Sara Krulwich: There are professionals for a reason…

It’s not too often that I have the chance to hear a photographer speak, so when Sara Krulwich visited our class, I must say that I was particularly interested in listening to her describe her experience photographing relatively high profile events. At mere glance, what her job entails seems pretty simple: photograph what’s going on. However, accomplishing such a goal (especially during live events) couldn’t possibly be as easy as one might think, and with her visit, Krulwich confirmed just that.

Take sports, a very large component of Krulwich’s early professional photography days; most would venture to say that shooting a sporting event wouldn’t be that difficult, yet after considering the importance of the millisecond, one would realize that getting the perfect shot isn’t so easy. And Ms. Krulwich wasn’t particularly afraid to admit that she struggled in the beginning to get it right. Citing missed boxing punches and missed swings in baseball, she didn’t hide from her mistakes, rather she worked and improved them ultimately working in some of the most high profile sporting events in the world.

Everyone thinks that they can take the ideal shot, in reality though, most cannot get one right let alone hundreds or thousands during a particular event. They are called professional photographers for a reason, and it is for that same reason that none of Joe Schmo’s photos are printed in the NY Times. While others may take different thoughts away from her presentation, Sara Krulwich’s talk eventually taught me one thing: I’d much rather be watching and enjoying the game/play/event, than photographing every other second of it.