Steve Christo

I recently discovered a sports photographer by the name of Steve Christo, who shoots for the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. I am really drawn to his work, so much attention to the framing, background, lots of detail that really keeps me intrigued about his photographs. Lately, I've been doing a lot of research, mostly surfing websites such as POYi and the Best of Photojournalism, in search of new photographers to inspire me. I find the more photographers I study, theres always a new style or perspective you learn about, which really helps when I go to shoot an event, it keeps the ideas flowing throughout the day. Christo is extremely talented, and decorated, as he's won 3 awards for POYi awards of excellence in sports photography. It always seems to be true, if you study the best, you know how high the bar is set, and where you need to be in order to get to the top. With any realm of art, you need to be in the top of your game, and constantly out there pushing the envelope. At this point in my sports photography career, i'm still new to the game, but i'm making connections, shooting more events, and most importantly, becoming more and more motivated to being the best, I really feel that I've found my niche, the perfect marriage of my love for sports and art. I couldn't be happier.

Christo's work completely embodies all the aspects I'm striving to have within my photography. He really has a great eye for compositions, decisive moment, and color. These three aspects I find especially important. Composition is a talent, I have always found myself to have a good eye with photography, and art in general. The problem comes when getting composition while shooting a sports moment, the action is moving so fast, how do you shoot a key moment, and get a great framing at the same time? Its a real challenge, but its exciting. Decisive moment is all about timing, experience, and confidence. Being familiar with the specific sport you're shooting really helps a lot with this aspect, if you know the quarterback is going to hand off the ball to the running back, it makes your job a lot easier. Color is probably my most favorite aspect in art. I really feel that color is what grabs a viewers' attention when filling through a magazine or newspaper. I've always been attractived to vibrant colors such as orange, blue, etc. Being able to fill your frame with colors and contrast between background and foreground is something I always try to contain in my images. I find that shooting in certain areas, this notion is a little harder to bring into my images. Richmond is kind of a smoggy, dirty place, and most of the sporting venues here are surrounded by construction sites or main roads, which means my background is typically filled with cars and fences, which I don't particularly like. But, I gotta start at the bottom, work my way up, its about problem solving, the more I shoot, the more I will be able to solve issues such as these. I've already found that shooting at the top of the bleachers at Sports Backers helps a lot in isolating the urban environment from the frame. You get more grass and less junk, which ultimately makes for a better image, and less distracting, softer background.