Standing with her right arm arched over her head and her left arm bent forward, her form looks like that of a pro. Despite being fairly new to photography and videography, London Davis (9) makes videos that have become very popular on social media.
According to Davis, a lack of cheering fans and overall support at her soccer games, as a player for the girls freshman soccer team, disappointed her.

“There aren’t very many people that go out to the athletic games at Westview, especially for the girls teams,” Davis said.
This lack of fan participation in girls sporting events inspired Davis to try to draw more fans to the games at Westview by sharing videos of those games.
Davis says she initially was inspired by her mom’s photography of her soccer games.
“My mom would always take pictures of me playing soccer, so I figured I could do that for other people because I like when I have photos of me [playing soccer],” Davis

said. “Then, I mainly started [making videos of other Westview teams] because I wanted to get people out to the games and support everyone.”

For less visible sports teams, and especially for girls teams, there’s often fewer photographers willing to devote time and coverage.
After discovering her passion for photography, Davis decided to dedicate herself to creating videos for these teams, to provide them better exposure.
“As soon as I tried [photography], I realized that I really liked taking photos,” Davis said. “And then I realized that there was a video mode on the camera. I thought that maybe other people would like to have videos of themselves playing their sports, and maybe I can use these videos to show other people [who don’t usually attend the games] these sports.”
Using her passion for sports and the newly discovered video mode, Davis decided to focus on showcasing players’ talents and getting more people to support Westview athletics.
Davis posts her videos on Instagram and has been able to reach a wide audience in doing so. One of her videos has even racked up a whopping 10,000 views.
Including various hashtags in her captions allows for social media algorithms to work their magic, she said, spreading videos to large numbers of people.
Davis says that she really just wants her videos to make an impact on the players and the teams.
“Views and likes don’t matter to me,” Davis said. “What matters is that I am making a difference, that the players see themselves and feel proud and happy. I want to collect memories so the athletes remember that time.”
The most viewed video on her Instagram shows Calvin Winstead (12) of the varsity boys soccer team scoring on a header.
“I feel like that video really helped boost my confidence and hyped up the team,” Winstead said. “I really appreciate the videos that London makes, not just for soccer but for other sports as well. Her videos really help boost teams’ confidence and help them for future games.”
Many basic, yet effective, techniques and pieces of videography equipment allow Davis to make these videos and hype up the teams.
For example, she uses a FujiFilm XD 2 camera with a 50-140 mm lens to shoot.
“My camera is more on the expensive end, but it has very good quality and a zoom so I can see halfway across the field or court,” Davis said.
She also strategically places herself at the bench, halfway between both ends of the field or court, depending on what sport she is filming.
“It’s just all about angles,” she said. “That’s why sitting at the halfway point is the best because if you’re trying to shoot someone scoring, then being at that angle, you can see them shooting the ball and you can see the net.”
For editing her videos, she utilizes the tools in Instagram Reels but also uses the editing software Capcut when she needs more sophisticated video-editing capabilities.
She then attaches music to the videos, and she says she tries to match the vibe of the video content with a song.
“Whenever I’m scrolling through Reels and a good song pops up, I’ll save it,” Davis said. “When I do my videos, I see if [those previously saved sounds] fit the theme that I’m looking for, and I’ll use that.”
Accompanying the edit of Winstead scoring is an audio making a reference to the rainy weather that transitioned to a slowed remix of the song “Bank Account” by 21 Savage.
“The audio I chose for Calvin’s video was appealing because it was short and it had the ‘drippy’ part in it,” Davis said. “Which matched the rain that day.”
Davis added the song “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to a series of clips from a varsity girls basketball game to capture the hype of the game.
“That game was big because it was The Battle of the 56, against [Mt. Carmel],” Davis said. “It was a great game for [Westview] and I wanted to show that with the song.”
Using these techniques, Davis continues to attend Westview sporting events and make videos promoting the teams and players. She said she hopes her videos draw people to the games, increasing spirit and participation in Westview’s sports, so the bleachers and sidelines can be filled with cheering fans for all sports.
“Sports are a major part of high school,” Davis said. “I feel like the people that play should be able to be seen, and that my videos will help with that.”