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When NBA player LeBron James cut his head off falling on a photographer during Game 4 of the NBA Finals, it was simply an accident and part of the game. However, no one seemed concerned about the photographer. Even my first thought was “I hope the photographer has a rubber lens cover over his lens.”
You see, it’s an NBA rule that all photographers must have rubber lens hoods on their lenses to work on the sidelines. The rubber covers are a safety measure to prevent players from getting cut if they collide with a photographer’s lens.
In the case of James, I don’t think it would have made a difference because it seemed to me that he hit the camera body, not the lens.
After James fell on the NBA cameraman, many fans and some professional athletes tweeted that the cameraman should have moved. That’s crazy. Where was he going to go? There were seats behind him that cost thousands of dollars with fans, a photographer to his left and the goal to his right.
During NBA games, still photographers have to sit cross-legged on the ground in a very small space. Net and arena photographers have to sit on a small stool with small wheels. Sitting on the ground in that position for an entire game causes significant cramps and paresthesias in the legs, the nerves in the foot stop working properly and cause an abnormal sensation.
In the 1990s, basketball fan seats weren’t as close to photographers as they are now. On many occasions I was able to roll out of the way to avoid being hit or stepped on. That is not the case nowadays when shooting some NBA, ACC or SEC basketball games.
During an SEC Tournament game in Nashville, TN, LSU’s Glenn “Big Baby” Davis fell on me and four other photographers. Fortunately no one was seriously injured. However, that was not the case with my last ACC basketball game in 2013. During the game, a Georgia Tech player’s knee and foot struck me in the head as he tried to jump on me. The other foot of his caught the side of the camera somehow digging my thin camera strap under the trigger fingernail of my right hand. That resulted in pain, a severe sprain, and an infection.
As a photojournalist who has photographed hundreds of professional and college events, both nationally and internationally, it is a known risk among sports photographers that, at some point, you may be struck by an athlete, fan, animal, baseball, baseball bat. , football, etc. softball, mascot, race car, bowling ball, hockey puck, glass, bull feces, bird droppings, boxer blood and saliva, beer from a drunken fan, bitten by a snake or huge insect and my all-time favorite, vomit from a drunken NASCAR fan.
That doesn’t include getting stomped on by an NBA and NCAA official, avoiding being pummeled by Philadelphia Eagle fans, being cursed at by a loser coach, cursed at by the players, cursed at by a fan because you don’t give a player their number. jock, cursed by a preacher’s wife for not photographing her cheerleader daughter, receiving a two-page letter explaining why your photo of a fired quarterback should have been credited to her son, and going after a Yankees fan who He took one of your cameras after the World Series.
In case you were wondering, all of those things happen to me except chasing the Yankees fan. That happened to a Sports Illustrated photographer after the 1996 World Series at Yankee Stadium.
As for my stolen gear, I never caught the photographer who stole my Nikon camera and lens during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
In 2006, I was knocked out by a baseball while photographing the Atlanta Braves vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. It would have killed me if it had been a few inches higher on my neck. Within seconds of being hit, Atlanta Braves coach Jeff Porter was at my side on ice and asked the usual questions he asks players who get hit on the head with a baseball.
So if your goal is to become a major league sports photographer, make sure that you not only have an excellent understanding of the photographic arts, but that you are also in excellent health and have great insurance.
So when a 6′ 8” LeBron James falls on you, or a hockey puck whizzes past your head, don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. It’s all part of the territory of a sports photographer.