Οι καλύτερες του Reuters

Με το Reuters συνεργάζεται τόσος πολύς κόσμος που κάθε χρόνο στο πρακτορείο συγκεντρώνονται περισσότερες από μισό εκατομμύριο φωτογραφίες. Έτσι είναι μαθηματικά βέβαιο ότι κάποιος, κάπου, κάποτε θα έχει κάνει το τέλειο κλικ που θα μεταφέρει στην ιστορία μια όμορφη/σημαντική στιγμή αυτού του πανηλίθιου είδους – ή αλλιώς, της γάγγραινας του πλανήτη – που λέγεται άνθρωπος. Από τις 55 φωτογραφίες που επιλέχθηκαν, λίγο πρόωρα είναι η αλήθεια, ως οι καλύτερες της χρονιάς, δυο σχετίζονται άμεσα ή έμμεσα με το ποδόσφαιρο (αφού από την γνωστή ιστορία με το ορυχείο στην Χιλή δεν επιλέχθηκε το οπαδικό έπος του Ομάρ), αριθμός λίγο-πολύ φυσιολογικός αν αναλογιστεί κανείς την αναλογία “τραγωδιών/διασκέδασης” στις ‘Σημαντικές ειδήσεις παγκοσμίως’. Κάτω από κάθε φωτογραφία, την οποία με κλικ βλέπεις σε μεγάλο μέγεθος, υπάρχει το σχετικό σχόλιο του φωτογράφου και, για τους πολύ φανατικούς, οι τεχνικές ρυθμίσεις που χρησιμοποίησε.

EDDIE KEOGH (June 27: Bloemfontein, South Africa): “For the England versus Germany World Cup game I was sitting down the side of the pitch about 20 metres from the corner flag. I was shooting the game with 3 cameras. I was using two Canon EOS 1d Mark 4 cameras with a 70-200mm and a 400mm. The third camera, which took this image, was set up on a mini tripod behind the goal and was triggered remotely by my camera with the 70-200mm. This camera was also sending pictures live via an Ethernet cable to our picture desk in Johannesburg. At the time Germany was 2-1 up and Frank Lampard beat the German goalkeeper with a great shot. The ball hit the crossbar, went over the line and bounced out. It was an incredibly important goal but neither the linesman nor the referee saw the ball go over the line. I was shooting the goalkeeper trying to save Frank’s shot as it made a great picture of him totally horizontal in the air. However, when I looked at the file at half time, I realised that the picture taken by the camera behind the goal was perfect as it clearly showed the ball bouncing over the line with the German goalkeeper looking on suspended in mid air.”
Canon EOS 1D Mark III, lens 16-35mm (at 16mm), f2.8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400.

BOB STRONG (August 8: Bazaar e Panjwaii, Kandahar province, Afghanistan): “I was embedded with the Canadian Army at a base near Bazaar-e-Panjwaii village in Kandahar province. I had seen these two soldiers playing foosball earlier in the day but it wasn’t quite dark enough for them to use their lights and the pictures were not so interesting. I went into a tent for a patrol briefing and when I came out later they were still playing using their headlights. It looked like a great scene with just a tiny bit of light still in the sky behind them. I pushed the ISO all the way up to 3200 to freeze the action but that left me at f1.4 and a very shallow depth of field. It was hard to get both of them in focus and the guys were moving around a lot so I just kept shooting until I had a picture I liked.”
Canon 5D Mark II, lens 24mm, f1.4 lens, 1/60 sec, ISO3200