By Saba Nayakan, AIPS Asia Vice-President
The Asian Sports Press Association (AIPS Asia) on July 10, 2020, successfully organised a ‘remote’ workshop titled ‘Sports Photography in the Time of Corona’, with as many as 336 photographers from different countries of Asia participating. The honour of conducting the workshop was bestowed on Kuwait’s leading photographer, Khalil Nadom. His 180-minute discourse on the nuances of sports photography captivated the audience.
He dwelt on various aspects of sports photography beginning from preparation to attend an assignment to selecting the equipment to delivering the images for use. The workshop was held on one of world’s leading video conferencing platform, Zoom.us.
The evergreen President of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS), Gianni Merlo, in his opening speech, stressed the importance of sports photography in documenting sporting events and contributing to various publications. The AIPS supremo from Italy noted that sports news were occupying a large space in traditional and new media.
Sattam Alsehali, the President of the AIPS Asia and a leading sports writer in Kuwait, welcomed the participants and the lecturer-photographer Khalil Nadom, and observed the importance of this kind of workshop in raising the level of sports photography in the continent.
The Secretary General of the AIPS Asia, Amjad Aziz Malik of Pakistan, elaborated the Association’s future plans of involving international entities to work with his association in organising many other courses with a deep view to develop the capabilities of Asian photographers.
Nedoum touched upon some of the basics of sports photography and the criteria by which the success of the sports image is judged. Nedoum reviewed some of the photos he had captured during his professional life and talked about the dos and don’ts of some of them. He emphasised the importance of photographic angles, required light and shutter speed in capturing images especially during the fast moving action sport.
The guest lecturer used both English and Arabic languages alternatively to run his workshop to the audience who joined from the edge of Middle East to the shores of Japan to the outback of Australia.
Nedom pointed out the necessity of adopting methods to prevent during the time of corona, such as maintaining adequate distance between photographers and the observance of the instructions issued by the World Health Organization and local health authorities.
The lecturer answered the participants’ queries on the quality of the cameras, controlling the light and overcoming the obstacles that the photographers suffer from. He stressed the importance of continuity in order to reach certain professional standard.
The association Secretary General thanked all the participants and the lecturer for the successful conduct of the workshop before closing one of association’s very successful ventures with a promise to come up with more in the days to come.
