Kim Komenich on Sports Photography

June 16th, 2005 * Comments(0)

A funny guy yet perfectly to the point

Sometimes I think newspaper sports photography has degenerated to the level of duck hunting, with photographers from competing papers using identical equipment kneeling next to each trying to beat each other out of the same moment. We all have our 400mm f/2.8 lenses and we all kneel five yards back. What ever happened to somebody taking a frickin’ chance?

Contests should reward ideas, originality and storytelling, not only equipment, access and reflexes.

 Kim Komenich: What Is A Good Sports Photo?

I was just thinking about the issue yesterday at a super sprint Triathlon Ljubljanica (super sprint being ~200/5/1 if you know what the numbers are about) (pics coming soon)

Where’s the fun in shooting with an extremely long lens? Yeah well, I admitt I bought myself a 70-200/2.8 for exactly that purpose since sometimes you just can’t work any other way but I rarely get a shot that’s truly interesting. Something with presence, something up front and personal, something that hits you in the face. You don’t get that with a telephoto lens…

Peak action photos are important to the coverage of the game as presented in the next day’s paper, but don’t kid yourself — they are trophies. They are evidence that the photographer had the access and the timing and the light and the moment under control in that split-second on that day.

If you work really hard you may get a truly amazing shot that says something but it most likely won’t come from a regular game on a sunday afternoon.

That’s why I love ultra wideangle lenses, I just wish I had the money to buy a 10-22 or something. With these lenses you become a part of the action yourself, you feel the photo moment developing in front of you.
You have to work hard for each and every shot. Climb up poles, lie down in the dirt, go underwater, jump up or fall down. It becomes a whole different experience in itself.

And sometimes you get hurt…

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