Sport through the lens

Year is around again, and once again it’s time for roundup.

This time I went through my favorite sport photos from year 2007, and made small collection. It’s hard to decide between few 1000 photos, which one I like best, but here’s my collection.

I hope you will like it.

Michael Roesch of Germany shooting in men mass start race on Pokljuka, Slovenia
I really like this photo, since it just looks great. Michael put photo of his girlfriend’s eyes on diopter of his rifle, and when shooting, it just looks great.

Winner Paolo Bettini of Italy celebrating his victory in finish line of Men Elite road race of UCI Road Cycling World Championships
This is one of best photos for me. It’s great moment with really powerful story behind it. Paolo was on line of fire for all World Championships, with German organizers and authorities leading stampedo against him, and he returned “favor” in best possible way by winning World Championships. Part of story is also told in this photo with Paolo shooting at organizers when crossing finish line and with beaten Stefan Schumacher of Germany behind Bettini.

Second placed Nicole Gius of Italy skiing in second run of Women Alpine skiing giant slalom FIS World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia
This one is officially missed shot, but I still like it. It was shoot on 600mm, two gates above, when skiers were coming over the fault, so I didn’t have much time for tracking. Normally I’m doing those photos, when they are on pole, so as I said, this one is a moment or two too early. But on the other side, it looks nice for me when Nicole is looking down the course straight into camera, through the gate.

4th placed Benjamin Raich of Austria skiing in second run of men giant slalom race of Audi FIS Men Alpine skiing World Cup 2008.
It’s not really normal skiing shoot, but I still think it’s cool, just because it’s different. I was actually just shooting them one gate down the course (blue gate), and since this was second run, and I had enough of standard photos, I went for something different.

Winner Robin Bryntesson of Sweden skiing in quarter finals of Men Under23 Sprint race of Junior Nordic skiing World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy.
A bit different perspective then normal cross country skiing photos. I was told already, wide angle shots from low perspective is my trademark, and some people like it, some don’t, but I’m glad agencies we work with, are happy to get some different photos too. So when I have time, I try to produce different photos. With all the colorful skier, blue sky and white snow, to make contrast even bigger, I think this one works pretty good.

Jakob Schubert of Austria climbing in half finals of last IFSC Sport Climbing World cup of 2007 season.
It’s just a shot. Nothing special, but this guy was just unbelievable. He’s something like 16 years old, and this was his first World cup race, and straight into finals to 4th place. And when he was resting under roof, hanging down on tiny grip, everything looked so easy. And in my opinion, this photo really shows how easy it was for him to hang there, where normal people wouldn’t stay not even for second.

Ferreol Cannard of France skiing in men sprint race of e.on Ruhrgas IBU Biathlon World Cup.
Another a bit different photo from biathlon World Cup. Individual start races are pain in the ass to shoot, especially in biathlon. You never know who will win, and with a bit luck, someone who never managed to get into top 30, can win the race. So we normally seat somewhere, and shoot every single skier who comes around… whole 90 and something on biathlon World Cup. But since laps are quite short, they start to overtake each other, and keeping record who came by for first time and who for fifth time, can be pretty challenging thing. Ferreol came by third time when I shoot this photo, so I really didn’t need another same photo of him. And this is result of this. Sometimes, you don’t need to move not even centimeter, to get completely different photo.

Carlo Janka of Switzerland skiing in first run of men slalom race of Audi FIS Men Alpine skiing World Cup 2008.
I don’t know why, but this photo looks great for me. I had a bit of bad luck with coaches standing two gates higher, but that’s life. After I tilted camera a bit and went back to 300mm instead of 420mm, I could frame this one exactly the way I wanted. Works nice for me, or? :)

Winner Lars Boom of Netherland riding in Men U23 Time trial race of UCI Road Cycling World Championships.
First day of cycling World championships was not all that great. Bad, cold weather, no cool scenic locations and long race. But it still didn’t end all that bad. A bit longer shutter time, some panning to make background fall colored trees a bit more dramatic, and nice contrast color of Lars’ cycling suit makes this photo look pretty good.

Josh Bryceland of Great Britain riding in last race of Men Downhill Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
Once you have time to shoot two rides instead of just one, you can try to shoot them a bit different. Instead of shooting with 200 or 300mm lens, I went for wide angle and some extra space. 

Athletes running in 12th Ljubljana Marathon.
My favorite event to shoot…NOT! What can you do on race with few 1000 athletes, on rainy day with no color? Nothing much, unless you move to bridge just above road markings. And with few 1000 people running below you, you have quite some time to experiment.

Cyclists riding during 40th Grand Prix Kranj, The Filip Majcen Memorial cycle race.
Cycling races can be good or bad. Sometimes, you can’t do anything decent without motor, on the other times, you can just drive from one place to another with car and shoot hundreds of nice photos. Race in Kranj, Slovenia, is one of those races which fit into second category. Quite few scenic locations along the course, normally also some decent riders, and access is great… you have even coffee places along the road, so waiting is easier :) For this one, we just parked along the course, walked few 100 meters off the course to field, use 300mm lens and kneel down. Yes I know, sunflowers would be typical, but there’s not really much of sunflower fields near Kranj, so wheat has to be good enough too :)

Some other day, I will go through other photos, and try to put small selection from those too.

Photo SI photos of year 2007 (shoot also by other photographers working for PhotoSI) can be seen on following two links:
Summer sport photos of year 2007
Winter sport photos of year 2007