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If
a tree falls in the forest after deadline – does anyone care?
By
Keith Morison
Freelance
photographer
I recently spent
12 days on the road, covering the World Curling Championships in Saint
John, New Brunswick, Canada. Curling is a sport that gets little respect.
Sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of the sporting world. It is an Olympic
sport, with the first medals being awarded in Nagano. The World Championships
had 11 countries vying for top spot in both men’s and women’s titles.
(KMM01-080499) Saint John, New Brunswick -CANADA
/ GERMANY - 07 APRIL 1999 -Canadian Skip Colleen Jones drops her head
after missing her last shot in Wednesaday night's game against Germany.
Jones' rink lost 8-5, dropping them out of contention for the play-offs.
PHOTO BY: © KEITH MORISON/PictureDesk 1999
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In Canada,
curling is much more of a religion. Although the game has Scottish
roots, Canada has become a leader in the game. Across the Canadian
Prairies any town with more than 500 people will have at least
a two sheet curling rink before they will have an artificial ice
hockey rink.
No, curling
isn’t exactly a glamour sport – but the people who enjoy it are
more often than not passionate about it.
So
I hung myself out, and went on spec to the World curling championships.
I don’t know yet if it was a good idea, or if I’ll have to run
away and join some friends in the Cayman Islands – but I threw
the dice.
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(KMM06-110499) Saint John, New Brunswick -
CANADA -11 APRIL 1999 -- WORLD CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS --Scotland's
Hammy McMillan, right, celebrates with Scotland';s national Coach
Mike Hay after beating Canada 6-5 after the 11th end. PHOTO BY:
© KEITH MORISON/PictureDesk 1999 |
I had covered this
event as staff before, so I had an idea of what to expect. But I was
covering the event from the perspective of a wire stringer, paying attention
to international deadlines, and looking at the list of countries that
my distribution service had clients in.
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The
two main wires there would shoot the morning and afternoon games,
and not bother with the evening ones. This made good sense. The
early games would allow for fresh picture on European deadlines,
the afternoon games would allow for fresh art for the North American
market, and New Zealand and Japan are so far out of the loop …
they’ll take what they can get. This made sense for the most part,
but later in the week, when the bubble started to burst for some
teams, the evening games came into play.
The
Canadian women’s team was in a fight for their life Wednesday
night. Facing Germany, a tough opponent at the best of times,
The home team had to win to have a chance of making the playoffs.
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(KMM07-100499) Saint John, New Brunswick -
CANADA - 10 APRIL 1999 -- WORLD CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS -- Skip Elisabet
Gustafson raises her broom in the air as The Swedish Women's team,
celebrates their 4th title after beating the united states Saturday
afternoon. PHOTO BY: © KEITH MORISON/PictureDesk 1999 |
(KMM11-090499) Saint John, New Brunswick -
CANADA - 09 APRIL 1999 -- WORLD CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS --Scotland's
Hammy McMillan calla to his sweepers on his way to beating teh United
States friday night. The Win put the Scots into Sunday' s gold dmedal
game against Canada. PHOTO BY: © KEITH MORISON/PictureDesk 1999
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I
made the decision to cover the game, even though the game wouldn’t
be finished until long after local and national deadlines. I was
the only photographer there. In fact I had shot some of the game
and had packed up to leave when I stopped off to shoot the final
moments of the game. It was Colleen Jones’ final rock – well played
and she’d still have a chance. Miss the shot, and the host team
would be out. The shot went astray, and the skip dropped her head,
and I was the only one who had the shot.
The
picture is what I believe this business is all about. A single
image that tells the whole story. I won’t know until the middle
of May if the image was picked up by anyone or not. I know that
a few of my clients I was filing to did not use it.
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In the end,
the Swedish women won – giving their skip Elisabet Gustafson her
spot in the record book as the only woman to win 4 world championships.
Scotland took home the Men’s title in a close battle with Canada
for the gold. Both these games were tight on European deadlines,
with mid game action being filed for both. At least you can be
sure that even after deadline, the celebration shots would likely
see ink the next day.
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(KMM03-100499) Saint John, New Brunswick -
CANADA - 10 APRIL 1999 -- WORLD CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS -- American
lead Tracey Sachtjen and second Allison Darragh look on as Swerden
Skip Elisabet Gustafson delivers a rock in the Gold Medal game of
the World Curling Championships. PHOTO BY: © KEITH MORISON/PictureDesk
1999 |
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