an industry long dominated by men. Martin notices that male peers praising a shot are seen as focused purely on the craft, whereas female photographers often contend with misplaced assumptions about their intentions. Early on, she found herself adjusting her communication style just to blend in. But over time, Martin has shifted away from shrinking her identity to fit into the box of what a sports photographer is “supposed” to look like.

“I used to feel like I had to be ‘one of the boys’… not wear makeup, not be frivolous,” Martin said. “But I’ve embraced it. I like making cute outfits, and I can still perform at the same level as all these people while still being authentically me. I’m here to do my job.”

That self-assurance was further cemented during her time in Montana, where Martin was excited to be surrounded by female industry leaders like renowned sports photographer Nhat V. Meyer. Seeing women thrive at the highest levels offered both a playbook for success and a reminder of her own credentials.

Now Martin is ready to forge her own path. After earning her degree, she hopes to continue to pursue a career in photojournalism, covering impactful stories and underrepresented communities. Acknowledging the challenges that lie ahead, she knows that her time at UNC has prepared her to face the industry head-on.

“You have to want it enough and put in the work to prove that you want it,” she said. “I always tell Woody, ‘I’m scrappy, I’ll figure it out.’ I think there are ways to make an impact anywhere, and I’m really proud of where I’ve come from and where I am today. So, for the next person who has the opportunity to have my job, I hope they feel the same.”