The Shot with Canon Explorer of Light Steve Sanders - Part 3: Finding the Shot

My name is Steve Sanders, Canon Explorer of Light and also the Director of Photography for the Kansas City Chiefs. Today we're here in Columbus, Ohio. We have a match between Gotham and The Current. Kind of the goal of today is to tell a story in one shot, that one frame that really tells the story of the game. In today's age of, you know, Instagram and social media, a lot of people view their work on their phones and don't have the opportunity to see a printed piece. In the beginning of my career, that's how I made money. You made money selling people's memories on paper or canvas or however you're showcasing your work. And it's something that someone's going to hang on their wall and admire and look at. And I think a lot of the younger photographers coming out now have hardly ever even seen a piece of their work printed. And, you know, when you can really study a photograph and you can look at it at different angles and you see the depth that a printed piece creates, I think it's so valuable. So being able to see a print right after the game, that's going to be something new for me. Just being able to have finished work literally right after the game is amazing. You know, if you were with the team and you were able to do this and, you know, have somebody making some prints for you while the game was going on or you were transmitting pictures and being able to deliver some of those pictures to players, I think they would think was really cool to get a real finished print right after the game. The image ProGraph Pro 1100, man, the prints are going to come out of that. Like we shot everything, JPEG, you know, we're not going to have much correction of this. It's going to come out quickly. You know, there's a lot of tones in these photographs, the nets to the, to the color of the uniforms. You know, the goalies are each wearing bright pastels. Gotham has got a lot of black in their uniforms and, you know, the teal of the current. I think all of those tones are going to come together and I think you're going to see rich color detail, especially in the blacks. The shadow detail is phenomenal. So I'm excited to, to get these prints out of this machine. Man, the software for the image ProGraph Pro 1100 is so easy to use. You know, I was able to take pretty much take photos right from my memory card, drag them right into the layout software and it worked flawlessly, came right out of the machine. Man, it was, it was, it was kind of challenging to find the right shot to tell the story tonight. You know, the goalie has been playing a really great game. So I was kind of trying to focus on that, you know, just a lot of things to think about that are rolling around while you're shooting and, you know, trying to just stay balanced in, in my philosophy of just having the faces coming at me with a little bit of emotion, keeping the ball in play, just trying to lean in on my learned technical skills to try to make a few pictures. The gear, the canning gear is always dependable. You know, I, the focus is quick, doing some things, reset it up to focus through the net so we could, you know, get the goalie clean as we shot through to give the pictures a little foreground, a little depth. So, you know, really some of those soccer settings really, really worked out. The play changes directions continuously. I mean, it's going from left to right and, you know, somebody kicks the ball or deflects the ball and it immediately changes the trajectory of, you know, kind of what you have in mind. So you've got to be on a swivel. Patience, you know, wait for those pictures to come to you. Be prepared when, when you're working and looking through the lens for the photographs and, you know, if your technical skills are on, when the play comes towards you, you're going to have a lot of success. So I selected this picture of the Gotham goalie Berger just because of the high point of the action. You know, our teammates are looking on as she's making the play to save the goal, you know, and also one of the features of the action priority is being able to shoot through nets and this captured it perfectly. I didn't get, the focus wasn't distracted by the net and she's really sharp and I just kind of just really liked the way that the shot framed up. This frame that I selected is, it's about the the agony of missing a, missing a goal. The current player was coming down the field and again Berger making another stop and just the expression and the emotion that the current player is showing by the goalie making that stop and missing the goal is in my mind is one of the most emotional pictures that I was able to capture from the game. At the end of the day, to pick one picture that told the story of today's match, you know, a lot of different emotions and joy going on with the athletes. So I just really think that if we had to pick a picture and tell a story, I mean, you know, you've got great defense throughout the game, you've got a couple of goals, but the emotion and the things that I really look for in a picture came out at the end. A long game and a lot of excitement. What's better to celebrate with than a confetti photo? You know, crowning the champion of the game, you know, it was, it was the photograph that kind of culminated the whole event. You know, we had a couple of goals, we had some good defense, but confetti and medals and the trophy, that's what to me tells the story of the cup. You know, they're all cheering a little bit, you know, from the coaching staff, all the way through the players, everybody was super happy about this. And the image ProGraph 1100 did a great job with the blacks and the white, a lot of contrast in this, a lot of detail in the shadows, made a great print. And this is the shot. And I can't thank Canon enough for making this journey today possible. It was a lot of fun to come out here and shoot this soccer match. You know, I look forward to projects like this in the future. Thank you for coming on this journey with me to capture the shot. Please like this video and subscribe to stay up to date on all things Canon.