Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert
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102 The <strong>Digital</strong><strong>Camera</strong> inTerview<br />
Diego vs Lampard<br />
(top)<br />
brazilian player Diego evades<br />
england’s frank lampardin<br />
a friendly. The wide aperture<br />
isolates the conflict beautifully<br />
Winter Olympics<br />
(above)<br />
A masterful shot of a Czech skier<br />
competing in the 2006 Turin<br />
Winter olympics. Mason’s skill<br />
with manual exposure delivers<br />
great backlighting effects<br />
in THe bAG<br />
Mason is a<br />
nikon user,<br />
and carries<br />
three D3s Slr bodies,<br />
one nikon D3 body for<br />
remote work and lenses<br />
ranging from 14-24mm<br />
to 600mm. Mason also<br />
packs a couple of Sb<br />
900 flashguns, a 1.4x<br />
and 1.7x teleconverter,<br />
a Manfrotto monopod<br />
for shooting with the<br />
long lenses, a mini tripod<br />
for remotes behind the<br />
goals and two pocket<br />
Wizard remote triggers.<br />
<strong>Digital</strong><strong>Camera</strong> July2010<br />
125cc Grand Prix<br />
Arider tumbles at the british<br />
125cc Gp at Donington park.<br />
Mason’s anikon man<br />
nowadays, but took this shot<br />
on a Canon eoS-1D Mark ii<br />
South Atlantic – although i don’t think that<br />
picture had any bearing on my future career!”<br />
So howdid Mason getstarted as asports<br />
photographer?“it wassomething thati<br />
discoveredasaby-product of working for<br />
aregional newspaper,” he admits.“it rapidly<br />
became clear to me,and them, thationly<br />
really enjoyed sports. i moved to London and<br />
tried to sell myself to anyone whowould<br />
have me.After alittleperseverance, in 1994<br />
Getty images (formerly Allsport) offered me<br />
a job, and i haven’t looked back since.”<br />
Mason makes it sounds relatively easy,<br />
but he recounts some of the sacrifices he had<br />
to makeinthe earlydays.“idrove averyold<br />
Alfaipaid £150 for,and atenothing but<br />
Sugar Puffs for a year. except every Friday,<br />
when i would walk over to the kingsland<br />
road and get a Chinese takeaway as a treat!”<br />
perSeVeranCe anD VarietY<br />
it sounds like Withnail And I without the<br />
booze, but somehow Mason survived and<br />
slowly begantobuild up areputation. So<br />
what advicedoeshehavefor anyreaders<br />
hoping to carve out a career as a pro sports<br />
photographer? what are the biggest lessons<br />
he has learned along the way?<br />
“Persevere.it’snot easy but the rewards<br />
areunlimited. if youlove sport and love<br />
photography, this is it! Look at pictures all<br />
the time,learn howthe cameraworks,learn<br />
about the relationship between shutter speed<br />
and apertures, and the effects that varying<br />
them then creates. we get many people<br />
approaching us all the time and asking how<br />
we got into sports photography. Many of<br />
them are using their cameras on Program<br />
mode,which mayproduceagood shot, but<br />
won’t ever produce the shot.”<br />
Mason has photographed manydifferent<br />
types of sports, from cricket to yacht racing,<br />
but reckons F1 is his favourite.“it’s fast,<br />
it’s colourful, it’s challenging and just makes<br />
great pictures,” he says.Sailing and cricket<br />
areother passions, and Mason believesit’s<br />
good for sports photographers to have more<br />
than one string to their bow.<br />
“Persevere.it’snot easy butthe rewardsare unlimited.<br />
if youlovesport andlovephotography,thisisit! Look<br />
at pictures allthe time,learn howthe cameraworks,<br />
learn about shutter speed and aperture…”
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