Photographyblog, Delly Carr, another Best Sport Photographer

Q. Briefly describe a Day in the Life of Delly Carr!

Wow, great question to begin with. No day in my life is the same, so that's why I love being a photographer. My office day is usually filled with all the paperwork, marketing, accounting, public relations, and other business tasks that we ‘creatives’ are bad at and avoid doing with a passion. But we remind ourselves that it must be done. Our business survival relies heavily on all the paperwork being done promptly and professionally.

My work day is different - I'll prepare the photo kit according to what sport I will shoot that day and check the forecast and prepare for the weather that I am likely to encounter. I’ll start driving to the event very early, usually arriving 2-3 hours before it starts so that I can avoid the crowds, traffic and parking delays. I find the media centre, fire up the laptop and the internet connection. I make sure to get all my accreditation all sorted, attend any media briefing that may be on, and get some food and drink. Then I get out amongst the action and start firing at will. Once the event is over, there will be an hour or two of computer work to get the images out to the clients.

Q. What is your favourite kind of sports photography, and what is it about that sport that interests you so much?

I love watching and shooting sport, so each sport fascinates me in some way or form. But if I had favourites, any sport that involves water. Water adds so much extra movement, sparkle, shapes, and is so unpredictable in what it will do. Any of the rugby/football codes are also great to shoot because undoubtedly the elements of “Blood Sweat and Tears” are mixed in amongst the macho action we all expect there to be. And there is Triathlon, three sports rolled into one, and a sport I have photographed for 20 years and more - I have grown to love and be part of it.

Q. How did you make the break-through to becoming a full-time pro photographer?

Yes there have been defining moments, but becoming a full-time photographer is not something that happened overnight. It took many years of knocking on doors, making calls, ethics and good business practises, producing quality work, making mistakes, proper budgeting and most importantly, reaching for the stars and following the passion to be a full-time photographer. I never gave up.

If I had two 'breakthroughs' they would be when Sydney was awarded the rights to host the Olympic Games in 2000, and then winning an Award for the Best Action Photograph of that same Games a year later.

Q. What kind of equipment do you use now, and what did you start with?

I use Nikon pro gear right now. My kit would consist of 2 pro bodies, a 600mm f4 lens, a 300mm f2.8, 80-200mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, a f2.8 fisheye, SB900 flash, and a multitude of CF cards. And a trolley to cart it all around !

Q. What has been the single most important technological improvement for your photography, and why?

In the past 12 months or so, the generation of cameras being produced and their low light capabilities are outstanding. I am forever shooting so many sports in the evening to suit the TV Audience market. I cannot blame the camera for missing an image because I have had to sacrifice aperture or shutter speeds to compensate for the low light, the onus is now back on me to get the picture.

The digital cameras of today have finally caught and surpassed the quality of the professional film cameras we once had.

Q. What's your favourite ever image, and why?

The fencing picture from Sydney Olympic Games will always be special to me. It won an award for the Best Sports Action Photo of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. You could compare it to like winning the Academy Award of Sports Photography.

I'm afraid to say that not a lot of thought and time went into getting that image. I was on my way to catch the bus home after a long day shooting at the Sydney Olympic Games. As I walked past a sports hall I could hear a lot of cheering. I poked my head in and saw that they were staging a Gold Medal Team Fencing Final between China and France.

It was down to the last stages of the contest. I walked in, took my seat, unpacked my camera, and loaded it with my only roll of film. By then, it was down to the last point. Both China and France were at 41 hits, the next point for either would win the Gold Medal. They both suddenly lunged at each other and with milliseconds both scored a hit on each other. They both thought they had won the Gold Medal.

This image was the very first frame I took of the match. I had never photographed fencing before that either so that's what makes this image so special.

I finished the roll of 36 photographing the French team celebrating, packed my bags and left. I had only spent a maximum 5-10minutes shooting fencing. But I walked away knowing that I had some very special images on that one roll of film. I spent many evenings attending and photographing quite a few fencing finals four years later at the Athens Olympics, and just recently in Beijing. I tried in vain to get another award winning image, but that same magic never happened again.

I am still introduced to people by people as 'the guy who won the best action picture of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games'.

Q. What has been your most interesting or dangerous assignment?

Thankfully as a sports photographer danger is never seen written into my assignment description.

Unintentionally however I could get closer to the action than I should and the consequences could have been quite ugly. So many times I have felt the swoosh of air from a bicycle or car that got too close, or had to make to make a reflex move to avoid being struck by a quick moving ball or sporting apparatus.

I remember the one time I was caught in the middle of the road as a peloton of 70 pro riders bore down on me. I stood still waiting for the impact, but they were professional enough to part open the pack and they cycled past and around me - like Moses parting the seas. And then there was the time a wayward out-of-control skateboard at the XGames flew directly at my head, crashing into the camera, smashing the flash and making a massive dent in the camera body. The camera saved me from serious concussion, black eyes, a broken nose and/or a few missing front teeth.

Q. Has the recent recession impacted on your business, and how have you dealt with it?

Whilst my total income and revenue has stayed roughly around the same, I have definitely felt a downturn in the volume of work. Thankfully I have offset this by getting more work out of my existing (and financially stable) clients.

I have seen some of my clients take cheaper options by using a relative to take the images, using stock images from the shoot we did the year before instead of updating their image library, taking images themselves, commissioning me for a 1/2 day instead of a full day but cramming more work, and now avoiding photography for their peripheral events such as Season Launches, Fan Days or Awards Nights.

Sport is still a stable commodity in this world, so I had to rethink and begun giving my long-term stable clients some extra love and care once again. I have also surprisingly increased my marketing activity, using a push similar to 'when you need to use a sports photographer use one of my experience and get it right the first time' . But I haven’t dared to raise any prices at all.

Q. What is the one piece of advice that you would give to other budding photographers?

I'll cheat and pass on two I would swear by:

(a) learn by your mistakes. If you image doesn't look good, understand why. And if your image does look good, understand why it does

(b) be professional in all aspects of your appearance, your work, your business skills, and your ethics. People will only do business with you if they like and trust you.

Q. Finally, how do you think photography will change in the future, if at all?

I'm an old school photographer, so it took me a long while to accept digital as the replacement for film. I now know that I am there, and digital is the present and future - and rightly so. It has it place in this world and it has so many advantages in its workflow and processes over the way we used to work with film. It now feels like photography is taking a new direction and starting to move into a new multimedia world.

Digital is evolving daily and the use of images moves in parallel. But in the whole scheme of things, and most importantly, photography in its own essence will not change.

My world is about moments, quick fleeting moments that are otherwise missed but brought into existence by the physical photograph. And the moments are many, the moments are quick, and the moments all exist with different chemistry to each other. The chemistry is determined by the vision and portrayal that the photographer judges as being part of its outer skin. The sports photographer puts a little of his own self into his grand vision, and ultimately the exhibition of that captured moment. And as soon as there is a spectator for the photograph, the photograph and moment exists.