Sometimes you have an idea for an image, but you have to work to get it. This image took some work. After shooting a few matches and getting some ‘OK’ images, I thought that getting eye level with the wrestlers might be an interesting perspective for the viewer.
The image above is my favourite from the match. The hometown wrestler was on top, visitor on the bottom.
To get the shot, I found my way up front, lay down, and used a longish lens for a closer view. The weak gym lighting required a high ISO setting so there would be some granular noise in the images. I did not worry about the image noise as the grain adds a bit of grittiness to the image.
Similarly, when you photograph a fast moving soccer match, capturing the right moment is essential. ‘Freezing’ a key moment provides fans (as they later read the game description) with a stop action, closeup look they could not get from the sideline.
