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About the Photographer: Willy Foo
I started digital photography 10 years ago with an Epson PhotoPC 600. It was one of the first digital cameras that game rich colours at 640×480. Since then I’ve had 13 digital cameras and am now shooting with a Nikon D2H DSLR. When I had a Sony 707. I spent a lot of time shooting in the Jurong Bird Park and at the Zoo. The shots came out fantastic, however when I was trying to capture action, it became frustrating having to pre-focus and pre-empt the shutter lag. While I was known for shooting humming birds. I had to spend huge amounts of time waiting for the humming bird to come to a pre-focused spot. After some savings, I decided to move onto a DSLR and got a Nikon D100, knowing that the 3 fps would at least get me more shots in an action sequence. Unfortunately for the hummingbird, the flash could only sync at 1/180, which is not sufficients enough to freeze the wings. Thus, I moved on to sports.

Using a Nikon AFS 80-200mm as my main lens, I started capturing more action. I learnt that the expressions make the shot and thus would fire the camera in sequences. I ended up with huge volumes of photos each trip and spent tons of time going through them.

After upgrading to the Nikon D2H at its 8 fps, the number of photos simply got too huge. I adopted a ‘keep only the best frames’ mentality. With the D100, I would delectively delete shots which did not turn out well, but with the D2H, I would protect only 1 or 2 shots from each eqeuence and use ‘delete all’ to delete the rest.

I love to capture the moment during the peak of action, the expressions of joy, pain, desperation and anger, which flashes past in an instant. It’s not just the action that makes the shot for me. It’s as much the expression of the sportsman. It’s gratifying when the palyers enjoy seeing their own photos in these moments captured in the heart of the action which they are almost unconscious of.