DUBLIN, Ga. — Whether he's playing football for the Irish under the Friday night lights or finding ways to spend his time without it, ask anyone about Ja'Qwan Willis and they'll probably give you the same answer.
"He's full of life, excited every day," said Dublin High School journalism teacher Whitley McCloud. "He's always got a big smile on his face. He's always finding something interesting."
The latest "something" happens to be photography. This winter, Willis is trading in the cleats for the camera -- all because of a little extra free time in the classroom.
"He picked up my camera one day off of my desk and just kind of started snapping," said McCloud.
Soon, Ja'Qwan wanted to put the new skills to work.
"One day I went into her classroom and I was just like, 'Can I borrow your camera to take pictures for the game?' And she was like, 'Nah, we're gonna have to work that out,'" recalled Willis.
With a little convincing, it worked out just fine. Ja'Qwan shot his first basketball game on Dec. 4 while the Irish hosted West Laurens.
Since then, the results speak for themselves.
"We looked at the camera roll and it's like, you have the eye for sports photography, you have the eye for photography in general," said McCloud.
It's a newfound passion and talent for Dublin's two-sport star who picked up the camera last month, only trying to pass the free time he had.
"After football season I would have nothing to do. While baseball was getting ready to start up, I would come here and take pictures," said Willis.
Still very new to the game, he knows there's still much to learn.
"It's still a learning process. Learning my lighting settings, shutter speed, different lenses, different cameras. Because different cameras do different things. Different lenses do different things," he said.
That's where last year's Christmas gift is now coming in handy.
"I mean I love it. It got to the point where my dad saw that I love it too and he bought my personal camera," Willis said.
Ja'Qwan's work certainly is not limited to sports, either. He's willing to work on anything he can, and all of his work can be found on Instagram under the handle @shotbycinco_.
"He's just taken a certain liking to photography and you can tell that it's his passion, so he's very invested in his passion and that as an educator, that's cool to see," said McCloud said.
Willis will graduate from Dublin High School this spring, and plans to attend the Universal Technical Institute in North Carolina.