Portraits under pressure

Know them, know their reactions

First a good portrait should show emotion, good or bad, and be able to draw the viewer into the frame wanting to know more. Noah Lyles is a great athlete to photograph for different emotions and reactions at the end of his races. I was at the end of the 100m track in the moat. Lyles had finished his race, and I knew to stick on him as he walked past, hoping he would do something different. Luckily, he turned around for a split second and poked his tongue out. It was a very brief moment and, working at f/1.8, the camera was able to lock on and find his eyes as it happened very quickly. F/1.8 allows the depth to show when the subject gets this close and is where fast prime lenses really help achieve a certain look.

Top tip: Let the subject keep moving and filling your frame. Keep tracking as much as possible as you never know what they might do to make it a different picture.

Pick and stick

Final whistle moments in rugby are extremely unpredictable. A lot has to come together to make a strong image, and this game went down to the wire. My heart was pumping pretty hard and the pressure was very high. Trying to decide who might win, and who to focus on and where to position myself with the cleanest background and hopefully two players reacting with pure emotion, is a lot of pressure. I made the call to stay on the 400mm and frame this tight rather than loose, to blow the background out and fill the frame with emotion. Everything can change in a split second, so you have to react, change subject and focus fast. It’s a good feeling when it comes together!

Top tip: Having fast lenses and cameras to react with your eye is critical when you are working in such high-pressure situations. Have your camera’s settings and functions dialled in ready. Being able to anticipate a situation before it happens in sport comes down to a lot of practice, research and experience.

Watch for the in-between

Sabalenka always has great emotion during her match and can react at any moment, so for someone like her you need to be ready not just on match point. Often in tennis you don’t always achieve a clean background when a player reacts or gives the best emotion during the game, so when it falls in a clean space with good lighting it is extra rewarding. Having the ability on the 120-300mm to zoom in or out quickly gave me more freedom to work different angles, making sure I could fill the frame creating a more powerful image when Sabalenka reacted.

Top tip: You can’t move position often during tennis matches so it’s important to make a call on your position based on backgrounds, light and where most players react when trying to capture certain images to give yourself the best chance of capturing a reaction that’s clean and powerful.

Freeze every gritty detail

Setting my shutter speed above 1600 freezes everything, even the spit and sweat coming from the player, which only adds to making this a special moment. Also using an aperture of f/2.8 separates the subject from the background to pull focus on what matters. Positioning yourself during rugby matches can be hard as it is very unpredictable, so when a try happens on your side of the field and in your corner, it’s special when everything comes together.

Top tip: Zoom in tighter, even as players move closer to you at speed. Letting the subject fill your frame helps in certain moments, such as this one, as they result in a more dynamic image.

Do what others don’t

The atmosphere in the stadium during Duplantis’ world record jump was one of the best things I have experienced. But the most emotion-charged moments came after. He was running and reacting everywhere. I remember the huge number of photographers and scrum that ended up around him once he went towards the crowd. I made a call to stay back and photograph it long to hopefully capture the chaos around him. Trying to get something from this moment, I was literally hanging over the barrier with the moat below me, using the camera’s screen angled to help me compose the frame to get rid of unwanted distractions.

Top tip: Try different positions when working in high-pressure moments. Sometimes it pays to stay back and show something different to what everyone else is capturing.

Emotion follows adrenaline

Pure raw emotion usually follows once the adrenaline has worn off, which was certainly the case here for Thea Lafond post-race. She found a flag in the crowd and wrapped it around her. I just loved the way her medal started swinging around her neck outside the flag, summing up the result and how she felt all in one frame. F/1.8 helps blow the background out, creating slight bokeh with the stadium lighting, bringing the viewer’s eye to the subject faster, which increases the impact. The advantage of a long lens is the ability to make the reaction stand out more by losing all distractions around your subject and having a clean backgrounds so nothing is distracting too much from the subject.

Top tip: Using an aperture at f/2.8 or wider can really change how your sport and portraits can look, especially in busy, sporting venues.

Look for where love lies

When Gianmarco Tamberi found his mother in the crowd after winning gold, I knew I had to follow them as something special might happen. It was a very chaotic space working in the moat to capture this, but then there was this moment of pure joy, pride, love and calm in such a scene of chaos. Having my 24-70mm ready to go at any moment and getting to a position to capture something special made this capture possible. It’s all about preparation and reaction.

Top tip: Look for special interactions between two subjects amid everything else that is going on around you. These moments can often produce strong, memorable images.

Not all that glitters is gold

I just love Amy’s expression after winning silver. It was unexpected and so unique to her. Some sports photographers always focus on the gold medal winner, but they’re missing out. This moment with Amy shows her real excitement. Using the 120-300mm here helped me capture her reaction at the right length compared with being too loose on a wider lens, which would have lost impact.

Top tip: Look beyond the main spotlight of a race, match or winner for other moments that might be happening. Sometimes the best reactions happen away from all the attention.

Swap fast or use a zoom

Anticipating where the athlete is going to go and being ready to swap lenses last minute to capture whatever happens next becomes a big part of capturing moments like this. In his excitement, Gout Gout ran over to us and almost ended up on top of us all in the photo pit, so being prepared with a wide-angle lens helped capture this moment. It’s very important to be ready for anything with athletes like Gout Gout, who likes to play up for the cameras and has lots of different expressions and energy pre and post-race.

Top tip: When choosing what to send from my camera to remote editors, I look for an image that sums up a moment, for simplicity, use of light and expression, or the subject doing something interesting that separates it from other frames.

Expect the unexpected

It was really special to document the first New Zealander to win the New Zealand Open since 2017 and be there when Daniel’s friends came onto the green spontaneously to celebrate with him. Photographing and focusing when you have Champagne flying over the top of you and in your eyes can be tricky! It’s important to keep an eye on what is happening, move quickly to react and hold focus on your subject.

Top tip: Preparation is key in moments like this. Be ready with the right short lens to capture anything unexpected.