It’s become somewhat of a tradition to highlight the first long jump composite of the track & field season. So, let’s keep it going. Rocky and I were invited by its creator, Keinan Briggs, to capture the 2026 Leap Fest. And while I don’t know who this energetic and enthusiastic young athlete is, I hope these images reach him and his family. I’m sure Keinan will assist.

A couple of things to note: the Mater Dei High School long jump pits aren’t really set up for shooting compsites. When the pits are right next to each other, there are just too many ways for officials and volunteers to be in the way, necessarily. That was the case with this first one, but I still shot it. Later in the day, I asked a volunteer to step back a bit so I could get a better angle, but there was no way to reach a 90° angle to the pit, which is my preferred shooting angle.

And it’s been a while since I’ve edited a youth long jump composite. It’s interesting to note the dynamic difference between a shot like the one above and this one of Tara Davis-Woodhall, the current women’s long jump world champion. It’s impressive, actually. You’ll see it instantly.

And finally, I typically create a black-and-white version of most of my long jump composites. This year I thought I’d include a couple of artificial intelligence renderings using Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro. For your enjoyment, here are comic book and watercolor renderings. Both were upscaled with Topaz Gigapixel AI before exporting for online display.

Jeff Turner

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