A WIDER ANGLE

In Search of the Perfect Image….

November 2009

I don’t know about you but one of the things I enjoy and which keeps me motivated about photography is the search for the perfect image.

No such image exists or ever will exist in my collection and in my opinion, except in rare instances, in anyone else’s collection either.  We can always improve.  Sports photography is insanely hard to get right let alone perfect.  How often does it happen to me?  I am so close to making one of the best sports photos I’ve ever made… It’s the peak moment of the action, Sivi is zooming down the wing, the ball is slipping through his fingers as he is tackled, there is lots of effort and sweat etched on the players faces, the framing is perfect and… its out of focus.  Not just a little bit, oh no instead the focus is on the guy in the stand with a beer in his hand.  Doh!  And this is with (almost) cutting edge autofocus technology.  Manual focus is harder still especially if you have eyes as bad as mine.
Oh well!  Just like in all sports you win some, you lose some.  It was not my time to make that image and I just have to accept it as that and keep training, practicing and trying.  When it does all come together to produce a decent image the buzz is amazing.

All photographs need vision and timing.  I said earlier that the perfect image was rare. Some of you may be left completely unmoved by these two photos but these are the sort that stick in your mind long after you see them.  I don’t particularly like boxing but the photo shown on this site is one of the most iconic sports photos of all time.  It was taken by Neil Leifer in 1965 of Muhammad Ali knocking out Sonny Liston and displays perfect timing, emotion, action and Ali’s confidence, strength and, yes, his arrogance http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0201/nl01.htm

The second, more recent, example is one that I would love to have taken.  It was done for Getty Images at the UEFA Champions League Soccer Final in May between Manchester United and Barcelona.  The best player on the pitch was Lionel Messi and here he is scoring Barcelona’s second goal.  What is so striking about this image

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8069104.stm is that Messi is only a little guy and is not supposed to be very good at heading the ball.  Here he is doing just that to score Barcelona’s second goal.  His diminutive figure hanging way above the ground, the ball about to drop into the net and the expression on United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar’s face make this a wonderful example of photographic vision, timing and technique.  By the way if you want to see the TV version of this goal here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idbg6kH457o&feature=related

Keep your cameras handy and see you around.

Geoff