By Annika af Klercker

My winning picture is a remote shot during the men’s long jump competition at the Steve Scott Invitational Track Meet at U.C. Irvine on Saturday of the workshop.

When I mounted the remote camera, I didn’t have the chance to use a colleague or a friend to assist me in setting the focus. Instead I had to set it as best as I could while the jumpers were warming up. Unfortunately I was a bit fooled about that because the athletes don’t jump as far — if they jump at all! — during the warm ups as they do while actually competing .

A long jumper hangs in the air during the men's long jump at the Steve Scott Invitational. Photo by Annika af Klercker

Personally, I was not that satisfied with my remote pictures – so I was really surprised and REALLY happy that the faculty selected it as the best picture of the day! (And thanks to SanDisk for my new memory card!)

I decided to convert my picture to black and white because I felt it give it a more timeless feeling. I also thought it made it cleaner.

I traveled all the way from Sweden to participate in this workshop and I can tell it was totally worth it! The Sports Shooter Academy gave me an opportunity to play, try new angles, look for interesting lightning and let go of all thoughts of performing and work.

I have a desire to constantly develop myself as a photographer and my goal is to do something stimulating every year. Attending a class or a workshop is a way to accomplish this. I really wanted to take my sports photography to the next level and the Sports Shooter Academy workshop was a perfect kick off for that. And like many of the other participants, learning about remotes was one of the top items I wanted to learn more about. For me, working with remote cameras will allow me to be in two (or more!) places at the same time and also to set up cameras in places where I can’t be.

Annika af Klercker sets up a remote at the long jump with the help of SSA IX instructor Shawn Cullen. Photo by Christy Radecic, Sports Shooter Academy

In the end this picture was more or less a gamble — when the remote was fired in the long jump pit I was most of the time a hundred meters away, shooting the pole vault and firing the remote as much as I could!

One of the first and most important things the instructors repeated was never to trust the remote. Every picture you get from it is a bonus but nothing you can ever count on!

After Sports Shooter Academy IX, I definitely felt I gained a lot more confidence to use remotes more often. Because of what I learned and my experience during the workshop I now have a greater understanding of how remote cameras work technically. The workshop also gave me the opportunity of using remotes in real-life situations.

(Note: Thanks to SanDisk and Nikon for sponsoring the awards for the Photo of the Day.)