Budding sports photographers in the picture
This edition of the popular show offered prospective snappers the chance to work alongside top sports photography agency Inpho, and interest was keen. Over 400 people applied, and a shortlist of six candidates was eventually cut down to three for a two-week placement: Paul McGuckian, a property website founder, James Crombie, an IT worker and stand-up comedian Alan McElroy (the other three entrants who made the shortlist were Alan Gallagher, Michael Heneghan and Michael Rowsome).
Billy Stickland of Inpho took the three contestants in hand. First he had to show them the reality.
“There’s a glamorous side to sports photography,” says Stickland.
“People often say to me, ‘I’d like to be in your suitcase’ when I’m heading off somewhere. But it’s also very competitive nowadays and there are huge pressures. In a period of two weeks it’s impossible to take someone off the street and turn them into a sports photographer, but the contestants got a very good flavour of what it was like, and they were all very enthusiastic.”
Stickland started small with his proteges. “We started off with simple assignments. We told them on the first day they were going to cover a big sports event, and they all thought they were going to the Ireland-Czech Republic soccer game, which was on the same day. We actually sent them to a table tennis tournament.
“We started them off on stuff that wouldn’t have a lot of pressure — for instance, the next event we sent them to was a minor hurling game in UCD.”
There was a slight change of focus after the first week, with the contestants introduced to a different aspect of sports photography.
“At the end of the first week they were given a feature to do — we got boxer Bernard Dunne to agree to being used as the subject of the feature photograph, and we got one of our photographers, Dan Sheridan, to go along and help the contestants with lighting and so on. That was quite a step up for them.
“Feature photography is probably more rewarding simply because you’re relying on your skills rather than on something happening in a game or an event. If someone scores a goal or a try in a game that’s what everyone wants to see in a photograph — or, as happened last weekend with Ronan O’Gara getting choked, everyone wants to see the photograph of him.
“With a feature you’re more in control of what you’re trying to do, it’s more challenging from a purely artistic point of view — but there’s a lot of skill involved in action photography as well.”
For the second half of their placement the contestants moved on to action photography and were assigned to profile events.
“The second week we changed from features to action — we sent them to an FAI Cup game and a Leinster rugby game, while the final assignment was the final test in the Compromise Rules Series between Ireland and Australia. So the whole thing was being ramped up the whole time and becoming more challenging as they went along.”
Stickland was happy with the standard of the contestants and points out that apart from the technical know-how, concentration, a fundamental requirement in most jobs, is a must-have for any good photographer.
“In sports photography you should be aware of the angles — people tend to stand up when they take a photograph, whereas if they’re down low they get a different angle. We told the contestants to be careful of backgrounds, and getting images to stand out against certain backgrounds. But the most fundamental thing is concentration, first and foremost, something that would apply to most jobs.”
*’No Experience Required’ on RTE 2 at 9.30pm.
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