Education is a great thing. It dispels ignorance, increases awareness, and solves problems. Here’s today’s lesson for all wanna be golf photographers.
If you want to capture a Pulitzer prize winning photo and establish yourself as a big league golf picture taker, concentrate on the reaction, not the action. Look for those opportunities after the ball is on its way, or in the hole when the golfer can be caught in a rare moment of supreme excellence, or unbridled joy.
Let me share with you five of my favorites, and I’ll bet they’ll be on your short list if they aren’t already:
Ben Hogan posing as his 1-iorn shot whistles towards the home hole at Merion at the 1950 U.S. Open hole.
Arnold Palmer tossing his visor after winning the 1960 U.S. Open.
Jack Nicklaus raising his putter as the ball is about to fall on the 17th at Augusta at the 1986 Masters.
Tiger Woods toothy and jubilant smile on the cover of SI upon winning the 1997 Masters.
Phil Mickelson jumping for joy at the 2004 Masters with the crowd joining him in the background.
Did you photographers notice something? Not one of the Fab Five were in the middle of their swing. So forget those in swing photos. They are great for magazine layouts where they analyze a player’s swing mechanics. Instead, go for the classic photo ops that come after impact. You might capture a classic, and you’ll keep from upsetting Woods or any other player. A win-win wouldn’t you say?
PS – Dear reader, I’d love to have you post links to your favorite photos of our heroes, and I’m sure other readers would as well.
Then send this message to PGA Tour Headquarters.
Dear PGA Tour,
You can go a long way towards solving the photographer problem by teaching the press who are not so golf savvy what makes a great golf photo. Here is it: look for the reaction, not the action. Then link them to this post so they can see some of the classics.
Thanks,
A fan who cares about the game.
RSS
1 response so far ↓
1 Andy Brown // Mar 31, 2008 at 7:49 am
Those are some real quality pics and the first real sensible take on the whole Tiger versus Mr Photographer fracas at Doral. Really it beats me, why the photographers think catching the great man in action would result in an award winning photograph. If anything the picture they would get in that process would not be any different from a Tiger Woods swing during the Wednesday practice round. What you will not catch on a Wednesday but something that will be readily available on a Sunday afternoon is that pleading gaze from the golfer urging the ball to dance to his tunes, the crestfallen look when a putt misses the hole by a whisker or just the sheer joy of a fabulous iron shot or perhaps even the sheepish grin that you might get when the player gets a lucky break.
Of course having said all this I still maintain that Tiger should have come out with an apology later for what he had to say to the photographer. Just does not show the great man in ‘great’ light.
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