A Changing Experience
In college I was an all-around sportsman, not excelling in any particular sport or game, but enjoying them all. That interest led to my becoming a sports photographer, though in the beginning I did not have the proper equipment or know-how.
My first experiment in photojournalism was shot in 1970 with a 35mm measure focus, fully manual camera with a 50mm lens, and without even a light meter. Attempted with limited facilities and experience, the result was a grand success and helped pave the way for my photojournalism career. Professional photographers in India then mostly used 120 size Rolleiflex or Rolleicord cameras, and larger format Speed Graphic or similar cameras for their work. SLR cameras weren't seen in those days.
In 1972 I came to the U.S. to study sports and wildlife photography, and in 1974 joined PSA. Since 1973 it has been my pleasure to do my own processing of transparency films, color negative films and black and white films. I later shot pictures for a few sports weeklies and newspapers in India using a fully manual 35mm SLR with a built-in, dependable exposure meter, a tripod, a monopod, and a few zoom lenses. With that equipment I did not find any difficulty in composing, focusing, and clicking at the right moment to capture properly exposed, good pictures, but I always had to be very alert. Those using TLR 120 cameras in India gradually started using 35mm SLR cameras for sports photography. My work helped for speeding up that process in Trivandrum.
In the 1980s when good automatic exposure cameras with motor drives were available, it made my shooting much easier and more convenient, and it was a thrilling experience. Sports photographers all over the world found such cameras very useful, and I thought it was the ultimate in sports photography.
During my sports photography work in those days I was able to identify two outstanding young athletes studying in two different schools who could one day become athletes of international stature. One was a 15-year-old swimmer, and the other was a 15-year-old female 800-meter runner. Just as I had thought, after a few years those two athletes became Olympians, but they did not win any medals. After some time those two athletes fell in love and became man and wife, an unforgettable experience in my life.
From 1980 to 1989 1 taught photojournalism to several young men and a few women, some of whom became outstanding photojournalists.
In the 1990s, by the advent of the autofocus SLR cameras like Canon EOS, and top quality autofocus lenses in all ranges, shooting of sports photographs became very easy and foolproof for anybody who could afford to buy such cameras and lenses. Sports photography became less tedious. It became more enjoyable and thrilling.
Today, photography has moved one more step ahead. The high quality, very efficient SLR digital cameras with a wide range of lenses and other accessories have made sports photography easy and ultra fast. They not only shoot excellent pictures without much strain, but also allow photographers to send the photographs to their clients very quickly from their digital studios, without chemical processing. The problem photographers in countries like India experience today is the prohibitive cost of these new, highly efficient cameras and other necessary computer equipment and the speed with which this new equipment becomes outdated. The payment they get for their professional work is meagre. Now, surely, even the digital camera will not be the ultimate in sports photojournalism. Science is progressing so fast and without bounds, that nobody knows in which direction we are going next.
