Image Focus

I was alone at the side of the court. The other photographers had gone to the other side when Emma Meesseman came over. It is not often that Emma shows her emotions like this; normally, she is very calm and in control, so this moment was extraordinary, and I was able to capture it with my Sony Alpha 9 II.

The moment came at the end of the game. It was the semi-final between Meesseman’s team, Fenerbahçe, and CBK Mersin. Emma Meesseman is the number one women's basketball player in Europe and always the MVP, and she had almost single-handedly won the game and taken her team to the final. She released all this emotion for just a few seconds, and I took five or six photos with the Alpha 9 II and my FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II.

Photos of emotions are the most important thing in any sport and in life in general. More important than the slam dunk, more important than the three-point shots, more important than the fouls. The emotion on the face is the most important because it explains the situation better than any of these other photos.

I would usually edit a photograph like this in black and white because it makes it easier to show emotion without the distraction of colour. But in this, because of the shirt and colour of Fenerbaçhe, I included the colour as it was part of the story. From a practical perspective, I am the Chief Marketing Photographer for FIBA (Fédération Internationale de Basketball), and presenting the image in colour makes it much more shareable on social media and for commercial purposes.

The shot was taken with the Sony Alpha 9 II and the FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens, which, alongside the FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II lens and FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS, I always use for basketball. I’ve been shooting with Sony cameras and lenses since the FIBA World Cup in China, 2019. I’m so relaxed using my camera as I know the equipment is perfect, which means it is one less thing to worry about when shooting.

For example, the Alpha 9 series of cameras is super fast, and I never have to worry about the focus, as it is always perfect. I don’t actually use Face Tracking when I am photographing basketball; the court is a lot smaller than something like football, and there are many players moving quickly and a crowd whose faces can be in shot. Instead, I use Tracking and set the AF point size to L, which always accurately tracks my subject and gets it in focus.

Emma saw the image. She was very happy with it. Players are always really happy with these kinds of emotional photos—they mean more than just a photo of them on a podium lifting a trophy. For me, these photos are special, as there are always lots of photos of players lifting trophies, but you don't get the opportunity to capture shots like this. You need to be in the right place at the right time, and that is not easy.