A Getty sports photographer tried a new method to snap a pic — and the resulting photo made front page news
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Meredith Cash
Dec 29, 2021, 01:33 IST
Getty photographer Sarah Stier's photo of Arkansas Razorbacks' Davonte Davis going to the basket during a first-round 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Sarah Stier is a talented first-year staff sports photographer for Getty Images.
She told Insider about trying a new method of capturing photos at this year's March Madness.
The first-year Getty Images staffer captured action across the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLB, PGA, LPGA, NASCAR, Women's College World Series, horse racing, and more in 2021. But her experience at this year's men's March Madness in Indianapolis stands out as one of her biggest moments of growth as a sports photographer.
"March Madness was both challenging but also one of my favorite experiences this year," Stier told Insider. "The first several days I was shooting four basketball games each day! Long days are always challenging, but it's college basketball — one of my favorite sports to shoot — and I really wanted to do a good job and go above and beyond."
Stier decided to step out of her comfort zone and try a technique she'd never done before.
Stier set up a remote camera — a lens mounted in one place and controlled from another — despite having little experience using them. And when "the only remote position available to me at my arena was a backboard glass remote," she decided to tackle her fear of heights head-on and consult fellow Getty Images sports photographer Jamie Squire for help pulling it off.
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"The day before the first round was to begin, Jamie and I stacked a couple of hotel side tables on top of each other to mimic a basketball hoop backboard, and he walked me through the process," Stier said. "The next day, I got to the arena five hours early so that I would have the court and the basket to myself."
"I thought I'd have plenty of time to relax and not get panicky up on the ladder, but I didn't know that teams would be coming in all morning to practice," she added. "So I only had several five-minute intervals throughout the morning to piece together my backboard remote setup."
Eventually, Stier got it right and proceeded to shoot several games. And the massive effort paid off; using her remote camera, Stier captured an exceptional shot of Oregon Ducks star Chandler Lawson dunking during his team's Round-of-32 upset over the second-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes.
The photo wound up on the front page of the Los Angeles Times' sports section.
"For someone more seasoned in remote camera setup, this might not have been a memorable challenge," Stier said. "But for me, it certainly was."
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Stier added that her goal is to take one "portfolio-worthy" photo each month. Surely her shot of Lawson's two-handed slam ticked that box for March.
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