From Field To Frame

Aniruddha Das is one of the very few Sports photographers in India. While sports in itself is extremely popular in India, with cricket, football and hockey getting major attention, sports photography has not really taken off that well. Aniruddha Das has shot live sporting events and has also shot for brands such as Nike, Levi’s, Red Bull, Kingfisher East Bengal and more! We spoke to him to find out how he got into the genre and a lot more!

- Souradeep Roy

What started your interest in sports photography?

I have always been interested in sports, especially football, and used to play semi-professionally. But an unfortunate accident caused a tear in my knee ligament, which made me think of other ways of staying close to the sport. One way to keep visiting the ground was taking pictures of others playing and that’s when I started shooting football back in Kolkata. Soon the hobby turned into a passion, which further became a full-time profession.

Do you need specialized lenses and cameras to shoot sports?

That depends. Yes, you do need specialized lenses and cameras if you are shooting any form of sport professionally. But, in my opinion, the right composition and capturing the perfect moment can be done with any camera. Professional-grade equipment only helps you enhance your capturing skills and core composition.

However, one thing is for sure – if you want to shoot sports, you will need to know your equipment well. This is because when you are capturing the action live, you won’t have the time to think about camera settings - even adjusting the setting needs to happen without taking your eye off from the viewfinder.

You have done quite a few sports-related commercial photography shoots as well. How was your experience on your first such shoot?