Yesterday's presentation took us into the world of sport - field and track athletics, canoe slaloms, husky racing, wheelchair basketball and Paralympics. A kaleidoscope of activities which left us breathless!
Peter described his own years in sport and his move into photography. He began with photos of snow leopards, leopards, tigers from local zoos and private collections before moving on to all those sports activities showing athletes up to Olympic standard.
He asked us 'What makes a good sport photograph?' The photo must demonstrate three distinct things - firstly, Effort; secondly, Drama; and thirdly; Emotion. All three must be present for the image to be worthwhile. And he went on to produce photos demonstrating all these things, with top quality athletes taking part in pole vaulting, high jumping, steeple chase, marathons and so on.
Peter said that he liked to be outside in good weather and not freezing cold, soaking wet or boiling hot. But even worse than these drawbacks was being inside a swimming pool trying to capture swimmers - the heat, the steam, the water and so on!
Canoe slaloms are outside, but they have a special set of problems caused by 12 tons of water per second travelling down the course, removing background problems (blocks lining the course) and perhaps the worst of all, canoes with two paddlers! And while the medium is water how about Jet Ski racing and Freestyle competitions. Trying to keep up with a jet ski capable of 0 to 60 in 2 seconds and five consecutive back flips definitely needs the burst mode and 10 fps.
Peter had high praise for the wheelchair athletes and showed great pictures, often in the rain, of competing athletes.
He mentioned the dedication of all athletes and particularly the wheelchair and Paralympic athletes and he quoted one such person - Hannah Cockroft 100M 'Loosing scares me more than winning excites me'
Hannah’s career highlights include PARALYMPIC GAMES 5 Gold - 2012 & 2016 - T34 100M / 2016 - T34 400M & 800M / 2012 - T34 200M
WPA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 12 Gold 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 & 2019 - T34 100M (5), 200M (2) 400M (2), 800M (3)
WPA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2 Gold 2014 & 2018 - T34 100M & 800M / T34 800M and 1 Silver 2018 - T34. That's determination and motivation...!