Beyond the Sport

Without any doubt, I have developed a passion for sports photography, which is strange because, other than the Olympic Games, I do not follow any sport and do not practice any either. But there is something beyond the competition itself that attracts me to this genre, it is the human aspect of sports photography.

The above picture illustrates what I am trying to explain here. I have taken good pictures of both of them fighting or demonstrating their kata, and I love those pictures, but these moments where I capture them in their deep meditation before the action are priceless to me.

 

This year, I have photographed many competitions, and while other photographers at the events were focused on capturing the action, I often took the time to look for candid moments. To me, they are just as important, if not more, than the action unfolding during the event. Maybe for the parents or the organizers these pictures are not as significant, but to me, they are every bit as intense and intriguing as what happens on the tatami.

After all, you can predict what the end result might be in a sports event, but you will never guess what is going on in their minds before, during, and after the event.

Without the candid pictures, a sports event to me would lose all its appeal. Keep that in mind if you ever think about hiring me.

My first bird picture

I was recently watching an interview on YouTube where the conversation began with the first-ever nature photo taken by a professional wildlife photographer. That made me think about which one was my own first. Let’s start by saying that the photo below was taken with a Canon PowerShot SD750 — a camera no one seriously interested in wildlife photography would consider buying. That was in 2008!

I had no idea what I was doing — no sense of composition, no understanding of photography at all. It wasn’t until 2015 that I revisited the idea of wildlife photography, this time using a Nikon Coolpix S9700. It was a better camera with a 30x zoom, which I thought would help — though it was still just a point-and-shoot. I still wasn’t editing my photos, and to be honest, I used to think post-processing was a form of cheating. I wasn’t thinking about how to improve the raw image coming out of the camera.

Of course, a point-and-shoot camera with a 30x zoom didn’t meet my expectations. These cameras are meant for travel and casual photography — and while they may be good for that, they’re not suited for wildlife photography. That’s how I ended up getting my first DSLR, the Nikon D5200, and began taking wildlife photography more seriously.

10 years, 4 cameras and more than 80000 pictures later, here is where I'm today.

 

 It’s been a long and winding road — but a deeply rewarding one. Am I a good photographer? I’ll let you be the judge. As for me, I simply see myself as someone still walking that road, camera in hand, always learning, always looking for the light.