JGFlicks: A Portrait of John Gronski

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Ryan Buescher

If you are a Chaminade student and pay attention to our sports teams and their social media accounts, chances are you have seen or heard of “JGflicks” or seen the watermark on some photos. This is really the photo and video editing account of Chaminade junior, John Gronski, or otherwise known as “Gronk”. Throughout my years at Chaminade, I have had the privilege to be pretty good friends with John since about freshman year, and since knowing him, I have had the opportunity to see his talents grow in the field of photography and video editing.

A little about John that you may not know, he is a dormer, meaning he stays in Canning Hall, but isn’t full time, as his family has a house about ten to fifteen minutes from campus. He is also a big sports fan, and it’s safe to say he is a big Kansas University fan as well. He is also a manager for the varsity basketball team, and like I said earlier, if you follow the Chaminade basketball account, almost all of those edits and pictures are taken and made by yours truly, Mr. Gronski. John started to take pictures of nature at age 10, and that is when he claims to have begun his love for photography. However, his first-time taking pictures for Chaminade was sophomore year. He said, “I popped out to a football practice with a camera and really enjoyed it so, I just started going to as many games as I could and then that carried into basketball season.”

As I said earlier, John is a dormer, which many people do not know. I asked him, “Does living in the dorms give you more time to edit and to go out and take pictures of the team”? In response, he said, “Living in the dorm gives me a big advantage especially when it comes to home games. After home games I can have the final graphic done five minutes after the final buzzer and I can have the pictures uploading to the drive in ten.” John is also a manager for the squad, and when asked about his roles, he said, “My first year as a manager for the basketball team was my sophomore year. During games, I would be on the baseline taking pictures for the players. During practice is when I fulfilled my real managerial duties such as bringing water bottles to the players, refilling said water bottles, wiping up sweat on the floor, and just doing whatever Coach Bennett needed my assistance with. Another job as a manager for me would come before and after games. I am in charge of making the gameday and final graphics that coach posts before and after each game announcing our opponent and the result after the game.”

All of these pictures and editing skills eventually led John to create the account “JGflicks”, and on here, he posts his coolest pictures and edits. I asked him if any of these pictures or edits have been featured on any large accounts, and apparently, they have. He said, “I have been featured on a couple of big platforms. The 2019 Nike EYBL Peach Jam Champions, MoKan Elite, have reposted a couple pictures of Damien Mayo and just today posted one of my photos on Twitter for his birthday. Also, about a week ago, The Daily Pennsylvanian, posted one of my pictures of Matteus Case last year in the District Semifinals.”

At one point, I started wondering how long these pictures take to edit, and as he said earlier, the score ones take about five minutes, but regarding the other kinds of edits he makes, he said, “Usually, on a normal Instagram post of about 6-10 pictures, it takes me about an hour to edit all of them because I have done it so many times to where I know exactly what I am looking from in that image and what I want it to look like. I do not do video anymore but when I did it usually would take me a couple hours to edit a full game highlight reel.” Normally, even knowing what to do, I would assume it doesn’t take that long considering the fact that you know what you’re doing, but to my avail, it takes longer.

John is also a man of strong academics, as he prioritizes his academics and schoolwork before any editing or picture taking. Regarding this, he explained, “Sometimes I am given a surplus of homework and in my eyes in order to do what I love doing, which is photography, the academics come first.” With a strong work ethic like John’s, the grind never stops, but that is what makes him so successful, and what allows him to strive.