Picnic under the Moonlight

One of my favourite shots off my GSN is absolutely shite, technically. It looks out of focus, the grain is unbearable, the depth of field is too shallow and you basically can’t see much in the picture. Yet to me it’s one of them “perfectly imperfect” pictures – somehow all the crap just comes together to provide a feeling of nostalgia which completes the picture (oh no I’m talking like a holga fanboy now).

Memorial Day

I today came across an image which stuck itself firmly and immediately into my memory banks. Taken last year by Getty photographer John Moore, it truly reflects the emotion that so many feel (and that so many others are oblivious to) during Memorial Day in the USA. John Moore is more famously known as a war photographer, having won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Iraq war. He also was mere metres away from Benazir Bhutto at the time of her assassination, and captured some of the most poignant images from that incident.

 

John Moore – Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery / Getty Images

 

On its own, this image is moving. But a photograph is never complete without a story behind it, and Mr. Moore’s account makes this a truly powerful image. Everything about the photo contributes to its message, from the numerous (and still growing) rows of tombstones, to the gifts laid on them that are so telling of the people they serve to honour.

To me, this represents everything that war stands for – senseless killing and needless loss. And the worst thing is, Mary McHugh is but one in millions who have experienced such tragedy.

Well, you take ze ball, and run with eet…

Of all the different genres that photography covers, sports photog stirs up the greatest emotion in me. When given the chance to cover a sporting event, I often experience a feeling not dissimilar to the fire burning in a man’s loins when Jessica Alba enters a room. In the nude.

Ok I confess, that line was just to get more hits from Google search strings with “jessica alba nude“. Or “fire burning Jessica Alba“, whichever.

Anyway, point is, I really like sports photography. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I think it’s really because people are really raw when they do sports – whatever emotions you capture are real, not posed. Of course, being a lifelong sports lover does help too.

If you’ve ever noticed the professional sports photographers along sidelines of big football games, you’ll have seen their huge (and usually white) lenses. Steering away from technicalities and lectures about glass quality and the like, in the world of photography, the larger the hole at the end of the lens, the more expensive it is. By my estimates, each of those photographers carries at least $20,000 worth of equipment. Usually much more than that. Long story short, sports photography needs loads of money, please donate to me.

So in my fledgling photographic life, I’ve gone out and tried to shoot as much sports as I can. One of this occasions was the SCC International Rugby Sevens tournament last year (some shots are in my woefully empty flickr album), and from this outing came about one of my favourite captures so far.

This picture was taken from the sidelines during a match between Rugby Ecosse and the Te Papapa Barbarians, essentially the respective sevens developmental squads for Scotland and Samoa.  In this photo, one in a whole sequence, the Samoan player evades and outpaces his Scottish counterpart, leaving him with a mouthful of grass.

Of course, the picture didn’t come out from my camera in black and white – I did a little bit of a digital conversion. Black and white, of course, is my other big love in photography, and after seeing it being used in some sports shots, I thought I’d try it out with this one – and I quite like it!

Anyway, sports photography will never be a big thing here, which kinda parallels the fate of the local sports scene. However, it still gives me great joy, covering sports, or even sportsish events like Waikiki, so I’m pretty sure I’ll keep at it. Sadly, keeping at it also means my bank account will in turn parallel the fate of the local sports scene.

On a bright note though, there have been people out to make a difference, and one of them is Leslie, who apart from being a great photographer is also a really nice chap. Do visit and support him at http://www.redsports.sg, which seeks to cover as much of the local sports scene (especially at school level) – certainly something I wish we had back in the day!